Unfriendly Farangs

[SoiBiker]

LOL at the grumpy old bastards that can't spare a smile or a "hello" in passing.

The needy losers who get upset when a stranger isn't interested in them are funnier.

[mrdome]

Please explain why you concentrate on the pedophile example?"

Hello? Because you introduced the topic? Any part of a reply is fair game on a forum. Mentioning that point of yours isn't "concentrating" and the way you are bullying the other members now says a lot about yourself.

[cruela]

why man pet divent worry its just like bein back in Blighty, there are loads of friendly ferangs but as other people have said maybe he just thinks you are GAY, which is quiet crazy to think that here don't you think get your self down to the wombat or walkabout on Jomtien beach road soi 9, or shenanigans loads and loads of friendly ferangs down there

[mrdome]

Your comment is simplistic to say the least but obviously you have a need to defend a pedophile. It's your life but don't get caught by the police or a real man.

You must not have read the entire post, only the part that excites you about pedophilia, because if you had read the entire post you would see how silly your comment is.

Equating the condemnation of pedophilia with the condemnation of homosexuality is worrying to an extreme, perhaps you should be put under surveillance?

Stop beating around the bush, mate: Did you know for sure he was 16 or was that a good guess of yours?

[Fookhaht]

For some strange reason, I'm developing an aversion to farangs.

[healthbkkbkk]

Your comment is simplistic to say the least but obviously you have a need to defend a pedophile. It's your life but don't get caught by the police or a real man.

You must not have read the entire post, only the part that excites you about pedophilia, because if you had read the entire post you would see how silly your comment is.

Equating the condemnation of pedophilia with the condemnation of homosexuality is worrying to an extreme, perhaps you should be put under surveillance?

Stop beating around the bush, mate: Did you know for sure he was 16 or was that a good guess of yours?

Well gee and golly, if you can't tell the difference between a child and an adult there is no place on this earth for you. You can always try using that as a defense at your trial but others have tried and it has never worked.

maybe the kid was 12 or 13 but what difference does it make? The point of the example was social tolerance for this type of thing in Britain but the more literate aspects of my post seem to have escaped you.

I have no stomach for pedophile apologists but there are so many in Thailand which is one reason I wait to know who someone is before I engage in social interaction with them.

[8OA8]

I've met a few nice guys in the gym, can't really say I've met anyone who bored the tits off me. Most people seem to just want to get on with what they're there for and as for being paranoid about gays.......if anyone fancies me I'll take that as a compliment.

In supermarkets most foreigners I see have wives/gf in tow or the other way around. As there is often a massive age gap, I think they prefer not to make eye contact as they are a little embarrassed, but hey that's their choice it's their life and it's not going to affect mine.

I had a quite attractive 22 year old with me last week in Tesco, but she was my step daughter visiting from Chula. I didn't even give it a thought what others might be thinking I was too busy enjoying my time with her as she has a great sense of humour. I'm quite sure when we were laughing and joking there was some miserable old git saying "look at that dirty old sod".......it's a funny old game.

"Visiting from Chula" is that a place in Sri Lanka? Or is it in the Southern provinces?

[Maroon Watcher]

Locker rooms - Toilets.... Gay

And don't forget these some of these guys are on Testosterone and tablets...

They might be thinking Strike first with the soap!!

[Darocm]

I thought about that one too but then again I doubt any of us come to Thailand to make "farang" friends.

Who cares... we live in Thailand. Make Thai friends. Just be yourself. Those very few of my "farang" friends - I've made through my Thai friends. That seems to be the best filtering system. I don't miss anything about western culture and most of comments under this topic just convinced how much better off I am among Thais and those very few of my "farang" friends who know (their own western) etiquette.

[thaidel48]

After living here for many years I have learned to be wary of any strangers Thai or farang.

It has been my experience that there are some real Loonies out there.

[stephen tracy]

I'm at Fitness First at Q-House Lumpini and most people there whether Thai, Farang, ,ale or female are generally friendly enough. Having said that, I've lived in Bangkok for nearly 8 years and I can understand some Farangs being wary of others. I'm not wary of Farang women but I am wary of Farang men in Thailand as so many of them that live here are just sex tourists who've made it a permanent arrangement. Not to mention all the other general losers and freaks that Thailand seems to attract. If someone went out of their way to greet me though, I'm pretty sure I'd return the greeting regardless of what their sexual orientation might be.

[maximillian]

We greet and eye contact mostly people we find we have something in common or wish we had things in common.

When I am riding my bicycle I am greeting and being greeted by other cyclists, Thai or farang. When I ride my motorbike

it's the similar. Sometimes easy to get into a conversation with other bikers. My favourites are bikers from Malaysia.

They are well mannered and educated. With Thais it's often difficult as i don't speak Thai and they often don't speak English.

With Farangs it's different. Some are friendly, some are just ignorant, some are the "Hell's Angels Type" that seem to enjoy

their mean looks and thus are cultivating it.

In this whole greeting thing I am not spoiled anyway as I come from Germany where people are stiff, not neccessarily unfriendly but stiff.

[je777je]

I have the same thing happen to me no matter where I go. They will not even make eye contact. Judging from the people who post on his forum I'm not surprise, many are not worth the time of day.

Some cultures are like that. Does not make them bad. Take Finland, good, nice, solid people but fit the ops description to a T. Uncomfortable if one does not know. Did I notice some Russians with the same symptoms?

[glegolo]

I think that there's another thread running with a similar topic.

What I'm suprised at is that anyone could really give that much of a damn that they'ld come onto Thaivisa and post about it.

Also, If people were tending to avoid me, I'd probably take a look at myself first, before complaining, that is my appearance, personal hygiene and so on.

This is EXACTLY what the threadstarter is asking about...This reply shows how many people are .. I think that these people not even greeting one and other, is

disgraceful and bad manner. But probably these people were acting the same way in their own home countries.

See it for what it is, poor people and have no social skills at all... Dont waste any time on their part, but try to stay friendly, your hello can mean a lot to somebody you meet.

Thanks for being you

Glegolo

[uptheos]

Your comment is simplistic to say the least but obviously you have a need to defend a pedophile. It's your life but don't get caught by the police or a real man.

You must not have read the entire post, only the part that excites you about pedophilia, because if you had read the entire post you would see how silly your comment is.

Equating the condemnation of pedophilia with the condemnation of homosexuality is worrying to an extreme, perhaps you should be put under surveillance?

Stop beating around the bush, mate: Did you know for sure he was 16 or was that a good guess of yours?

Well gee and golly, if you can't tell the difference between a child and an adult there is no place on this earth for you. You can always try using that as a defense at your trial but others have tried and it has never worked.

maybe the kid was 12 or 13 but what difference does it make? The point of the example was social tolerance for this type of thing in Britain but the more literate aspects of my post seem to have escaped you.

I have no stomach for pedophile apologists but there are so many in Thailand which is one reason I wait to know who someone is before I engage in social interaction with them.

Indeed and this would be exactly the same reason why strangers would not want to engage in conversation with you.

Nothing personal, just a fact.......the same can be applied to me.....anyone.

[oxo1947]

Why do these people do that?

Why don't you ask them................

[healthbkkbkk]

Your comment is simplistic to say the least but obviously you have a need to defend a pedophile. It's your life but don't get caught by the police or a real man.

You must not have read the entire post, only the part that excites you about pedophilia, because if you had read the entire post you would see how silly your comment is.

Equating the condemnation of pedophilia with the condemnation of homosexuality is worrying to an extreme, perhaps you should be put under surveillance?

Stop beating around the bush, mate: Did you know for sure he was 16 or was that a good guess of yours?

Well gee and golly, if you can't tell the difference between a child and an adult there is no place on this earth for you. You can always try using that as a defense at your trial but others have tried and it has never worked.

maybe the kid was 12 or 13 but what difference does it make? The point of the example was social tolerance for this type of thing in Britain but the more literate aspects of my post seem to have escaped you.

I have no stomach for pedophile apologists but there are so many in Thailand which is one reason I wait to know who someone is before I engage in social interaction with them.

Indeed and this would be exactly the same reason why strangers would not want to engage in conversation with you.

Nothing personal, just a fact.......the same can be applied to me.....anyone.

You've stated the obvious and I am happy most farrangs here do not make any attempt to addresse others including myself.

[kranuan]

first of all hi, its nice to be nice. secondly , never mind the gym, there are plenty of them here on thaivisaforum

[soalbundy]

Ah ! The Miserable Git Brigade. Seems to be rather large numbers of them here. Karma gets 'em in the end though; we had one in our village who would never speak a word to anyone and suddenly he got very ill and went into Hospital....nobody except his wife visited him. He then died and his wife had to go around begging the neighbours to go to his funeral because there were no mourners.

I cant imagine that having no mourners would bother him very much. Anyway they are only there for the free food.

[louse1953]

Why would Thais great (sic) you with a wai at the gym?... Yes, the receptionists maybe (SOP) but the other gym goers?.... do you spend a lot of time looking at yourself in the mirror? [/quote

Well,they wai me as well,guess its when they have accepted you into the group,when you have been going for a while.Also the oldest there and only farang.

[soalbundy]

We greet and eye contact mostly people we find we have something in common or wish we had things in common.

When I am riding my bicycle I am greeting and being greeted by other cyclists, Thai or farang. When I ride my motorbike

it's the similar. Sometimes easy to get into a conversation with other bikers. My favourites are bikers from Malaysia.

They are well mannered and educated. With Thais it's often difficult as i don't speak Thai and they often don't speak English.

With Farangs it's different. Some are friendly, some are just ignorant, some are the "Hell's Angels Type" that seem to enjoy

their mean looks and thus are cultivating it.

In this whole greeting thing I am not spoiled anyway as I come from Germany where people are stiff, not neccessarily unfriendly but stiff.

i'm an Englishman who has lived in Germany (Freistaat Bayern) for almost 40 years, i found Germans to be extremely friendly and very amusing,, after 9 years here i still miss Germany and if it wasn't for my family i would go back tomorrow.

Edited May 5, 2014 by soalbundy

[Thakkar]

I'm sure a lot of people are like me. I don't like exercise but do it as a necessary chore. If I go to a gym, I like to get in, do my thing and get out with the least amount of fuss and wastage of time.

A nod leads to a smile which leads to a greeting which leads to a chat and there goes my simple get in/exercise/get out routine. I hate that.

That's why I avoid gym trips with Mrs T, because she never stops yacking. So if I ignore you at the gym, don't take it personally. I'd like to ignore Mrs T as well, but there are consequences to that.

T

[JenniferSG]

It is a sad state of affairs, but in the city where I was raised the local culture is known for being a bit unfriendly. I didn't know this until people started writing articles in the press about it. I was surprised, actually. I never felt unfriendly, but the scrutiny did make me realize this: when a stranger speaks to me I always think "Oh God, what does this nutter want? No, I don't want to talk about Jesus, have your phone # or give you money." A stranger starting up a conversation or initiating contact is often seen as disingenuous where I live. I realize that is a bit sad. People addressing me in an elevator, or facing me in an elevator, would seem very strange.

[SoiBiker]

It's standard big city behaviour - when you live surrounded by millions of people there aren't enough hours in the day to greet them all. Small town provincial hicks might find it a bit rude, but it's just the way things are.

[Sheryl]

Over the years there have been a number of threads around the same theme.

One of the things that I recall coming out of them is that farangs have different standards of friendliness/expectations depending on where they are from. People coming from places where it is normal to smile and acknowledge strangers naturally expect the same here whereas those from large cities where this is not the practice, do not. (Also some differences by nationality).

I for example come from New York City. It is not normal there to make eye contact with or acknowledge strangers, in fact quite the opposite - as part of how people maintain a sense of space and privacy wile living in very crowded quarters, politeness requires an avoidance of eye contact and acting as if the other person is not there. Contrary to what outsiders sometimes think, this is not unfriendliness. It is how people manage to have their personal space and privacy in the maddening crowd.

This being my background, I am fine with not being acknowledged by other farang and prefer likewise not to acknowledge them. But after reading many threads like this I have started to force myself to do so in rural settings, at least ones where not many farangs are around. In Bangkok, which I regard as similiar to NYC, I maintain my New Yorker approach. I would find it both intrusive and fatiguing to do otherwise especially given how common farang are there.

Another factor is that the farang population in Thailand is a definitely mixed bag and there are, how shall I put it, not a few farang here whom many of us prefer not to know/associate with, and you cannot often tell just from appearances. Some of us have had bad experiences of being glommed onto by fellow farang whom we soon found not be people we wished to associate with. So that can be another factor.

[louse1953]

I try to avoid making friends at the gym or it will become a hassle having to greet people everyday. Hate it bring troubles most the times. But in your case I think he wants to blend in with the Thai not another tourists or foreigner.

Jeez mate you must be busy,if you cant greet your fellow gym goers.I bet you perve on the girls on the running machine though and would like to meet them,but alas you are known as the grumpy farang that cant be bothered saying sawadee khrap or g'day.I have met some great people down the Fitness who have helped me in my day to day life.

[soalbundy]

first of all hi, its nice to be nice. secondly , never mind the gym, there are plenty of them here on thaivisaforum

No need to be tribal about it,why should i greet another farang? just because he has a white face perhaps. I enjoy walking in the country but it annoys me that the Thais cant leave one alone, always these eternal greetings, Hello bay nay, gin kao leyo ru yang,which is so forced on you that you have to reply, no time for muse,i am polite of course but i do feel like saying p**s off

[Frank James]

The locker room at the fitness center where I go is really small, and it seems the attendants hand out the towels in order, so that, invariably, if you get number 6, the next guy gets number 7. Either his ass is in your face, or vice versa. I have always hated locker rooms, and getting naked around other men. Put it down to a rather puritanical upbringing. I just want to get in and out of there as fast as possible. I notice certain Euro (especially the French) guys are just the opposite. They seem to like to strut around in the nude, taking a long time. Fine, but get me gone, eyes front.

If someone says hi to me, I will always say hi back, and smile. But I don't usually initiate, because I have met with too many cold shoulders, as the OP has described.

I'm sorry to be from a "lower level of success", and that some people think they are superior, and want us lesser beings to go home. "We don't want you here." Wow. Chilly.

[louse1953]

I used to be pretty out going towards most farangs I came across when I first came here, these days I try and stay away from "random" farangs as typically they want something off you or are mentally unhinged in some respect, I can could the number of farangs I associate with on one hand and its going to stay that way.

Are you a mindreader,how do you know what people are like before you meet them.

[StreetCowboy]

Have you tried handing out business cards?

I'm not sure about the correct etiquette though - should I introduce myself to everyone, or just the people in my carriage on the MRT?

SC