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Friday, March 29, 2024

Why are westerners so offended when the word farang is used for them?

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Why are foreigners so offended when Thais call them Farang? Is it really such an insulting word if it has no negative connotations and is just a catch-all term for a group of people?

Or is it negative? In its etymology, that’s certainly not the case, at least not in the way racially charged words (mainly made up and used by farangs) like the N-word. According to linguists, farang is just a Thai transliteration of franc. And while franks are no longer used in the modern lexicon, it’s clear that the word farang dates back to the first Western Europeans to visit Thailand.

So why all the fuss about labelling? Is it because Europeans and North Americans are so individualistic that they can’t bear to be lumped together?

Well, if you’ve ever spent a lot of time in the United States and are from Asia (albeit less from Europe), be prepared to be grouped much more aggressively than Thais, whom westerners call Farang.

Everything from Asia is either Chinese or Asian, there is no separate country identity – just include all terms. I still remember my first day in a Chinese history class when several classmates approached me to ask me how to pronounce Lao-tse correctly. Yes, because I would know for sure.

And there’s a reason why Milli, the Thai rapper, screamed onstage at Coachella that she’s never ridden an elephant before. It plays on stereotypes attributed to many Thais by our collective experience in the West. No, we don’t ride elephants, we don’t always use chopsticks, and no, Bangkok is not the capital of Taiwan.

But while these generalizations attributed to us by the West come from a place of ignorance, Farang does not.

As mentioned before, there is no connotation with the word. There are rich farangs, there are poor farangs. Then there are the English farangs. There are nice farangs and there are evil farangs who sail up the Chao Phraya River in a gunboat and demand that the country opens up to trade.

The insult that Westerners use about a collective term is fake indignation, a case of those who are too valuable to recognize the irony of the insult when the shoe is on the other side.

It’s the same stupid outrage that Westerners feel when they have to pay an extra three dollars to enter a national park in Thailand. God, you never hear the end of it when they whine about double prices. But when we point out that they can enter our country for free, while most countries in Europe and North America charge exorbitant visa application fees and a degrading visa application process asking you the most irritating questions, the same farangs go into a deep silence.

So stop whining about the word, it’s not that offensive. And before you complain about it again, please take a good look in the mirror, unless we give you a more historically correct nickname like the Imperialists.

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