Many foreigners in Taiwan are losers. This is not news.
We need a neat and catchy acronym to describe him. (Interestingly, I’ve never met a female loser-type in Taiwan). Never mind about the definition of a loser, we all know one when we see one.
We have FILTH for Failed In London, Tried Hong Kong for Brits working at HK stock exchange.
For foreign losers in Taiwan my own attempts just don’t cut it. FLITTErs. Foreign Losers In Taiwan Teaching English. No R though. It’s not really satisfactory.
Neologists! This is a call to arms! Get your thinking caps on and see what u can come up with.
What a bunch of crap! The biggest losers are those who get off on insulting others. What the hell makes you feel so superior? Grow up Spack. How about TWITS? Those Who Insult The rest of Society.
That’s easy Wolf, you take all active members posting on Segue and divide the total number of posts by the number of days since joining Segue. The “losers” I would say are probably the three highest scorers.
I thought that shit was funny…and your right there are a ton losers out here. But then again there are a ton of losers everywhere…In fact when I think about it, I probably fall in that catagory myself!!!
Firstly, no one is denying that these people exist, are they?
Second, there is a certain type of foreigner in Taiwan that deserves his own special term. This has nothing to do with feeling superior to others.
The only word that exists to describe them is ‘loser’. In the absence of a better term it is simply the most accurate word to use. All I am trying to do is to come up with a better one, preferably a nifty little acronym.
I suppose you’d all much prefer a politically correct term to avoid offending the dignity of these ‘challenged’ persons.
Anyway, the ‘L’ word is not specific enough for the type of foreign loser (oops - that word again) who seems to thrive in Taiwan.
Perhaps posters who are complaining so loudly about my attempts to coin a much-needed new term for foreign [word censored] are concerned that it may end up being applied to themselves.
Guys (or girls) who can’t get laid? people who get fired for not knowing how to use the copier? That foreign dude playing a guitar near the Tam shui MRT for money? or somebody who couldn’t cut it back home and can’t make it here either? or does make it here?
If you want help coining a term then you would first need to define it.
I doubt many would use it as it seems to say more about one’s own mind set and prejudices than the person to whom the epithet is ascribed.
Though I was aware of it while living there, I never heard the term FILTH used to describe anyone in HK other than perhaps by London brokers who considered themselves superior.
Then again, “S/he’s a spack!” could catch on. What could it mean?
I propose “ACTR”, pronounced “actor” for “achievement-challenged Taiwan residents.” That seems politically-correct to me… Also, then everyone can define “achievement” to his or her taste.
I figured it would come down to requiring a definition. That is why I said at the outset that you know a loser when u see one. We could get bogged down for about 12 pages before we even get close to a definition. Besides, that is not the purpose of my orginal post.
Everyone has their own definition and criteria for what constitutes a loser.
My own personal notion (as opposed to definition which can easily be picked apart) of a FLIT is a ne’er do well who is happy just pissing his life away with no purpose, earning only just enough to support a pathetic existence. FLITs only care about themselves, never have any meaningful relationships, and have been fired from numerous companies/schools because they just can’t handle even the slightest level of responsibility.
Of course, these are not scientific criteria that one could apply to a person to decide if he was a loser or not, but I think we all recognize the character I described above.
Soddom, I concede your points, but whether or not I wish to feel superior to FLITs is actually not directly relevant to the task at hand. What I want, and what I feel we need, is a name.
‘FLIT’ just isn’t that great. As for ‘ACTR’…“He’s an ACTR!” …naaah, just doesn’t have a ring to it. If ‘Spack’ catches on, then so be it!
Spack, I apologize. Last night I did some thinking and I think maybe you’re right. In fact not only do we lack a nifty word to sum up all foreign losers in Taiwan, but we also lack a word to sum up the local losers – the Taiwanren. After all, we all know there are plenty of losers here, right? We’ve got chnk, g**k, slnt, slpe and jp, but we don’t have a nifty word like that for the Taiwanese. Any ideas? :?
Gao Li Tsai
Those words u mentioned are general racist terms - not ones that are used specifically to describe losers.
I doubt you want to coin a racist term for Taiwanese. On the other hand it would be interesting to think of an acronym for a specific social group/section of the population here. Again, definition (or general notion) may be required.
How about the betel nut chewing, blue flip flop wearing, bad mannered, trash throwing, nose picking, greasy haired 30 something male Taiwanese that we all so love? What do we call him, apart from ‘lovable’, of course.
But what if you fall into that 1 percent of foreigners that are winners? You know, the ones that can get laid and can get a good job in their home country? I feel so discriminated against.
I’m a sinner but I agree with Gao Li Tsai. We’re on the slippery slope to racist hell here. Got your skis on, Spack? We’re going for a ride.
Hey, not a problem though. I’m with you man. Racism and negative stereotyping are fun.
My guess is this is pretty much how ‘nigger’ got started. A couple of fun guys like you and me were having a smoke on the deck of a slave ship one day playing word games with each other:
“Hey, Quack, what’s an acronym for Nubian, ignorant, girl-grabbing, ebony, rube?”
“Don’t know, Pighead. That’s a tough one. What say we canvas the crew to help us come up with something?”
I’m going to get right on that Taiwanese betel-nut-chewing nose-picking thing.
Also, then everyone can define “achievement” to his or her taste.