Farang Eating Farang

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At the local market, whenever I buy guava, other customers never seem to grow tired of the old joke “farang gin farang”. This is a play on words as guava and white faced foreigner are the same. So they are joking that the Caucasian guy is eating another Caucasian.

Here is some food for thought:

RT @whitegirlinasia: Hasn’t Bangkok become enough of a global city for the Thais to stop using the term Farang? Couldnt use the equivalent in the West w/o insult.

4 thoughts on “Farang Eating Farang

  • March 16, 2013 at 5:02 am
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    @Disabuse: I’m not sure what underprivileged has to do with this at all. So, poor people can be racist and-or offensive?

    Anyway, it’s an interesting debate and one that I’ve had with Thai friends many times. Usually the debate goes something like this:

    Me: I don’t mind being called a farang but many people do.

    Friend: Yes, but we don’t mean it as an insult.

    Me: Yes, but many people feel that it’s an insult so if you use that word, some people may get angry.

    Friend: But we don’t mean it as an insult.

    Reply
  • January 26, 2013 at 12:14 am
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    Why would they drop the word “Farang”? Just to follow some PC trend?

    It’s generally not used in an insulting (not even close to, say, “Lao” or “Ban Nok” — should we ban that?). Also, Farang are not exactly underprivileged compared to most Thais here.

    Reply
  • January 16, 2013 at 1:16 pm
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    Being a farang, I always make sure I get that joke in first when visiting the fruit market, although yes, it can become tiresome! It’s just a play on words for a bit of fun. More generally, Thai being a tonal language, wordplay is a common source of fun among locals by intentionally mis-pronouncing tones to produce riddles or cheeky comments (farang people are rarely a topic unless one lives in a very touristy area, imho).

    In reply to comment above: no, Bangkok is not a global city. It is still a vast network of micro-communities, so the chance that all will agree to drop the word ‘farang’ is almost zero – what alternative word would be used? After all, even the Govt (Immigration) refer to us all as “aliens”, ha ha.

    Reply
  • January 16, 2013 at 12:41 pm
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    Or that a fruit is eating another fruit.

    Reply

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