Talk:Laowai

message: I transwiki'd this article to Wiktionary and replaced the current version with a soft-redirect.  SchmuckyTheCat reverted that edit with the comment rv this is not a dict def  
I've read and now re-read the article.  The contents of this article are a detailed discussion of the meanings, origins and usage of a word.  It includes synonyms and related words.  Those are components of a dictionary definition.  It is not the content that I would expect to see in a truly great, unabridged encyclopedia.  It is, however, the content that I would expect to see in a truly great, unabridged dictionary.  I believe that the content belongs in Wiktionary, not in Wikipedia because Wikipedia is not a dictionary has been established policy since long before I joined the project.
I see no possibility that this article can be expanded past a dictionary definition and into an encyclopedia article.  I would be happy to be proven wrong, though.  If you can show me what in this article is more than a discussion of the meanings, origins and/or usage of the word or if you can expand the article past that state, I will withdraw my objections.  Rossami (talk) 01:13, 16 September 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree that there's room for improvement on the article, but the word has a social context that calls for more than a dictionary definition. It is somewhat comparable to gaijin, only less known at the moment. Lawrence Lavigne 00:54, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Move to Wiktionary 

message: I have worked from people who I believe were from Fujien part of China in a number of cities, and they always use the term 'Hwong ya', but I cannot find any discussion of this term on any of the linked articles.  The only explanation I was ever given is that it was the word in their dialect for 'Waiguoren'.  Is it very rude?   (I asked this same question at Talk: Ang Mo about a month ago and never got a reply) 71.253.146.218 16:29, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think it all depends on how it is used. I live in Shanghai and when they say "naguonin" in the Shanghaiese dialect it is freuquently quite rude manner, but it is not a pejorative. I have a feeling "Hwong ya" is not a pejorative, but can be used rudely, just like the word foreigner in any language can. In Taiwan they actually use the local term "big nose" to refer to foreigners!!! --David Straub 06:24, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Hwong ya?

message: Is it absolutely necessary to have two links to the related Wikitionary definition at the top of this article?--Daveswagon 04:57, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Of course not, but it's Wiktionary. — LlywelynII 05:46, 15 June 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wikitionary links 

message: Remember to use them. I've found homes for most of the chaff that had settled to the bottom of the page, but I couldn't get this one to load from China:
* How to say and write 'Foreigner' in Chinese
If you can get it to work or find it at archive.org, kindly find some useful information and format it as a standard reference. — LlywelynII 17:17, 15 June 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: In-line citations

message: Couldn't you just use a dictionary as a source? Moreover, discussing different connotations of the word "old" is useless. It has positive and negative connotations just like in English. --87.123.198.90 (talk) 12:00, 3 April 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  translated by google translation 

message: It is ok to call me a laowai or waiguoren when I am in China, because there I am a foreigner, but... it is offensive to call me laowai or waiguoren when I am in Australia - because I am NOT a foreigner here. 
 It means foreigner, use it when appropriate instead of insulting people due to ignorance. --ZhuLien:ZhuLien 09:19, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  it *IS* offensive in many situations, but not in itself