Farang

[jbowman1993]

I gave up worrying about this a long time ago. We have words in Englihsh that describe a broad section of people as well, and lumps people of different ethnicities and countries together. They are called A@@holes, and they're everywhere.

[IMA_FARANG]

On TV, I have seen many negative references to the word "Farang" and its use by Thais talking about westerners and wondered why some people get so upset when hearing themselves referred to as "Farang". I believe that the origins of the word are not derogatory at all and in fact relate to the many colours of our eyes, which can be compared to the many hues of the Guava fruit (Thai word for Guava = Farang), in particular the miniature version (Farang Khee Nok). Apart from our skin and hair colour, one of our most distinguishing features is our eye colour and somewhere in the distant past I guess some Thai compared our eye colour to the fruit, Guava and the name stuck. I had this discussion with a Thai who assured me that this is the origin of the word.

Seems feasable to me. What do you think? any other versions of the origins of the word? I for one, do not mind being referred to as a Farang at all, what about you?

Dave

Its been discused before. Don't think there was any real resolution then either.

My Thai is almost nil, so I'm not the one to try and offer an expert opinion.

What I can say is:

1. I don't buy the Frangsi or French explanation. There were more other nationalities in Thailand than French. Malaysia was a British possesion, but here is a beach near Penang known as Batu Farangi (foriegners beach). It has nothing to do with the French.

2. From #1 above, my guess (only a guess) is that the term Farang comes Farangi (foriegner) and is just a mispronunciation of what the word Farangi sounded like to the Thais who first heard it.

Wireless road in BKK is called Wittiyu (sp?) road. The letter V and the letter W are commonly regarded as identical in going from Thai to English. In the 1920;s and 1930's the Britsh had a overseas radio link there. The road was known as wireless road, or as a Yank would call it, Radio Road. The Thais heard the word Radio as Wittiyu (Witt Tee You). I think something similar happened with the word foriegner which was heard as Far Ang (Er). Then the final Er sound was dropped, leaving FARANG as the result.

But that's just my guess.