MooNoi Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 Can anyone give me clarification on this? I have heard different views from different Thai people, so maybe no hard and fast rule... I always thought that only caucasian foreigners were called farangs. But I have also heard some Thai people referring to Japanese, Arabic people, black people etc. as farangs too? Any rule on this? Are we all farangs? If Japanese, other Asians, Arabs etc are NOT farangs, do the Thais have a word for each of their racial groups? Fly P. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 Hi Flyp, Actually, there is an ongoing discussion about this, a few threads down. Farang simply means "foriener", or 'non-Thai'. In the thread below, is a discussion on whether the term can be used in a derogatory theme, or should be taken as benign, with a grain of salt. Check it out. :: HT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khun_Kong Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 Disregarding the derogatory/non-derogatory thread... My understanding has been that it is for Caucasian/European/white foreigners, not all foreigners, but I'm unclear on this also. I thought that Arabs were definitely NOT in this category. Would an Hispanic be a farang? And what about guava? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samak Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 all white foreigners, including hispanics are called Farangs. arabs, middle easterns and indians are called Kaek. other asians are usually not called Farangs and are called for example chin or jipoon; there are also impolite expressions for those, which are really not necessary to post here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chanchao Posted May 21, 2004 Report Share Posted May 21, 2004 Yup, Samak has it.. I wonder by the way if impolite words for Chinese (like "Jek" presumably?) are that much more impolite than 'khaek' for Indian? Probably somewhat yes, but I don't think Jek is as derogatory as gook or something would be in the West? Or maybe it is.. I dunno.. My gf uses it all the time, mostly when talking about Taksin. ;-) Cheers, Chanchao Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 21, 2004 Report Share Posted May 21, 2004 >>>arabs, middle easterns and indians are called Kaek.<<< only indians, pakisthanis and bangladeshis are called 'kaek'. arabs and middle easterners are called 'kaek khao'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pescator Posted May 21, 2004 Report Share Posted May 21, 2004 I wonder by the way if impolite words for Chinese (like "Jek" presumably?) are that much more impolite than 'khaek' for Indian? Definitely, it translates to Chink in the dic. and is an "offensive term" probably on level with Ai Yun for japanese. Concerning Khaek, I have heard some thai people refer to their fellow muslim countrymen in the south as Khaek as well. Seems like the rules are not exactly carved in stone. What I wonder is why the thais have chosen the word Khaek for these population groups as it is also the word for guest in thai as you know or are these two words not related at all besides the spelling? Cheers Hua Nguu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chanchao Posted May 21, 2004 Report Share Posted May 21, 2004 I always thought the words are very much related. After all they started out as guests, so were called 'khaek'. They just didn't leave. Cheers, Chanchao Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pescator Posted May 21, 2004 Report Share Posted May 21, 2004 Hi Chanchao, hehe. My impression as well. Cheers Hua Nguu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elef Posted May 22, 2004 Report Share Posted May 22, 2004 Hi Hua Nguu, "some thai people refer to their fellow muslim countrymen in the south as Khaek" XTW refers to those as Yala. elef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.