15 August 2015. TV = 1188.4 hours. AUA: reading/writing classes = 60 hours, advanced class = 1203 hours, total class time = 2201 hours; currently at reading/writing level 2.
OST from the 2013 ทองเนื้อเก้า (thong neua kao), which I’m currently rewatching:
The lakorn itself is far from typical, and well worth watching.
12 August 2015. TV = 1182.9 hours. AUA: reading/writing classes = 58 hours, advanced class = 1203 hours, total class time = 2199 hours; currently at reading/writing level 2.
In this scene from episode 2 of มงกุฎดอกส้ม (mong kut dawk som) wife number one, addressing her Thai-born son with an obvious mixture of pride and affection, expresses concern that he’s too Thai — this includes his speaking abilities — and that he’s losing his Chinese roots. Note that she speaks Thai with a heavy Chinese accent, whereas he just sounds like a normal Thai.
I’ve heard stories of Americans who settle into a different part of the U.S. than where they were born and, without intending to, end up acquiring the local accent. continued…
27 July 2015, TV = 1172.6 hours
AUA: total class time = 2189 hours; taking reading/writing level 2
advanced class = 1202 hours; reading/writing classes = 49 hours
17 July 2015, TV = 1172.6 hours
AUA: total class time = 2180 hours; taking reading/writing level 2
advanced class = 1199 hours; reading/writing classes = 43 hours
At Rama IX Park, which I went to this morning and which is less centrally located than the probably better-known Lumpini Park, but which I think I like better because it feels more secluded — like you can actually kind of feel like you’re out of the city, and when you look off into the distance you don’t see a glass wall of skyscraper standing sentinel at the park’s edge — continued…
20 June 2015, TV = 1169.5 hours
AUA: total class time = 2139 hours; taking reading/writing level 1
advanced class = 1178 hours; reading/writing class = 23 hours
สบาย 8 ส่วน, from an exhibit by Chulalongkorn University’s Industrial Design students
5 May 2015, TV = 1163.5 hours
AUA: advanced class = 1153 hours, total class time = 2091 hours
Late last year: In a last-minute add-on to my trip, I decided that instead of going straight back to Bangkok, I’d take a detour to Lamphun, a small city in the north that was the former capital of the ancient, pre-Thai Haripunchai empire (how mysterious!). continued…
3 May 2015, TV = 1163.5 hours
AUA: advanced class = 1150 hours, total class time = 2088 hours
Despite the last couple posts (here and here), I really haven’t been into watching lakorn that much this year. In late January I’d started watching ลายมนุษย์ (lai manut), which I would consider to be a well-made but glacially-paced family/corporate drama about incredibly nice, meek people and the corporate/social-ladder climbing sociopaths who they let stomp all over them continued…
24 April 2015, TV = 1145.7 hours
AUA: advanced class = 1147 hours, total class time = 2085 hours
The thing that strikes me about สามีตีตรา (samee tee tra) — I’m watching last year’s version, though what I had really wanted was to rewatch the 2001 version, but that, unfortunately, has been taken down — is how much “harder” it is than มณีสวาท (manee sawat). continued…
22 April 2015, TV = 1141.3 hours
AUA: advanced class = 1145 hours, total class time = 2083 hours
Yesterday I finished my third go-around with มณีสวาท (manee sawat). The first lakorn I’d ever watched, I rewatched it back in November. Fittingly, it is a tale of cyclicity and recurrence.
30 March 2015, TV = 1114.8 hours
AUA: advanced class = 1118 hours, total class time = 2056 hours
I went to the Bangkok Book Fair early this afternoon thinking I’d just check it out and maybe pick up a couple books; I left several hours later with a dozen new volumes in Thai (all children’s books). Oh well.
Just one small sliver of the 2015 Bangkok Book Fair
learning thai without studying 