John at SinoSplice has a pretty good post on the phrase 'Round-eye', noting that this doesn't seem to derive from any Asian language. Linky thang. I sure can't fit it any which way into Mandarin... [yuan yan] doesn't make any sense at all. How do you type what we get called in Taiwanese... "Ah Doh Wa"? That means 'big nose' (tall nose?), which works out quite well for me. Hell, people in America call me 'Big Nose' too.
But, according to this Wikipedia page, Korean Starcraft gamers will refer to Americans as "Round Eye Burger Muncher". I doubt that. Nobody would type so many letters just for a racial slur on a gaming network. Might type 'REBM', maybe. Still ok with me, since I do in fact, munch burgers. Besides, I have never, ever lost to a Korean in Starcraft. Never lost to AJ either, for that matter.
Speaking of which (slang, not burgers or Starcraft) why is it that here in Taiwan white(er) foreigners are 'Lao Wai', and brown(er) foreigners are 'Wai Lao'?
Lastly, for those of you who are tempted to become a regular reader of Sinosplice, I need to tell you that the blogger John is from Brandon, Florida. And like all people from Brandon, he has an extra flashlight at the back of the sock drawer, if you get my drift.
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Wai Lao means Foreign Laborer, while Lao Wai means Ol' Foreigner. I think that's right, at least.
Sure, but foreign laborers are also foreigners, and Ole' foreigners sometimes do labor. Not you or I, obviously, but I'm sure there are some bai ren somewhere in this country getting some work done.
Is there a connection - subliminal maybe - between burger muncher and lesbian ninjas?
about the round-eye thing - Taiwanese to a person, used to say 1 or more of the following upon seeing Ivo,
hao ke ai!
yan jing hao da!
yan jing yuan yuan de!
Does an extra flashlight in the sock drawer mean.. he is paranoid?
0w-gwa gung le-ong= foreigner
but I can't get the tones right, 9 tone taiwanese
Wa gong leong
Wife is sure, I will never say it right
So, a Taiwanese person I knew was called
Wai Lao by another Taiwanese person, does that make any sense?
i am from Brandon, FL and i don't get your drift.
Sorry. Brandon is such a nondescript place that there is nothing to really say about someone who is from there.
So I made something up that sounded just odd enough and vaguely obscene.
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