[Tenchu]

Originally Posted by WhoIsDaffy

yea i know what you mean, i always thought it was ferrenggggggg

The official spelling is "farang". However I find this a bit funny; Thai people cannot say "R", so howcome it is "farang"? They say "L" in the place of any "R".

Originally Posted by WhoIsDaffy

something about the word and the way it is often said is (to me) a bit 'attacking', know what i mean?

I know exactley what you mean. If people call me "farang" to my face, they'll likely hear me call them a "nigger" back. But the word itself is not a crime. It's just poor manners to refer to a person directly in such a broad manner. However, I've no problem with saying something like, "A lot of falang come to Thailand to learn Muay Thai".
Because this simply means, "A lot of white foreigners come to Thailand to learn Muay Thai".
It's okay because you're not reffering to a person directly to their face. You are generalizing in saying many white people from many different countries come to Thailand for this. This is a true thing, and is not offensive. It, and "gaijin", only become rude when people start lazy shit talking to you calling you these things instead of asking your name or anything.

I know darn well, in Australia, it's bloody rude to talk to an Asian or such and just keep reffering to them as "the Asian" when you should be simply asking their name.

However, you have to understand a lot of these countries do not understand this. They do not realize the form of social exclusion put forward in saying there is "us and them; Japanese/Thai and gaijin/falang" is a pretty unwelcoming thing to say that basically means you don't belong in their circle. Tell them where to go if someone does it.

Originally Posted by WhoIsDaffy

- i have had some run ins with people trying to be rascist to me in asia.
Its pure comedy.
(after all we have larger genitalia, more powerfull militaries [not china though], and at some point we (europeans) probably owned your country - and could again if we wanted to - etc. )

Though I have found that responding like this will often inflame the situation (though that can be fun)
pointing out something like,
"i can understand how you feel, in europe we used to feel the same way, but don't worry you will always be welcome, as we have put such primitive thoughts to rest"

Is still think its a bit sad that a country that is supposed to be so 'Advanced' has such a backwards social view on race, nationality, and immigration.
its a true stain on an otherwise wonderfull and rich culture.

Penis size? This reminds me of a funny conversation...

I was waiting in the huge line outside the Thai embassy in Vientianne, Lao whilst doing a visa run. There were two other big white guys there with me (and I'm a little huge myself, being 186cm and 105 kilo). There was also a rather scrawny American there.

We were doing the usual chat that people do whilst waiting for a Thai visa at the Thai embassy; bad mouthing Thailand and talking shit about their culture, moarchy and politics. We got onto the subject of being bigger than Thais somehow.

The scrawny American, who was only the size of an average Thai, started telling a funny story about how the bar girls in Patong reffer to white guys as qwai (buffalo). Citing, they are big and have big penis, but very small brain. All of a sudden, it went quiet, and all eyes fell on the scrawny man talking about small Asians who were not bigger than himself, trying to piggy back on the achievements of his fellow race where he himself had failed.

As for their backwards views; I think the problem is language. Countries that do not speak English are less exposed to the external world, and thus feel it's a lot bigger than it really is.

It's a lot easier to brand someone as a "gaijin/falang" when you think every country does it. They havn't realized that outside their own country is not just a collection of other independant nations, but it's an international community.

We can get as pissed off as we like and tell them over and over that having black hair/eyes/nipples/genitals means they're technically more black than they are white, regardless of how many chemicals they put on their skin and how much they fear the sun in order to prevent what they'd reffer to as "negrosis"; an extremely hostile disease. However, all they really need is for someone to switch on the BBC channel and say "Here, take a look, this is the big wide world". You know, kind of like holding their hand as they step out the door, coz their too scared to do it themselves...

Just think of that next time they call you "gaijin", and remeber that perhaps all they need is a good lecture on basic manners.