Why Do Falang Ignore Falang?

[Plucky]

Noticed this a few times and mentioned this to some friends over here too.

Not sure why but even saying hello illicits no response. I am sure people have their reasons and I respect their privacy but why?

P.S. Maybe its my chronic halitosis and body odour but still intrigued as to the reason.

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[dbman]

If your the begger farang in soi 8 I have been trying to avoid you.

Honestly, I know what you mean, there is almost a cetain "im not here to meet you attitude. The same is true in Singapore but there it seems to be "Im an expat dont look at me just becuase you are one also" I dunno

Mayb we should start a be nice day to start things off?

[tolstoy]

Perhaps because you walk up and say hello farrang I am farrang too.

Do I really have to talk to you because we are both white? I ignore other white people as much as I ignore everyone else. I don't go around saying hello to strangers that I walk past. Imagine you are walking in NYC or any other western major metropolis and say hello to everyone that you see that looks like you. You might get thrown in the loony bin.

If it happens when you are in your community and with people that you see often, then yes it is strange and they are nuts. Stay away from them.

[kblaze]

If someone says hello to me I would for sure respond back, I think people don't respond back for several reasons;

1) though "farang" they don't understand your native language and/or don't feel comfortable speaking in that language

2) they didn't hear you

3) they don't trust you for whatever reason (appearance, location of the hello, past bad experiences with farang saying hello then offering them a piece of land in phuket)

4) they thought you were talking to someone else

5) they did respond but you didn't hear them

I find that I was more open to initiating random conversations and being helpful with directions and such to other foreigners my first 1-2 years here. Over time however as I become more assimilated into Thailand and become "one with the city", I tend to act more as I would in my home country, doing my own thing and minding my own business when dealing with those I don't know. When I walk past tourist families or foreigners looking at a map and seemingly in need of some advice, about 20% of the time I will ask quickly "you guys need help?", and 50% of the time they will gratefully say yes and 50% say no. The reason I only ask 1/5 of the time is that I have come to realize that part of the adventure of a trip across the world to a foreign country is being able to figure out stuff on your own. I think a mistake a lot of tourists/new farang make is to only ask Thai security guards for help when they need it as they suspect passing foreigners wouldn't know so much.

There are lots of shady people in this city (and lots of good ppl yes) so some become more paranoid than others and may even find a "hello" to be threatening.

[richard_smith237]

I ignore Westerners who call other Westerners 'Farang' !!...

I really don't understand this need to be accepted or spoken to by other Westerners here. Why would you be saying Hello to Westerners and ignoring the Thai's? Are we as Westerners better or more deserving of your attention? Do you think you are more deserving of other Westerners attention? Do you think We, or you are more special than the Thai's around us.

OP: Do you expect to speak with every stranger you meet when back in your home country? When in Thailand I see some folk walking around, the world is great, everything is wonderful, everyone is their best friend...

I speak to those whom I know. I won't say hello to you because you are a stranger. Why should I speak to you? If you say hello to me as we pass in the street, I'll reply with a nod or a hello, but I'll be thinking... 'Weirdo alert, keep clear' !!!...

[Wash]

I didn't see you in time so can only say sorry that I did not greet you. I wear bi focals and when walking my head is looking down enough so I can view where I am walking with the top part of my bi focals. Usually my wife will see you but doesn't tell me until we are already past you.

So forgive me if it seems like I choose to ignore you and can only pass on my "Hello good to meet you", here, unless of course you take the initiative to wake me from my bi focal trance. I would love to exchange greetings and trivia talk with you.

[samsiam]

Because most of you are weird.

[edwinclapham]

One thing I love about living in Australia, people acknowledge and talk to you.

I notice the same westerners walk down our quiet soi in NongKhai, year after year without a nod, bye you or leave you.

Totally a different ball game with the Thais/ other Asians.

I dont care what nationality people are but a smile goes a long way and to be perfectly honest I find it arrogant and rude.

I do think that many expats believe that they are superior for some reason or other lol.

[edwinclapham]

I ignore Westerners who call other Westerners 'Farang' !!...

I really don't understand this need to be accepted or spoken to by other Westerners here. Why would you be saying Hello to Westerners and ignoring the Thai's? Are we as Westerners better or more deserving of your attention? Do you think you are more deserving of other Westerners attention? Do you think We, or you are more special than the Thai's around us.

OP: Do you expect to speak with every stranger you meet when back in your home country? When in Thailand I see some folk walking around, the world is great, everything is wonderful, everyone is their best friend...

I speak to those whom I know. I won't say hello to you because you are a stranger. Why should I speak to you? If you say hello to me as we pass in the street, I'll reply with a nod or a hello, but I'll be thinking... 'Weirdo alert, keep clear' !!!...

Thats so sad!

[Plucky]

dbman that is me begging on soi 8 and I need more than the lint in your pockets for my pork balls......ahem.

Richard smith. Possibly would ignore you lol

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[ShopBoy]

falang and falang are even arguing, calling names and degrading each other on this forum

it's normal they ignore each other

Edited April 25, 2012 by ShopBoy

[Ulysses G.]

I ignore Westerners who call other Westerners 'Farang' !!...

I ignore Farangs who call other Farangs 'Westerners' !!...

[StreetCowboy]

Why would one ignore farang? Surely one should greet them, shake their hand, and exchange business cards just as one does with Johnny Foreigners that one passes in the street

Should we meet, that's me with the wheelbarrow of cards.... I don;t know how many times I've missed my stop on the BTS because I haven't finished introducing myself to everybody...

SC

[Traxster]

I live on the 11 floor and whenever I step into the elevator to go downstairs and it is already occupied I tend to smile ,nod and say 'Good morning/Good afternoon or even...'Sawatdee krup'.....

but often as not I get ignored.

Maybe it's me,all tho I'm not the ugliest guy you 'll ever see ( I hope ) and I shave and bathe regularly and spray under my armpits before I go out,.

So what is it ?

Why do we ignore each other ?.

Oh bugger it !!!

I'll continue to smile and nod and greet and if they don't .like it they can all go and get knotted!

[Bangkokhatter]

I've been wondering this for around the 3 years i've been here. The argument that in the West you don't say hi to every stranger does not add up unless your in a tourist area

.

I live in the outskirts of BKK which is predominately Thai but with a few foreigners about, whenever a new face appears I will say hello in passing, many just ignore the greeting. Thats just plain rude.

I think it's to do with the morbid fear that gets promoted on here about most foreigners will try to rip you off, what nonesense.

Went to me local bar last Saturday night, see a new foreigner sat with his lady and said hello on my way to a table, by the look on his face he must have thought I was gonna take his wallet, raid his bank account and shag his lady.

[Madivad]

I am a pretty friendly person, I will sometimes say hello and help a tourist, I even do this in my own country, especially when someone does look lost and confused. But in the remoter areas I usually restrict it to a nod. Still, often not responded. Whatever. Their problem.

I find it worse dealing with Thais in some service (7/11, movies, restaurant) and often I say Hello or Sawatdee first. I'm amazed at the number of times I don't get a response. Just yesterday after someone didn't respond to hello, and pointed to the cash register for the price (to me plainly rude, even just say it in Thai!), they sent me off with a "thank you, please come again". I couldn't understand that.

However just the other day I had the opposite experience. I was somewhere on the road between Khon Kaen and Bangkok, stopped at a set of lights. All of a sudden the car next to ours starts honking its horn. I look over to the mirrored drivers window when it's winds down and a young Thai man is smiling (and shaking his head), took me a second to realise, there was a Caucasian gentleman sitting in the passenger seat. He leaned forward and started waving frantically as if we were long lost school mates.

I did wave back, but it was more from shock than anything else!

I live on the 11 floor and whenever I step into the elevator to go downstairs and it is already occupied I tend to smile ,nod and say 'Good morning/Good afternoon or even...'Sawatdee krup'.....

but often as not I get ignored.

Maybe it's me...

Ha, it's not just you, I lived on the 8th floor and generally I say hi as well, or again, at least give a nod. I would say that less than 10% would respond in kind.

[samsiam]

I don't want any of you perving on my wife....cos I have seen what a lot of you settle down with

[xen]

Being an Aussie i am natually friendly and say G'day Mate to almost anybody including the Thais. Most of the Thais will smile but i know they are muttering to themselves "Falung baa". Most of the others will not respond because at a glance i just do not live up to their Hi-so standards.

Simple really !!!!!

[edwinclapham]

I don't want any of you perving on my wife....cos I have seen what a lot of you settle down with

Nice, informative, inspiring post Sam. Shame we are not neighbours, I could learn a lot from thee me thinks

[carmine]

I ignore Westerners who call other Westerners 'Farang' !!...

I ignore Farangs who call other Farangs 'Westerners' !!...

Interesting. Why?

[2unique]

Being from London and taught to be leery of strangers i don't say hello to any "farang" i encounter, if in an area where the phenom is rare I will offer a nod and minor upward twitch of the lips w/out going the whole hog of smiling. This is also my hotel elevator greeting.

Partly this was compounded by meeting black or mixed race girls in predominantly white areas when once living in Kent. They would almost all give a warning look that said, don't approach me or talk to me just because you feel we have something in common being black!

It took 4 years and a flood for me to start talking to the 1 other westerner on my moobaan. We don't meet at the park as he has no kids, its very rare that I or he walk on the moobaan and being told that he was German (he's actually from Manchester) I didn't seek him out with a fruit basket. In 4 years I'd probably seen him drive past perhaps 3 times!

I will however on occasion talk to random non Thai strangers if they look lost or in difficulty or anyone needing help with a pushchair at the stairs. And I am more likely to talk to couples/women/men with children if stationary in the same place with my child.

None of this is arrogance, I'm generally away listening to the voices in my head and don't really notice people...

[ivan96822]

Some people employ an elitist attitude while others are probably not interested in engaging random strangers.

I'm sure if you went to the whitest town in Kansas or Montana or Wyoming that not all the white people are walking down the street saying hi to one another.

[richardjm65]

I've just got my circle of friends and enemies down to a manageable number..........can't be doing with increasing that number again - it just wouldn't make sense.

[supaprik]

Being an Aussie i am natually friendly and say G'day Mate to almost anybody including the Thais. Most of the Thais will smile but i know they are muttering to themselves "Falung baa". Most of the others will not respond because at a glance i just do not live up to their Hi-so standards.

Simple really !!!!!

Thai Hi-So? an oxymoron if there ever was one mate....Fukem cobber...

[StreetCowboy]

I often refrain from saying hello to strangers, if they look like they have come out without their business cards, to protect them from loss of face.

SC

[eek]

Surely it depends on the place and situation? If someone smiles or says hello, of course im polite and return the same. But i dont go around smiling at everyone i pass.

If you live in a rural area, that would be slightly different too. A more informal intimate environment. I live in an area where there are a lot of Farangs/Westerners, (tomayto/tomahto), so its not much of a novelty.

Im fairly reserved/shy, and to be honest i have found some situations awkward. If someone is grinning at me inanely with a sort of big eyed expression of "Oh Look! "Your a farang! and look! im a farang too!". I smile back of course, but feel a little bit weirded out. On a few occasions ive had men exclaim loudly "SAwaDeee KRAAAAAAAAAaaaaP!" at me. Yes, i smile, but in all honesty i do feel a bit awkward. Maybe that seems sad to the overly social people here, but im not overtly sociable (but not rude either!). I suppose i see it sort of like that feeling you get when you end up doing the 'trying-to-get-past-each-other-dance' ..you know, the one where you think the person is going to go to the left, so you go to your right, and so on and so on, until you end up doing this jig thing, and it becomes laughable and a bit embarrassing and awkward at the same time.

Well anyway, i just treat people like people. If im in a relatively cosmopolitan area (for want of a better word), people are just people to me, regardless of race or sex. If however, im in an area where it would be rare to see a farang/westerner id be more inclined to react more.

Edited April 26, 2012 by eek

[chrisinth]

I ignore Westerners who call other Westerners 'Farang' !!...

I really don't understand this need to be accepted or spoken to by other Westerners here. Why would you be saying Hello to Westerners and ignoring the Thai's? Are we as Westerners better or more deserving of your attention? Do you think you are more deserving of other Westerners attention? Do you think We, or you are more special than the Thai's around us.

OP: Do you expect to speak with every stranger you meet when back in your home country? When in Thailand I see some folk walking around, the world is great, everything is wonderful, everyone is their best friend...

I speak to those whom I know. I won't say hello to you because you are a stranger. Why should I speak to you? If you say hello to me as we pass in the street, I'll reply with a nod or a hello, but I'll be thinking... 'Weirdo alert, keep clear' !!!...

Thats so sad!

But also possibly very good advice.............

Some people can pick them out faster than the rest

[2unique]

I suppose i see it sort of like that feeling you get when you end up doing the 'trying-to-get-past-each-other-dance' ..you know, the one where you think the person is going to go to the left, so you go to your right, and so on and so on, until you end up doing this jig thing, and it becomes laughable and a bit embarrassing and awkward at the same time.

Reminds me of a getaway weekend spent in Devon where a girlfriend and I decided to walk the hill trail as we were on this hideaway cottage weekend. Everyone we passed offered greeting and a smile which at first somewhat shocked us as we don't do that on the streets of London!

So we decided we would get a hello and a smile in first however being so unused to the act of greeting passersby our timing was horrendous and we soent the approach nervously fidgeting and working out what distance and how many steps further to "do the greeting" only to be beaten to it every time by the natural unthinking natives.

Naturally friendly people are to be treated with suspicion and scorn in equal measures!!

[Naam]

I ignore Westerners who call other Westerners 'Farang' !!

i'm a Farang and ignore Farangs as well as Thais. if i was to say hello to every Farang when i'm downtown Pattaya i'd have no time for anything else.

p.s. i forgot to mention that i especially ignore Farangs who hate being called Farangs

[Plucky]

I think I kind of understand why now.

Its more to do with comfort levels of dealing with strangers and not outright ignorance and rudeness in most cases.

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