Why are westerners so offended over the word farang? Get over it.Why are foreigners so offended when Thais call them farang? Is it really that offensive of a word when it doesn't really have any negative connotation and is just a label for a group of people. |
Or is there negative connotation? It certainly doesn't in its etymology, at least not the way more racially charged words (invented and used mostly by farangs) does like the N word. Farang, according to linguists, is just a Thai transliteration of Franks. And while Franks has become disused in modern lexicon, one can see the word farang traced back to the first Western Europeans to visit Thailand.
So what's all the fuss over labeling? Is it because Europeans and North Americans are so individualistic that they cannot bear being grouped into one catch-all phrase?
Well if you've ever spent much time in the United States and you're from Asia (less so in Europe admittedly), be prepared to be grouped much more offensively than Thais calling westerners Farang.
Everything from Asia is either called Chinese or Asian, there is no individual country identity – just catch all terms as well. I still remember my first day in a Chinese history class and several classmates turned to me to ask for the correct pronunciation of Lao Tzu. Yeah because I would totally know.
And there's a reason that Milli, the Thai rapper, yelled on stage at Coachella that she's never ridden an elephant. It's playing on stereotypes that have been assigned to many Thais through our collective experience living in the west. No, we don't ride elephants, we don't really use chopsticks all the time, and no Bangkok is not the capital of Taiwan.
But while these generalizations assigned 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 teaching farangs. There are nice farangs and there are evil farangs who would drive a gunboat up the Chao Phraya and demand that you open your country up to trading.
The offense taken by westerners over a catch all term is faux outrage, a case of those too precious to recognize the irony of offense when the shoe is on the other foot.
It is the same silly outrage that westerners have when they have to pay an extra three dollars to enter a national park in Thailand. God, you'll never hear the end of it as they bitch about dual pricing. Yet when we point out that they can enter our country for free while most of Europe and North America demand exorbitant visa application fees and dehumanizing visa application process where the most offensive questions are lobbed at you, the farangs stay silent.
So stop whining about the word, it isn't that offensive. And before complaining about it again, please take a long hard look in the mirror less we assign you a more historically accurate moniker like the imperialists.
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