Slang words and the foreigner

I was scrolling through new entries in an expat forum that I follow recently and came across a thread called Gaijin, Farang, Gweilo along with a poll asking how expats felt about being called by one of these words. The poll which had 30 respondents showed that 63% didn’t mind being called by one of these words. However, on other forums, I’ve come across some rather nasty comments about our (we expats) local hosts who call us farangs or in Indonesia bule.

I first heard the word bule when I was living in Papua in Indonesia. Little Papuan kids would scream it as I drove through Timika (a town in the south of Papua). I always found it rather amusing, but I never heard an adult call me a bule until I moved to Sumbawa. Kids and adults both will occasionally refer to me as a bule. I generally take it in stride although as I’ve mentioned to some of my friends including ones who use the term that if I was to refer to them by their skin color they would probably be offended. The response is often what term would you use?

Hmm, I’m not really sure about that. I’ve heard Indonesians from Java and Bali (who can be just as racist as any other group of people) refer to Papuans as Orang Hitam (Black people) or Orang Primitif (primitive people) or Orang Desa (basically a hick, a rube, a farmer – to use some equivalent American terms).

In Bali, foreigners are usually referred to as tourists. These days if some Balinese refers to me as a tourist, I reply, “I’m not a tourist, I’m a bule.” That generally gets a laugh.

I don’t mind what people call me when it comes down to it. What I do mind is how they treat me, and I have to say that with the exception of some government officials, I’ve always been welcomed by people that I’ve met in Indonesia whether they’re rich or poor, young or old. And that is one of the reasons that I’m still here after 18 years.