Maybe saying “adoga” is not derogatory is incorrect if the person who is on the receiving end of it feels offended, even though the person saying it means no disrespect. What I meant to say is that it’s considered a neutral term by Taiwanese. You might call it ignorance, but you are imposing your Western sensibility onto the Taiwanese people, as commenting on one’s physical features is still common (I don’t like it either).
It would mean geezer, but I have never heard anyone using that term in real life, only on TV and in moves where a wife would call her husband that, but more often 死鬼 or 死老猴…
Never heard anyone using that term in real life, and I doubt it means boss. The only place I have seen it is in wuxia novels, e.g. 冥河老怪.
Like not talking about some while you are right next to them? If that’s a western sensibility I like it. No it’s about growing up in a homogeneous society where there’s an in group and an out group.
But it’s often used by people who do mean disrespect. In that case it’s derogatory, however the person on the receiving end feels about it. Also, it’s just derogatory for reasons stated. One should find a term that isn’t obviously derogatory (there are many alternatives) if they don’t want to give that impression. Whether they think it is neutral really doesn’t matter.
And lao guai is more like gweilo and this has been explained to me by many Chinese and Hong Kong people so you might disagree but I have gotten that from other sources. I commented on this but am not gonna continue in. What is is and I either accept it or not.
On reflection, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that the person providing the boss translation was a kindred spirit to the person who once figured out how to get Google Translate to translate 便 as poop. (I just checked, and it no longer provides that translation).
I don’t even know current-day Chinese; I can’t even imagine trying to navigate through 17th-century Chinese. The reason I’m responding, though, is that that story must be fascinating. In my own language, sometimes one can stumble upon accounts that aren’t well known and that have eccentric, interesting details.
That’s what that “Foreigners to the East” story looks like, but at the rate I’m going, I think I’d have to live and study another hundred years to be able to read it.
Gweilo (鬼佬) is Cantonese. It would be unusual if someone calls you that in Taiwan. As to “lao guai”, I really have no idea what you are referring to. Also, just saw that “se-iunn-HUAN” means “西洋番”. Jeez, are we in Qing dynasty?! I can assure you nobody in real life uses that term.
And yes gwailo is Cantonese which i knew that it was if you read what I was saying I said that laoguai is a similar derisive term. Not that someone said that to me.
The problem is it’s often said behind our backs or to our faces but excluding us since the dickhead saying it thinks we don’t understand it. Basically if we say it’s offensive then it is. And obviously ignorance of the meaning is no défense.
There’s of course a further argument to be made that anytime we’re referred to in public as “the foreigner” (think Starbucks) it’s also impolite. Like the old “這位外國朋友”. But that’s an argument for another day.