Thailand's 'F' word: Offensive or harmless?

[BritManToo]

^^ So you agree with me 'Thais are ignorant'.

But you don't want to come right out and say it?

I certainly do not agree with you statement about Thais are ignorant.

Perhaps some Thais of the bar girl variety who left school at 12 years old who you have met may be.

My wife is university educated,a very funny lady whom I adore.

I especially love calling her the farang when we are in Australia. She laughs her head off as well seeing the irony.

Currently less than 20% of the Thai population have attended high school. Of those born before 1970, less than 5%. Current enrollment in high school is around 60%, but not many of those make it past age 15 (when the free ends). The free education from age 12 to age 15 was only started in 2009, less than 7 years ago. The general has just announced he wants to 'roll back' and end free education at age 12.

So essentially most of the current adult Thai population left school at age 12. Around 80%.

I'm happy that you have a different, Chula educated, half Chinese, hiso lady from a wealthy family who never worked in a bar.

She'll never be 'farang', but there are many other names that could be used to describe her ethnicity. I won't list them as I'm not a racist. She's probably laughing her head off at your ignorance in calling her 'farang'.

Edited April 16, 2016 by BritManToo

[rogeroc]

I was stating a fact. The poster in question is clearly not fluent, yet he claims he is. He cannot even get the use of "mun" correct. So how can one be expected to accept his interpretation of the word "farang" without question.

My son, who is a native speaker of the language simply agreed with me but used stronger language to get his point across, language which I thought should be toned down when putting fingers to keyboard. I even asked him if I was a farang and he said of course I was. Absolutely no disrespect whatsoever. Would you have me punish him and demand he never say that again? He would have some rejoinder ready to the effect that no matter what punishment I levied, I could not change the fact that I am a farang and will die a farang.

As to defending the word "farang", there is nothing to defend. It is what it is. A word used to describe those from a certain group of people with common characteristics.

As a parent i would think very strongly that you should advise your son not to use words such as ignorant (and as you say much worse) to describe people who have an opposing view to him. On the subject of the word 'Farang' why not have an intelligent discussion with him about what it is that makes a / any word be deemed offensive. Or simply why he thinks it maybe that some people do think 'Farang' is offensive. There are some valid arguments on both sides of the coin in this thread.

[GarryP]

I was stating a fact. The poster in question is clearly not fluent, yet he claims he is. He cannot even get the use of "mun" correct. So how can one be expected to accept his interpretation of the word "farang" without question.

My son, who is a native speaker of the language simply agreed with me but used stronger language to get his point across, language which I thought should be toned down when putting fingers to keyboard. I even asked him if I was a farang and he said of course I was. Absolutely no disrespect whatsoever. Would you have me punish him and demand he never say that again? He would have some rejoinder ready to the effect that no matter what punishment I levied, I could not change the fact that I am a farang and will die a farang.

As to defending the word "farang", there is nothing to defend. It is what it is. A word used to describe those from a certain group of people with common characteristics.

As a parent i would think very strongly that you should advise your son not to use words such as ignorant (and as you say much worse) to describe people who have an opposing view to him. On the subject of the word 'Farang' why not have an intelligent discussion with him about what it is that makes a / any word be deemed offensive. Or simply why he thinks it maybe that some people do think 'Farang' is offensive. There are some valid arguments on both sides of the coin in this thread.

As a 27 year old I let him speak his mind to me.

He is not so dimwitted as to not control how he expresses himself when talking to others. Common sense.

[rogeroc]

The reference you initially made to 'Would you have me punish him' suggests him to be at an age where he would still be under parental guidance, not 27 !

[GarryP]

The reference you initially made to 'Would you have me punish him' suggests him to be at an age where he would still be under parental guidance, not 27 !

Apologies. But the comment was meant to be sarcastic.

[dieseldave1951]

what a load of rubbish how about sir or madam (non racist non offensive} and i for one do not expect anything especially here, except to be ripped of

by lawyers and builders

I think the guy storming out of the restaurant was being rude. This is just another case of “Why don’t they do it my way?”. People move to a foreign country and then expect the locals to follow the rules of etiquette derived in and coming from a place they have never even been to. We are the uninvited guests, so why do they have to adapt to our cultural norms?

So right You are

[Pinot]

The only people who are offended by the word farang are people with very, very thin skin. As they say, water off a ducks back. Why allow yourself to get offended over something so small and so irrelevant? Who cares? What difference does it make? Yes, granted when they know you, calling you farang is just plain stupid and rude. But, otherwise?

You know what I hate?

When my sticky rice gets clumped together and I have to use a knife and fork to cut it.

Farangs (tch).

[baneko]

There are many things worse than farang....you pay bill wife gets change to avoid interaction with the farang and speak some english....even if you spk thai.

The other is if you go to a shop and you ask a question and the reply to the wife is in thai. This is even though I can spk it.

Happened to me in DHL last week. Big world wide company....no English...spks thai to missus.

[Kenny202]

There are many things worse than farang....you pay bill wife gets change to avoid interaction with the farang and speak some english....even if you spk thai.

The other is if you go to a shop and you ask a question and the reply to the wife is in thai. This is even though I can spk it.

Happened to me in DHL last week. Big world wide company....no English...spks thai to missus.

I hate that too but I think it's more shyness of making a mistake or embarrassed to speak English rather than rudeness. I knew an English teacher refused to speak with me because she said she didn't learn Australian accent ie she was crap

[Johnniey]

There are many things worse than farang....you pay bill wife gets change to avoid interaction with the farang and speak some english....even if you spk thai.

The other is if you go to a shop and you ask a question and the reply to the wife is in thai. This is even though I can spk it.

Happened to me in DHL last week. Big world wide company....no English...spks thai to missus.

It's worse when they start doing it to your children. Was really annoying the number of times they would turn to them when they were small. Now, if it's my eldest, I ask them how long they think I've lived here to have kids that age, then I tell them the answer(30 years) so I tell them I am very insulted that they think I can live in a country for 3 decades and y so ignorant as not to be able to speak the language(all in Thai of course). To be fair most are extremely apologetic as they are unused to us speaking properly.

[Johnniey]

There are many things worse than farang....you pay bill wife gets change to avoid interaction with the farang and speak some english....even if you spk thai.

The other is if you go to a shop and you ask a question and the reply to the wife is in thai. This is even though I can spk it.

Happened to me in DHL last week. Big world wide company....no English...spks thai to missus.

I hate that too but I think it's more shyness of making a mistake or embarrassed to speak English rather than rudeness. I knew an English teacher refused to speak with me because she said she didn't learn Australian accent ie she was crap

I can't understand most Ozzies

[n00b]

Due to the origin of the word I find it offensive. It is not as if we called Thais "Asian" or even "brown guy" or "yellow guy" to their face, I wouldn't mind being called "white guy". Being called a Frenchman on the other hand, with a term coined by Arabs no less... The problem with the term "farang" is that it is incorrect for every European nationality except one. You could respond with calling them "chinaman" but that is being too nice as they probably have more positive feelings about being mistaken for a Chinese than I have for being mistaken for a Frenchman. I guess the only fair solution is to call them "khmer" or "pamaa" in return.

[Kenny202]

Due to the origin of the word I find it offensive. It is not as if we called Thais "Asian" or even "brown guy" or "yellow guy" to their face, I wouldn't mind being called "white guy". Being called a Frenchman on the other hand, with a term coined by Arabs no less... The problem with the term "farang" is that it is incorrect for every European nationality except one. You could respond with calling them "chinaman" but that is being too nice as they probably have more positive feelings about being mistaken for a Chinese than I have for being mistaken for a Frenchman. I guess the only fair solution is to call them "khmer" or "pamaa" in return.

it's quite simply a matter of cultural difference. Do you think a Thai has really put that much thought into it? They're just calling it how they see it Edited April 27, 2016 by Kenny202

[rijit]

^^ an argument not particularly well thought out' and that's being nice.

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