DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post

**NumsAmenniams** · 04-08-2006, 07:00 AM

Farang is simply the Thai equivalent to Caucasian. Farang having its origins in Persian/Arabic, the word can be found in many similar forms in many different countries/languages (farangi/barang etc...)
When in countries where the word Caucasian crops up a lot instead, like in Singapore, you don't see the white-folk there throwing a frenzy.

The theory i would like to put forward on why many Caucasians feel the word Farang is offensive, is: The word starts with the letter 'f' and it has two syllables (Think about: derogatory/swear words that begin with f and/or have two syllables)
Thus, I believe it isn't really the word itself which many Caucasians dislike, it is the sound of it.

Even though HM the King does not use very formal language in his b-day speeches, as Betti said earlier - if the word 'farang' really was derogatory as in Paki, it is doubtful HM would use it in his speeches.

04-08-2006, 07:00 AM	#8
NumsAmenniams Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 532 Senior Member	Farang is simply the Thai equivalent to Caucasian. Farang having its origins in Persian/Arabic, the word can be found in many similar forms in many different countries/languages (farangi/barang etc...) When in countries where the word Caucasian crops up a lot instead, like in Singapore, you don't see the white-folk there throwing a frenzy. The theory i would like to put forward on why many Caucasians feel the word Farang is offensive, is: The word starts with the letter 'f' and it has two syllables (Think about: derogatory/swear words that begin with f and/or have two syllables) Thus, I believe it isn't really the word itself which many Caucasians dislike, it is the sound of it. Even though HM the King does not use very formal language in his b-day speeches, as Betti said earlier - if the word 'farang' really was derogatory as in Paki, it is doubtful HM would use it in his speeches.
	Quote