What is it to be consider as a thai.

I want to know what is it to be consider as a Thai. Does it have to have Thai blood,speak Thai, born in Thailand or others or none of them.

Thank you

[magnoy]

Being Thai is as far as I know mainly a question of where you live and who your parents are. If you have a Thai mother or father you get automatically a Thai nationality. Though I am not sure if the same rule applies when living not in Thailand.

It is nearly impossible for foreigners i.e. Faragns to get a Thai passport at least there are no cases known to me.
If your name is Tiger Woods (half Thai) Thailand will ask you if you want to have a Thai passport after becoming famous.

greetings

[SiamJai]

If you were born in Thailand, it is safe to say that you are considered Thai. And I don't think there is any other way, but...
actually, I read a case where a girl who was born in China was sold as a slave at a very young age. She ended up in Siam, and she successfully pretended to be Thai. She absorbed the culture, and pretty much everybody thought that she was Thai. But that seems to be the exception rather than the rule.
Especially if you are a Farang, then no matter how long you live there, no matter how well you speak the language, you are a Farang, period.
I could be wrong, of course, because all this I just read from books and journals. Only Thai people can give you a definite answer.

[Pear]

I agree with magnoy nothing else to say.

[Makiy0]

I'm Chinese. If I live in Thailand long enough, can I actually become Chinese-Thai?

[Wanna]

Haha, Makiyo, i guess whats really important is in the heart, the love for the country.

[Vali]

I COULD have applied for dual-citezenship for US and Thailand. But I would have to choose before I am 18. That is what I get for having 1 Thai parent. Or if I had 2 Thai parents, but was born in the US, it would be the same situation... You have to choose when you are 18. You can't have both.

[Makiy0]

How I wish I was given the luxury to choose. It would be so cool to say "Hi, I'm Thai-Chinese."

[soccerchik]

when you say farangs will always be considered farangs, well what about other nationalities that are born in thailand, and then later on moved to the U.S? would you consider then farangs, or would you consider their nationalities, even if they were born in thailand?

[Vali]

My friend is German and he was born in Thailand and has lived there his whole life. He doesn't consider himself Thai and nor does anyone else.

However many of my friends are also Chinese-Thai or Indian-Thai... and they all consider themselves Thai first.

I think the 3rd generation is when people really start considering themselves Thai even though they are originally from somewhere else. I think this is because then the parents (2nd Gen) are fluent in Thai also and have lived their whole lives there... so the children (3rd generation) are immersed in all of this.

It's the same in the US... I have roots in German, Scotland, and Norway, but I don't consider myself to be Norwegian because it has been 3 generations or more and I am more "American".