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Here is my point. OP said "farang tax". Farang == white foreigner. This is the Thai language and not something I'm making up. So OP is essentially saying a "whi

Here is my point. OP said "farang tax". Farang == white foreigner. This is the Thai language and not something I'm making up. So OP is essentially saying a "white foreigner tax". I wanted to make it clear that it's better to call it a "foreigner tax" in order to be more inclusive (and correct) -- because that's how the "tax" is applied. I don't see how this is confusing. Also, I never clarified any tax as being for white people. The only thing I clarified was that the word "farang" is typically used excluisively for white foreigners. I have no comment on the absurdity of your last sentence, btw.

toolz 4y ago
> I have no comment on the absurdity of your last sentence, btw. The only absurdity here is that instead of attempting to interpret my questions hospitably, you immediately went on the defensive and then refused again to address my question with a lovely touch of asking me to ponder deeply why I would mistakenly think you were white. I'm not sure what fantasy land you live in, but the people I talk too aren't just sitting at their keyboards hoping everyone on the other end is white. It's pretty gross that I replied with the most sincere curiosity and ended up with some not-so-veiled racism implications.
- refsab 4y ago
  Being white farang and having lived in Thailand for 6 years now I immediately got what he was saying. Maybe you should consider you might not have the full context of the conversation instead of launching into a rant. The farang only for white people is something that just comes up here sometimes. At one point we tried to get the Thai colleagues to call black expats "farang dam". Didn't catch on haha. Foreigner tax is the correct way to call it because pricing in national parks is tied to citizenship not race
  - Pigalowda 4y ago
    So you lived there for 6 years and didn’t require clarification? Are you impressed by your own comprehension? I am not.
  - distantaidenn 4y ago
    I'm also scratching my head as to what was confusing about what I said. Boggles the mind. I can only assume English isn't their native language.
- Pigalowda 4y ago
  Hi Toolz, I was also confused. The first paragraph requires clarification. Specifically what you mentioned: the farang tax mostly applying to white foreigners followed by an anecdote of an incident of the farang tax in action. It biased me to believe the commenter was indeed, white. The weird reply back when you asked for clarification was obviously immature and absurd. The second Expat chiming in was not helpful either - as if that person’s understanding is some global expert consensus on the comment and you’re a bizarre 5 sigma deviation. Maybe they’re expats for good reason - they can’t communicate effectively on even the simplest of little things (with peer commenters). So what do they screw up?
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - toolz 4y ago
    Yeah, sometimes it's best to just ignore people at the first sign of hostility. If I had done that here I could've avoided being called a racist, which would've been nice. Oh well, it's hard to tell when the person on the other end is going to engage in good faith or not.
    - distantaidenn 4y ago
      Never called you a racist. Not even sure where you are getting that from either. You simply misunderstood what I said -- based on your own preconceived notions. When I tried to explain (several times), instead of taking a step back and trying to understand -- you doubled down on your own misunderstanding and accused me of seeing racist undertones everywhere. Again, I can only assume English isn't your native language, hence the confusion.
  - distantaidenn 4y ago
    You clearly missed my point. I was saying that OP should not call it "farang tax" and that they should call it "foreigner tax". The reason is that "farang" means "white foreigner". However, the tax is applied to all foreigners, not just white people. I can only assume the confusion arose from the person in question either: 1. not being a native English speaker 2. assuming I was white Hope that clears things up. I really don't know how I can make this any clearer aside from the lot of us hoping on a plane to BKK and you experience the place yourselves.

toolz 4y ago

> I have no comment on the absurdity of your last sentence, btw. The only absurdity here is that instead of attempting to interpret my questions hospitably, you immediately went on the defensive and then refused again to address my question with a lovely touch of asking me to ponder deeply why I would mistakenly think you were white. I'm not sure what fantasy land you live in, but the people I talk too aren't just sitting at their keyboards hoping everyone on the other end is white. It's pretty gross that I replied with the most sincere curiosity and ended up with some not-so-veiled racism implications.

refsab 4y ago
Being white farang and having lived in Thailand for 6 years now I immediately got what he was saying. Maybe you should consider you might not have the full context of the conversation instead of launching into a rant. The farang only for white people is something that just comes up here sometimes. At one point we tried to get the Thai colleagues to call black expats "farang dam". Didn't catch on haha. Foreigner tax is the correct way to call it because pricing in national parks is tied to citizenship not race
- Pigalowda 4y ago
  So you lived there for 6 years and didn’t require clarification? Are you impressed by your own comprehension? I am not.
- distantaidenn 4y ago
  I'm also scratching my head as to what was confusing about what I said. Boggles the mind. I can only assume English isn't their native language.
Pigalowda 4y ago
Hi Toolz, I was also confused. The first paragraph requires clarification. Specifically what you mentioned: the farang tax mostly applying to white foreigners followed by an anecdote of an incident of the farang tax in action. It biased me to believe the commenter was indeed, white. The weird reply back when you asked for clarification was obviously immature and absurd. The second Expat chiming in was not helpful either - as if that person’s understanding is some global expert consensus on the comment and you’re a bizarre 5 sigma deviation. Maybe they’re expats for good reason - they can’t communicate effectively on even the simplest of little things (with peer commenters). So what do they screw up?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- toolz 4y ago
  Yeah, sometimes it's best to just ignore people at the first sign of hostility. If I had done that here I could've avoided being called a racist, which would've been nice. Oh well, it's hard to tell when the person on the other end is going to engage in good faith or not.
  - distantaidenn 4y ago
    Never called you a racist. Not even sure where you are getting that from either. You simply misunderstood what I said -- based on your own preconceived notions. When I tried to explain (several times), instead of taking a step back and trying to understand -- you doubled down on your own misunderstanding and accused me of seeing racist undertones everywhere. Again, I can only assume English isn't your native language, hence the confusion.
- distantaidenn 4y ago
  You clearly missed my point. I was saying that OP should not call it "farang tax" and that they should call it "foreigner tax". The reason is that "farang" means "white foreigner". However, the tax is applied to all foreigners, not just white people. I can only assume the confusion arose from the person in question either: 1. not being a native English speaker 2. assuming I was white Hope that clears things up. I really don't know how I can make this any clearer aside from the lot of us hoping on a plane to BKK and you experience the place yourselves.