Is It Farang Or Falang

[Garry9999]

"Oh look, there goes a Khon Angrit." No actually, I never heard anyone say that.

Is that 'con' (1) or 'coon' (2)?

(1) The 'o' is said like the 'o' in hot.

(2) The 'oo' is said like the 'oo' in foot.

Actually, I think it's คุณ write it in English anyway you want.

[elkangorito]

You are a buffoon!

[thaifkrlim]

<br />Falung is the phonetic way i would spell it   - go figure<br />BTW some might say i have a 'professional' set of ears on me!<br />

<br /><br /><br />

what is phonetics? fafa, mama, lala, rara, mumu, lulu, is it?

[inthepink]

"Oh look, there goes a Khon Angrit." No actually, I never heard anyone say that.

Firstly you said if you "studied" the Thai language, so you would obviously come across those words. Secondly, of course you've never heard it. How on earth are they supposed to know what country people are from if they just see them walking down the street? Sounds to me like you are determined to see something negative that simply isn't there.

[Garry9999]

"Oh look, there goes a Khon Angrit." No actually, I never heard anyone say that.

Firstly you said if you "studied" the Thai language, so you would obviously come across those words. Secondly, of course you've never heard it. How on earth are they supposed to know what country people are from if they just see them walking down the street? Sounds to me like you are determined to see something negative that simply isn't there.

Firstly you said if you "studied" the Thai language, no I didn't you did.

Secondly, of course you've never heard it. How on earth are they supposed to know what country people are from if they just see them walking down the street?

Hence the term Falang

Sounds to me like you are determined to see something negative that simply isn't there.

How?

[Garry9999]

Now we got the Farang/Falang business sorted out.

Is it kathoey or katoey?

[inthepink]

Apologies - you didn't say "studied", Astral did.

Why do I think you are determined to see the negative? I assumed the example you used was meant to demonstrate that they see us as all the same, perhaps I misunderstood your point. Either way I can't think how you would expect to hear the phrase, "Oh look, there goes a khon Angrit". I'm British and I couldn't say for sure whether an approaching caucasian was from the UK, America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa etcetera, so I certainly wouldn't expect Thai people to know.... but we seem to be talking at cross purposes here.

Having said that, if you look at your post that I was answering, you agreed with Astral's point of view that if you study the Thai language you will see that there are separate words for Asian nationalities whereas Westerners are all lumped together as "farang", so I naturally assumed that you held the same opinion.

Incidentally, คุณ = khun (you), คน = khon (person/people)

Edited July 23, 2010 by inthepink

[thaifkrlim]

IRAQ - is it I-wreck or erect ? CNN is confusing me, especially the newsreader from washington dc, BBC newsreaders are erect, but i think on aljazeera reads it as simple as it is spelt,

i think romanised asian names are very easy to read phonetically

[inthepink]

deleted

Edited July 23, 2010 by inthepink

[TAWP]

IRAQ - is it I-wreck or erect ? CNN is confusing me, especially the newsreader from washington dc, BBC newsreaders are erect, but i think on aljazeera reads it as simple as it is spelt,

i think romanised asian names are very easy to read phonetically

It is pronounced 'iirak', not I-rack. Much like 'iiran', not 'I-ran' ("Where are you running [to]?")

Edited July 23, 2010 by TAWP

[Thakkar]

Were Iran and Iraq always pronounced as I-ran and I-rak by some Americans or did this only happen *after* the introduction and popularization of Apple's iMac computer?

Just a theory.

[TAWP]

Were Iran and Iraq always pronounced as I-ran and I-rak by some Americans or did this only happen *after* the introduction and popularization of Apple's iMac computer?

Just a theory.

Texans as Bush and other southeners seemingly have done it a long time.

[Jingthing]

Were Iran and Iraq always pronounced as I-ran and I-rak by some Americans or did this only happen *after* the introduction and popularization of Apple's iMac computer?

Just a theory.

Texans as Bush and other southeners seemingly have done it a long time.

This is another kind of topic. English speakers usually pronounce Paris as Par-es rather than Par-ee. The common deviant pronunciation of Iran by Americans is actually the American way of pronouncing it. Would it be wrong for a Thai for call America the way the do? No.

[Beetlejuice]

"Oh look, there goes a Khon Angrit." No actually, I never heard anyone say that.

Firstly you said if you "studied" the Thai language, so you would obviously come across those words. Secondly, of course you've never heard it. How on earth are they supposed to know what country people are from if they just see them walking down the street? Sounds to me like you are determined to see something negative that simply isn't there.

Firstly you said if you "studied" the Thai language, no I didn't you did.

Secondly, of course you've never heard it. How on earth are they supposed to know what country people are from if they just see them walking down the street?

Hence the term Falang

Sounds to me like you are determined to see something negative that simply isn't there.

How?

I thought, How, is a native American word meaning Hi or greetings.

This is all way above my head and does anyone really care?

[thaifkrlim]

Thai - laen or Thai lern, is it apple computer related?

Eng land or engglern, hol land or hollern?

[Tod Daniels]

This topic has come up so many times on T/V it should probably be a frickin' "pinned topic" . It's right up there with the other illustrious, yet seemingly clueless, posters who ask questions like;

"How much salary should I pay my thai gurlfriend?"

"How much sin-sod should I pay for a previously married thai gurl with three children by three different thai guys?"

"How much salary should I pay my gurlfriend's mother?"

Given that there is very little standardization of spelling thai words with roman script, you can spell it however you happen to hear it or how ever you want to. Actually to even ask how to spell any thai word using roman script is just fraught with peril , and will likely lead to 5 foreigners pronouncing the word 5 different ways once you factor in what ever engrish accent is used when speaking.

As has been pointed out by much more learned posters than myself; the thai script bears out that when it's spelled in thai, it IS indeed the thai character for an 'R', (ร) as opposed to the one for an 'L' (ล): ฝรั่ง.

Someone pointed out on a post in the thai language section, that the use of phonemic transcription (for the thick, that's the representation of thai words/sounds in the Latin or Roman alphabet) was originally designed so THAIS could pronounce thai words written in engrish and NOT so foreigners could. That is why words like the new airport's name; สุวรรณภูมิ is spelled like this in engrish; Suvarnabhumi. It has all the thai syllables/characters represented in the english spelling even though some of them are silent, making for a word that is spelled differently in engrish compared to how it's really pronounced in thai.

It is my experience, that it’s NOT the use of the word ฝรั่ง but the context in which it is used, that denotes whether it is meant only as a casual observational phrase when encountering a foreigner (especially in areas where foreigners are 'thin on the ground'), as opposed to a term meant to denigrate or put a foreigner down. It seems in places where foreigners tend to congregate the term carries much more of the second meaning than the first one .

Ask a thai and they will freely admit the thai language has more than enough words to denote a 'foreigner' without the need to resort to the use of what I call "the thai 'F' word".

Some of the more neutral ones are;

คนต่างชาติ (khohn^M dtaang^L chaat^F)

คนต่างด้าว (khohn^M dtaang^L daao^F)

ชาวต่างชาติ (chaao^M dtaang^L chaat^F)

ชาวต่างประเทศ (chaao^M dtaang^L bpra^L thaeht^F)

(Guide to pronunciation provided by thai-language dot com)

FWIW: ALL of the above words are completely understood by every thai in this country (even uneducated ones who live in one buffalo villages in Nakhon Nowhere ) as terms which mean; "person from another country".

Now; without further ado, back to the pissing match, already in progress. ...

[barrybankruad]

Ask a Thai to say "SQUIRREL", I'm LMAO now at some of the attempts I've heard by Thai's trying to say it.

Yeah it's farang but we know what it means.

hahahaha try Mr Fridge gets them every time....whats your name? Mr Fridge....MR Frith? No Fridge... Fisth? no....

In this day and age farang or falang used to describe a group of people who's skin is a different colour is completely unnecessary, rude and ignorant in every sense.

No it isn't.

Quite right. Absolutely no difference to an European referring to somebody as Asian or for somebody to call a black man Afro American. I have never ever been bothered with being referred to as a farang, and often refer to myself as such.

[Jingthing]

It's more like an American calling an Asian an oriental. Backwards and not polite.

[XXpate48USA]

This topic has come up so many times on T/V it should probably be a frickin' "pinned topic" . It's right up there with the other illustrious, yet seemingly clueless, posters who ask questions like;

"How much salary should I pay my thai gurlfriend?"

"How much sin-sod should I pay for a previously married thai gurl with three children by three different thai guys?"

"How much salary should I pay my gurlfriend's mother?"

Given that there is very little standardization of spelling thai words with roman script, you can spell it however you happen to hear it or how ever you want to. Actually to even ask how to spell any thai word using roman script is just fraught with peril , and will likely lead to 5 foreigners pronouncing the word 5 different ways once you factor in what ever engrish accent is used when speaking.

As has been pointed out by much more learned posters than myself; the thai script bears out that when it's spelled in thai, it IS indeed the thai character for an 'R', (ร) as opposed to the one for an 'L' (ล): ฝรั่ง.

Someone pointed out on a post in the thai language section, that the use of phonemic transcription (for the thick, that's the representation of thai words/sounds in the Latin or Roman alphabet) was originally designed so THAIS could pronounce thai words written in engrish and NOT so foreigners could. That is why words like the new airport's name; สุวรรณภูมิ is spelled like this in engrish; Suvarnabhumi. It has all the thai syllables/characters represented in the english spelling even though some of them are silent, making for a word that is spelled differently in engrish compared to how it's really pronounced in thai.

It is my experience, that it's NOT the use of the word ฝรั่ง but the context in which it is used, that denotes whether it is meant only as a casual observational phrase when encountering a foreigner (especially in areas where foreigners are 'thin on the ground'), as opposed to a term meant to denigrate or put a foreigner down. It seems in places where foreigners tend to congregate the term carries much more of the second meaning than the first one .

Ask a thai and they will freely admit the thai language has more than enough words to denote a 'foreigner' without the need to resort to the use of what I call "the thai 'F' word".

Some of the more neutral ones are;

คนต่างชาติ (khohn^M dtaang^L chaat^F)

คนต่างด้าว (khohn^M dtaang^L daao^F)

ชาวต่างชาติ (chaao^M dtaang^L chaat^F)

ชาวต่างประเทศ (chaao^M dtaang^L bpra^L thaeht^F)

(Guide to pronunciation provided by thai-language dot com)

FWIW: ALL of the above words are completely understood by every thai in this country (even uneducated ones who live in one buffalo villages in Nakhon Nowhere ) as terms which mean; "person from another country".

Now; without further ado, back to the pissing match, already in progress. ...

Think of it this way........"would you like flied lice with your dinner" or "would you like fried rice with your dinner?"

R's and l's are pronounced differntly depending on what area or province or for that matter what country in asia you live.

It refers to a "foriegnor" but usually is aquainted with a westerner white foriegnor.....Aussy, USA, Uk, you know, the ones who are never REALLY welcome except your wallet and have the ATM sign on thier forehead....that's what a falang is.....I usually call my Thai wife falang if she is out of her country...haha...she's doesn't seem to adjust to that word for herself....hmmm.....we are the ones seen as, in thier own description stupid falang's......it is rather derogotory in my opinion, but you have to figure the source....That word has never bothered me and I think Thai people don't mean to be insulting in thier use of the word. It's just that you are a "outsider=falang

[saraburioz]

depends who's saying it. Can be a kind of half 'L' half 'R' or a full blown 'L' can't say as I've heard a proper (in western terms) 'R' sound in the middle of a word by a native Thai speaker.

True - the foreigner that meets his girlfriend in a gogobar or online always says "falang"

[IanForbes]

depends who's saying it. Can be a kind of half 'L' half 'R' or a full blown 'L' can't say as I've heard a proper (in western terms) 'R' sound in the middle of a word by a native Thai speaker.

True - the foreigner that meets his girlfriend in a gogobar or online always says "falang"

No they don't. They say "falong"... just as I always SAY but not write. 'ANG" at the end of any English word sounds like "HANG". "ONG" at the end of any word sounds like "LONG". I've NEVER heard a Thai anywhere that pronounced the word "farang" to sound like an English word ending in "ANG".

Tod-Daniels gave a pretty good description of the process... as did a few others earlier in the topic.

Hey, but we can continue to argue about nothing.

Maybe we really ARE like the fruit... "Falang"

[TheJalapenoKid]

Ask a Thai to say "SQUIRREL", I'm LMAO now at some of the attempts I've heard by Thai's trying to say it.

Yeah it's farang but we know what it means.

hahahaha try Mr Fridge gets them every time....whats your name? Mr Fridge....MR Frith? No Fridge... Fisth? no....

In this day and age farang or falang used to describe a group of people who's skin is a different colour is completely unnecessary, rude and ignorant in every sense.

No it isn't.

Yes it is

Edited December 19, 2010 by cdnvic
Talk about splitting hairs. Topic closed.