Flip Flops

I was talking to my Filipina friend in Manila last night. (Thank goodness for Skype!). She mentioned that it was hot, so she was wearing thongs as usual. I said that I thought that was an Australian-English word and that we in the US said flip flops. Then I remembered that my brother, who used to live on the Micronesian island of Pohnpei, said that there they didn't call them flip flops because that was a derogatory name for a Filipino. On Pohnpei they are called zorries. But I had not offended my friend by using the term flip flop, because she said that she had never heard it used in that way before. She has traveled quite a lot in Asia and Europe, too.

So is this really a bad term for Filipinos?

flip flops, no.
Possibly flips could have morphed to a negative meaning, notably in the US.
In the Philippines, it should still be a neutral to 'cool' way of describing Filipinos. I've not been there in years, so I could be way off now.

I've heard it used in Hong Kong on occasion as a derogatory term for the many Filipinas working there.

As with #3, in Hong Kong it is considered as a derogatory term for the many Filipinas working there.

#4 -- What are khaki walkers?

I put that in there on purpose, Vinny, because I had never heard it either until I was told that in places like Trenton, NJ, about 30-40 years ago, many locals referred to Puerto Ricans as 'khaki walkers' as they all wore khaki pants and never took the bus, because it was too expensive for them -- so they walked everywhere.

Incidentally "zorries" must come from "zori", the Japanese name for traditional straw "flip-flops". I wonder if it is from the Japanese occupation of that area.

Also incidentally, when I was sending a private message earlier today I missed a typo in my message- I had typed "city" as "c0ty" (Have used zero because I can't type it here either, should be "o". Thorn Tree wouldn't let me send it because "c0ty" is also apparently a forbidden word on Thorn Tree. A quick Google turns up nothing but a surname or a French cosmetics house- does anybody know of a possible offensive meaning for this word?

Heard flip-flops used to refer to Philippinos. We call them jandals where I come from (the footwear that is, not the people).

In Sanity We Trust

#9 - I would guess that at some point in Thorntree's past it was used as an abbreviation for "c*** of the year". TT's forbidden words sometimes have more to do with something that caused trouble on the forums at a specific time than with any general ranking of the offensiveness of various words.

#8, yes, zori is either from the Japanese occupation (before the Americans got most or all of Micronesia after WW20 or from the Japanese that live there now. My brother's landlord was Japanese, so maybe that's where he got it. I understood that everyone called them that there, but it could be that it was just the Japanese.

Thanks for the answers to my post. You have educated me!

I went to high school in Oxnard, CA which at that time was the American city with the highest percentage of Japanese Americans. Our family doctor was a Japanese American, as was the mayor of the city. I think Oxnard was also the site of the concentration camp for Japanese Americans during WW2. Anyway, for whatever reason, everybody in Oxnard called flip flops zorries.

Sorry to thread-jack. This is in response to #13 comment about "the concentration camp for Japanese Americans" based in Oxnard. Oxnard was never a site for Japanese concentration camps. Oxnard sits right on the coast and the last thing the US govt wanted at that time was any Japanese living on the coast. In fact there were 11 camps throughout the US in the following states inland California, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Arkansas. Now back to thongs/flip-flops/zories....

I disagree that thongs is strictly Australian English. I grew up on the beach in Santa Cruz, California, and that's the term we used. I never heard the term flip flops until I moved to Southern California.

Another Californian who grew up calling them "thongs." It really was only when thong underwear became popular that a version of Gresham's law took over & the shoes became "flip flops." I also heard "zoris" occasionally.

#9, you can indeed get tripped up by unexpected forbidden words. I had a problem quoting Chaucer a while back.

"Thongs" was common in NY in the 70s, if I recall correctly. I also seem to recall their being called "shower clogs". Wikipedia says that the US Army calls them "shower shoes" but doesn't mention clogs.

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>you can indeed get tripped up by unexpected forbidden words.<hr></blockquote>

tripped up...heh...heh

I don't think Chaucer ever wore jandals though.

Another ex-Cali here who thinks they're thongs... (and much more comfortable than any current manifestation of such). As to the derogatory nature, I couldn't speak to that.

60s childhood in west Texas, we called them flip flops.

Thongs in Australia. Jandals in NZ.