21 replies to this topic

[sev7en]

Siam Smile(s)- secrets of the Thais, by Hugh Watson is hilarious reading and a must-read for all visitors to Los.

I´ll post some and hope the author is ok with that..

Here´s a bit from my favorite chapter... 14: Farang and Ki-Nok

There is a lot of debate over this topic. There have already been numerous letters to the BKK news papers over the meaning and use of the term farang. So, we will begin with the most acceptable local definition, as this has to do with stereotypes and latent assumptions. Farang in the consensus version means a Western person. There we go, and that wasn't so bad. But, of course, many Europeans grow a bit alarmed at this generic term, as they don't appreciate being lumped into the one-farang category. I mean, after all, you (US) are having a beer next to a Frenchman and in BKK you are both farang. Is this OK or not? Is this an over-generalization or not?
Is farang a good generic common denominator or a slur?
Before going into 'thick' analysis, let's say that this term is like kek (guest), which is used for Islamic or Hindu type people (Malays, Indians, Indonesians,etc.) You might spy kids racing behind obviously Indian-Thais hissing kek and you get the idea they are not saying Have a nice day But, Thais who do have perhaps a Malay in the genealogy will refer to that person nonchalantly as my kek ancestor and no funny undertone.

We are getting ready for controversial farang. It can depend on tone which is unusual as Thai normally does not have emphatic emotional tones but fixed ones. ' Some people assume it's OK to call a Westerner a farang and can't think of another term. On the other hand, farang can be heard in disgust when people witness some of the general faux pas committed by alien visitors. If you can't catch the hissing angry-tone like a cobra whose tail has just been run over by a bulldozer, then check the facial expression as Thais often actually practice making a variety of special expressions...like out-of-work Kabuki actors, (they get in front of a mirror and practice a wide variety of f facial contortions.) They are probably not being polite.
If someone says farang and makes the ki-ma (dog poop) face, you can be sure this is not a pleasant sign unless you are hopelessly
lost in denial and/or some kind of positivist dogma: D&D.
There is even a Thai term of Na na (Nafalling na rising),which means 'thick face' and refers to a person so dense they don't know when they are being roundly insulted.

[petesie]

Good stuff...any elaboration on the Ki-ma Na-na faces...?

I'm a simple man from the North...

[sev7en]

And here a problem because Asians, and especially Thais, are subtle and their version of being rude can go completely unnoticed by a farang regardless of how much they squeeze their face into the ki-ma expression or do a host of other alarming things like point their feet at you, not reciprocate a wai, not hand an item properly, or using special pronouns that turns
the farang into a member of the animal world.
(You can imagine nasty little kids running around singing
farang na na na na na na).
Now, back to farang. In 800 AD an Italian pope made the
alarming and probably politically strategic act of making a barbarian, Charlemagne, emperor of the Western Roman Empire. Well, at that point Rome had been overrun by barbarians for 400 years but the Eastern Roman Empire of Byzantium was still Roman and, the Charlemagne coronation was met with shock and derision. A barbarian as emperor! Preposterous. How could the pope do such a thing? Charlemagne was a Frank and the term immediately became a slur in Byzantium...a Frank was pure and simple a Westernbarbarian. How awful. According to British historian J. M. Roberts, the word Frank then traveled as far in the East as China with a nasty connotation. Take Frank and imagine F-arank, as many people such as Siamese and Chinese often had problems pronouncing an R, you don't have to be a cultural linguist to figure out that rolling an R after an F could be a bit tricky. It is also typical of some Asians to change an R to an L anyway so you get F-alank and the final G is a bit confusing. Actually Thais will pronounce a final G like a K and apparently a final K like a G to keep the linguists completely baffled.

1 A US fellow once saw a girl on a public bench deeply involved in making the numerous faces in a kind of practice in a little purse mirror
- a kind of Shakespearean thing where if life is a stage, we should all be ready to act (and make the little faces).

We get falang or Western barbarian. Or you can pronounce
it farang depending on your LIR ability or sensitivity.
We need a definition of barbarian to get to the meaning of
farang. The term barbarian originated in ancient Egypt where it was in hieroglyphics as a foot and leg, B, a mouth, R, another foot and leg, B, and a final mouth, R: B-R-B-R. So, of course this is the old term Berber and also Barbar' and later Barbarian in English. In a pictorial sense it is a walking mouth; foreign languages to Greeks were Barbar. We can almost forget the compass direction of West for this because a barbarian is a barbarian.
FromAttila the Hun to the Visigoths to the Mongols, barbarians were the first ambulatory extortion mobs: pay up some tribute or we burn your shop. This alarming disregard for careful rules and customs made sedentary people (i.e., Chinese) uncomfortable. What happened to the civilized Roman or Sino hierarchy when the barbarians struck?
It turns out that the Siamese (or Dai people) were keen on getting as far away from barbarians as they could at the dawn of their hazy history. When Kublai Khan and the Mongols took over China, the ancient Siamese picked up camp in the Nan Chao area of China and started turning up in droves in the Sukhothai region, which was already settled by Mons and Khmer.As the Mongols took the cake for being100%purebarbarians,moreandmoreTai-DaiancientSiamese showed up in now-Thailand until they outvoted the locals...this was a lucky time to locate in the Central area because the normally hostile Burmese were busy being battered by the Khan, and the Khmers who were usually a force to be dealt with, were also shattered by Mongol politics. Hence there was a temporal window of opportunity and the Siamese took full advantage of it and got themselves firrnly established where they are now.
This was one of the first examples of Siamese good sense and it was to prevail up until today.

1 Historian Roberts points to Barbar from the Greek point of view as speaking an unknown language. Maybe that was the message of the two feet and the mouth...a wandering mouth was a BrBr.

[sev7en]

The Mongol attacks on Burma were so devastating that the Burmese were knocked out of the picture for nearly 400 years. This was a nice hiatus to get things organized in Siam. Eventually the Burmese got back on their feet and attacked the Thais and burned the later capital ofAyuttaya, but the real problem didn't start until 1820.
Thais knew about outside, lingering, dangerous barbarian Western forces but after the Raj Burma wars, they found themselves in the process of being surrounded by farang. To the north, west (Raj' Burma), and south (Raj Malaysia) were awful people wearing pith helmetsanddemandingto knowwhere Siam'sboundarieswere.Then
to the East came the French in Laos and Cambodia. This was a worst nightmare come true: surrounded by pushy Western barbarians.. .the farang were all over the place.
However, the Thais had their own cagey strategies for keeping the farang at bay. Instead of immediately throwing spears and getting into a fight, as did all other fight-prone contemporary societies in the area, the Thais wanted to make a deal, have a compromise: red tape and contracts for the predaceous foreigners. Although historians like Roberts claim the Japanese were the first to modernize to keep the West at bay, the Siamese were toe-to-toe with them on getting things up to date. And the agenda was the same: keep the farang at arm's length.
The Raj farang were not particularly kind to Asians of any ilk and had their own generic terms *, which were far from polite. The Raj attitude continued until Word War II when the UK colonies and ideas retracted from Asian to their home base. Hence, there has been an historic reason for alarm and real suspicion over the Western farang.
Of course, some foreigners take the term in a humorous vein and in Chiang Mai there is a local football team of expats called the Farangutangs. And, if you are from Frankish background, say, from Hesse (Germany), you can be quite pleased with the term. If you are not of Frankish descent and are alarmed by the term, we suggest you go into the denial which Americans are good at and pretend the term means friend.

I The Raj refers to the British colonial rule. 2 George Orwell's Burmese Days.


At this point, you have an idea of the term farang and now gi
for the thicker stage, which is farang ki-nokl or just ki-nok; in the larg definition it is Western Barbarian BirdPoop. This sounds too good to b true, doesn't it? But it's real. And here's how it is used: when a faran has been in Smile Land long enough to pick up the general tricks, th facial expressions,a bit of the language,the questionable pronouns,th understanding of what is probably polite and what is not, then faran is metamorphosed into, not a caterpillar to a butterfly or even a mot but a Western barbarian into birdpoop.
"I've got it all sussed out now."
"You sure do, Bird Poop."
There is some language humor with farang ki-nok: in the fir:
place, farang is also a fruit and its seeds are called ki-nok. A potat is called a man farang so if someone points at you and says: "Ma farangWdidthey mean 'This man is a farang?' or 'Potato'? What abot swaggering about as a big potato! Or in the other meaning you T be a fruit with all the seed right there.
The Cambridge Scholar has this interpretation:
A bird eats the ki-nok seeds from the farang fruit. It flies (symbol of airplane) and has white nasty droppings (clue), which stay rig there on the pavement for ages (another hint). The Scholar, who is full-blown semiotician, declares there is an obvious parallel here.
Now, what do you do when you hear people starting to call yo farang ki-nok or just ki-nok? Should you celebrate and have friend over for champagne, get angry and write letters to the Bangkok Po: Postbag, go so deep into denial that both Freud and Jung couldn't pu you out, or find a new dogma where E.T.s race off in space ships an take you to a promised land?
I mean, when people say ki-nok (generally behind your back they know that you know some Thai and they have to be careful c what they say in front of your face; is this a good sign? It does meal that locals know you are catching on to language and culture, so the thais is rather nice.

1 There is a fruit called farang and the seeds are called ki-nok. Those on a quest for symbolism say in a kind of pun turned metaphor, farang fly in like birds on planes, and some stay and stick around like bird poop.

[sev7en]

And (this is special for those of you prone to going into denial) if you walk down a road in BKK and get hit by avian poop from the especially prolific and ubiquitous local power-lineevening nok, you are lucky: the sunset birds who feed on evening insect swarms, rest on power lines, and poop left and right like stationary B 52 Doolittle bombers on the hapless pedestrians below. When you suddenly find an especially huge and alarming bird stool dripping on your shoulder
or back of your head, the usual street side vendors will smile and tell you the ki-nok is propitious and you are now fortunate.
(Obviously Thais can go into denial as quick as Post-Puritan Americans)
This is like finding a four-leaf clover (but this one has a fresh cow pie on it). So, maybe this means when Thais finally designate your status as ki-nok and you believe the story about being lucky, you should race out and buy a batch of lottery tickets.
In one alleged case, a US fellow in a karaoke place sang a tune in Thai and got applause, but in a near group a lad looked over and said farang ki-nok (and let's guess with a sneer); was this a kind of compliment or what? The US fellow felt affronted and called the bunch ki-kwai (buffalo poop). At that point the lads called in a larger group of pals but in a surprise counter-move, the farang got on his cellular phone and called in a batch of gendarme, one of whom was a friend. In the end the buffalo bunch were handcuffed and had to one by one apologize to the foreigner. As this is a bit odd, it is certainly not recommended unless you have a mate whose dad is the local police chief.
So not everyone appreciates the farang ki-nok appellation. Is it deprecatory or an accolade? Should the karaoke American have stepped over and said, "Gee, thanks a million. It's an honor to be publically recognized as Western barbarian bird poop. Drinks on me, boys."
I have even had some people ask if there is a category higher than farang ki-nok and at this point, not yet. It seems to be fairly simple: you're a barbarian and you're bird poop. I guess this is better than being called a one-legged Guinea pig!
In the Chapter on Lord Jimming It, other sub-ki-nok terms will be explored.

[sev7en]

This was chapter 14. It´a very entertaining read, let me know if you want more, and again it´s Siam smile(s)- by Hugh Watson.

[sev7en]

Siam Smile(s)- secrets of the Thais, by Hugh Watson is hilarious reading and a must-read for all visitors to Los.

I´ll post some and hope the author is ok with that..

Here´s a bit from my favorite chapter... 14: Farang and Ki-Nok

There is a lot of debate over this topic. There have already been numerous letters to the BKK news papers over the meaning and use of the term farang. So, we will begin with the most acceptable local definition, as this has to do with stereotypes and latent assumptions. Farang in the consensus version means a Western person. There we go, and that wasn't so bad. But, of course, many Europeans grow a bit alarmed at this generic term, as they don't appreciate being lumped into the one-farang category. I mean, after all, you (US) are having a beer next to a Frenchman and in BKK you are both farang. Is this OK or not? Is this an over-generalization or not?
Is farang a good generic common denominator or a slur?
Before going into 'thick' analysis, let's say that this term is like kek (guest), which is used for Islamic or Hindu type people (Malays, Indians, Indonesians,etc.) You might spy kids racing behind obviously Indian-Thais hissing kek and you get the idea they are not saying Have a nice day But, Thais who do have perhaps a Malay in the genealogy will refer to that person nonchalantly as my kek ancestor and no funny undertone.

We are getting ready for controversial farang. It can depend on tone which is unusual as Thai normally does not have emphatic emotional tones but fixed ones. ' Some people assume it's OK to call a Westerner a farang and can't think of another term. On the other hand, farang can be heard in disgust when people witness some of the general faux pas committed by alien visitors. If you can't catch the hissing angry-tone like a cobra whose tail has just been run over by a bulldozer, then check the facial expression as Thais often actually practice making a variety of special expressions...like out-of-work Kabuki actors, (they get in front of a mirror and practice a wide variety of f facial contortions.) They are probably not being polite.
If someone says farang and makes the ki-ma (dog poop) face, you can be sure this is not a pleasant sign unless you are hopelessly
lost in denial and/or some kind of positivist dogma: D&D.
There is even a Thai term of Na na (Nafalling na rising),which means 'thick face' and refers to a person so dense they don't know when they are being roundly insulted.

[petesie]

Good stuff...any elaboration on the Ki-ma Na-na faces...?

I'm a simple man from the North...

[sev7en]

And here a problem because Asians, and especially Thais, are subtle and their version of being rude can go completely unnoticed by a farang regardless of how much they squeeze their face into the ki-ma expression or do a host of other alarming things like point their feet at you, not reciprocate a wai, not hand an item properly, or using special pronouns that turns
the farang into a member of the animal world.
(You can imagine nasty little kids running around singing
farang na na na na na na).
Now, back to farang. In 800 AD an Italian pope made the
alarming and probably politically strategic act of making a barbarian, Charlemagne, emperor of the Western Roman Empire. Well, at that point Rome had been overrun by barbarians for 400 years but the Eastern Roman Empire of Byzantium was still Roman and, the Charlemagne coronation was met with shock and derision. A barbarian as emperor! Preposterous. How could the pope do such a thing? Charlemagne was a Frank and the term immediately became a slur in Byzantium...a Frank was pure and simple a Westernbarbarian. How awful. According to British historian J. M. Roberts, the word Frank then traveled as far in the East as China with a nasty connotation. Take Frank and imagine F-arank, as many people such as Siamese and Chinese often had problems pronouncing an R, you don't have to be a cultural linguist to figure out that rolling an R after an F could be a bit tricky. It is also typical of some Asians to change an R to an L anyway so you get F-alank and the final G is a bit confusing. Actually Thais will pronounce a final G like a K and apparently a final K like a G to keep the linguists completely baffled.

1 A US fellow once saw a girl on a public bench deeply involved in making the numerous faces in a kind of practice in a little purse mirror
- a kind of Shakespearean thing where if life is a stage, we should all be ready to act (and make the little faces).

We get falang or Western barbarian. Or you can pronounce
it farang depending on your LIR ability or sensitivity.
We need a definition of barbarian to get to the meaning of
farang. The term barbarian originated in ancient Egypt where it was in hieroglyphics as a foot and leg, B, a mouth, R, another foot and leg, B, and a final mouth, R: B-R-B-R. So, of course this is the old term Berber and also Barbar' and later Barbarian in English. In a pictorial sense it is a walking mouth; foreign languages to Greeks were Barbar. We can almost forget the compass direction of West for this because a barbarian is a barbarian.
FromAttila the Hun to the Visigoths to the Mongols, barbarians were the first ambulatory extortion mobs: pay up some tribute or we burn your shop. This alarming disregard for careful rules and customs made sedentary people (i.e., Chinese) uncomfortable. What happened to the civilized Roman or Sino hierarchy when the barbarians struck?
It turns out that the Siamese (or Dai people) were keen on getting as far away from barbarians as they could at the dawn of their hazy history. When Kublai Khan and the Mongols took over China, the ancient Siamese picked up camp in the Nan Chao area of China and started turning up in droves in the Sukhothai region, which was already settled by Mons and Khmer.As the Mongols took the cake for being100%purebarbarians,moreandmoreTai-DaiancientSiamese showed up in now-Thailand until they outvoted the locals...this was a lucky time to locate in the Central area because the normally hostile Burmese were busy being battered by the Khan, and the Khmers who were usually a force to be dealt with, were also shattered by Mongol politics. Hence there was a temporal window of opportunity and the Siamese took full advantage of it and got themselves firrnly established where they are now.
This was one of the first examples of Siamese good sense and it was to prevail up until today.

1 Historian Roberts points to Barbar from the Greek point of view as speaking an unknown language. Maybe that was the message of the two feet and the mouth...a wandering mouth was a BrBr.

[sev7en]

The Mongol attacks on Burma were so devastating that the Burmese were knocked out of the picture for nearly 400 years. This was a nice hiatus to get things organized in Siam. Eventually the Burmese got back on their feet and attacked the Thais and burned the later capital ofAyuttaya, but the real problem didn't start until 1820.
Thais knew about outside, lingering, dangerous barbarian Western forces but after the Raj Burma wars, they found themselves in the process of being surrounded by farang. To the north, west (Raj' Burma), and south (Raj Malaysia) were awful people wearing pith helmetsanddemandingto knowwhere Siam'sboundarieswere.Then
to the East came the French in Laos and Cambodia. This was a worst nightmare come true: surrounded by pushy Western barbarians.. .the farang were all over the place.
However, the Thais had their own cagey strategies for keeping the farang at bay. Instead of immediately throwing spears and getting into a fight, as did all other fight-prone contemporary societies in the area, the Thais wanted to make a deal, have a compromise: red tape and contracts for the predaceous foreigners. Although historians like Roberts claim the Japanese were the first to modernize to keep the West at bay, the Siamese were toe-to-toe with them on getting things up to date. And the agenda was the same: keep the farang at arm's length.
The Raj farang were not particularly kind to Asians of any ilk and had their own generic terms *, which were far from polite. The Raj attitude continued until Word War II when the UK colonies and ideas retracted from Asian to their home base. Hence, there has been an historic reason for alarm and real suspicion over the Western farang.
Of course, some foreigners take the term in a humorous vein and in Chiang Mai there is a local football team of expats called the Farangutangs. And, if you are from Frankish background, say, from Hesse (Germany), you can be quite pleased with the term. If you are not of Frankish descent and are alarmed by the term, we suggest you go into the denial which Americans are good at and pretend the term means friend.

I The Raj refers to the British colonial rule. 2 George Orwell's Burmese Days.


At this point, you have an idea of the term farang and now gi
for the thicker stage, which is farang ki-nokl or just ki-nok; in the larg definition it is Western Barbarian BirdPoop. This sounds too good to b true, doesn't it? But it's real. And here's how it is used: when a faran has been in Smile Land long enough to pick up the general tricks, th facial expressions,a bit of the language,the questionable pronouns,th understanding of what is probably polite and what is not, then faran is metamorphosed into, not a caterpillar to a butterfly or even a mot but a Western barbarian into birdpoop.
"I've got it all sussed out now."
"You sure do, Bird Poop."
There is some language humor with farang ki-nok: in the fir:
place, farang is also a fruit and its seeds are called ki-nok. A potat is called a man farang so if someone points at you and says: "Ma farangWdidthey mean 'This man is a farang?' or 'Potato'? What abot swaggering about as a big potato! Or in the other meaning you T be a fruit with all the seed right there.
The Cambridge Scholar has this interpretation:
A bird eats the ki-nok seeds from the farang fruit. It flies (symbol of airplane) and has white nasty droppings (clue), which stay rig there on the pavement for ages (another hint). The Scholar, who is full-blown semiotician, declares there is an obvious parallel here.
Now, what do you do when you hear people starting to call yo farang ki-nok or just ki-nok? Should you celebrate and have friend over for champagne, get angry and write letters to the Bangkok Po: Postbag, go so deep into denial that both Freud and Jung couldn't pu you out, or find a new dogma where E.T.s race off in space ships an take you to a promised land?
I mean, when people say ki-nok (generally behind your back they know that you know some Thai and they have to be careful c what they say in front of your face; is this a good sign? It does meal that locals know you are catching on to language and culture, so the thais is rather nice.

1 There is a fruit called farang and the seeds are called ki-nok. Those on a quest for symbolism say in a kind of pun turned metaphor, farang fly in like birds on planes, and some stay and stick around like bird poop.

[sev7en]

And (this is special for those of you prone to going into denial) if you walk down a road in BKK and get hit by avian poop from the especially prolific and ubiquitous local power-lineevening nok, you are lucky: the sunset birds who feed on evening insect swarms, rest on power lines, and poop left and right like stationary B 52 Doolittle bombers on the hapless pedestrians below. When you suddenly find an especially huge and alarming bird stool dripping on your shoulder
or back of your head, the usual street side vendors will smile and tell you the ki-nok is propitious and you are now fortunate.
(Obviously Thais can go into denial as quick as Post-Puritan Americans)
This is like finding a four-leaf clover (but this one has a fresh cow pie on it). So, maybe this means when Thais finally designate your status as ki-nok and you believe the story about being lucky, you should race out and buy a batch of lottery tickets.
In one alleged case, a US fellow in a karaoke place sang a tune in Thai and got applause, but in a near group a lad looked over and said farang ki-nok (and let's guess with a sneer); was this a kind of compliment or what? The US fellow felt affronted and called the bunch ki-kwai (buffalo poop). At that point the lads called in a larger group of pals but in a surprise counter-move, the farang got on his cellular phone and called in a batch of gendarme, one of whom was a friend. In the end the buffalo bunch were handcuffed and had to one by one apologize to the foreigner. As this is a bit odd, it is certainly not recommended unless you have a mate whose dad is the local police chief.
So not everyone appreciates the farang ki-nok appellation. Is it deprecatory or an accolade? Should the karaoke American have stepped over and said, "Gee, thanks a million. It's an honor to be publically recognized as Western barbarian bird poop. Drinks on me, boys."
I have even had some people ask if there is a category higher than farang ki-nok and at this point, not yet. It seems to be fairly simple: you're a barbarian and you're bird poop. I guess this is better than being called a one-legged Guinea pig!
In the Chapter on Lord Jimming It, other sub-ki-nok terms will be explored.

[sev7en]

This was chapter 14. It´a very entertaining read, let me know if you want more, and again it´s Siam smile(s)- by Hugh Watson.