Thai 101 Learner's Series Rides Again

It's been a while since Women Learning Thai finished re-serializing my Thai 101 Learner's Series, which first ran as a biweekly column in the Phuket Gazette during 2008.

The ever-patient Catherine of WLT managed to coax another installment from me, which went live last week. Have a look.

[Thai 101 Learner's Series: A Trusted Native Speaker is Essential]

Japanese Blogosphere Reacts to Doraemon's Death

Last week I wrote about a full Buddhist funeral held for a Doraemon doll in Ayutthaya, Thailand. Japanese bloggers, amused at the news of the beloved robotic cat's apparent death, are responding the way they know best: with lots of Doraemon ASCII art.

Check out some of the link love. Being able to read Japanese is helpful (but Google Translate also allows you to get the gist): Digimaga.net, Vistanamidame, Karapaia, tokyo.txt-nifty.com, Gakuburu, uiam.at.webry.info, Terrafor.

Nice to be noticed. If only we didn't have to lose poor Doraemon to make this possible.

If you just can't get enough of the Doraemon funeral, see also Channel 3's rather extensive coverage of the bizarre event on YouTube:

Alas, poor Doraemon! I knew him, Nobita.

Bizarre news from Thailand: this week a lady in Ayutthaya province held a funeral for her Doraemon doll.

The story has been widely reported in the Thai language press, and even picked up by the National News Bureau:

ความคืบหน้ากรณีนางพลับพลึง นามเจริญ จัดงานศพให้กับตุ๊กตา โดเรมอน ที่มีชื่อว่า จิเหว่ย นาคทอง ที่วัดมหาโลก จังหวัดพระนครศรีอยุธยานั้น ... นางนิภา รุ่งเรืองบูรณะกุล ครูประจำชั้นอนุบาล 1 เปิดเผยว่า นางพลับพลึง นามเจริญ นำตุ๊กตาโดเรม่อน ที่ชื่อจิเหว่ย มาฝากเรียนที่โรงเรียนวัดสว่างอารมณ์จริง โดยแต่ละวันจะมีรถจักรยานยนต์รับจ้างมารับ – ส่ง เหมือนเด็กนักเรียนทั่วไปและเท่าที่ตุ๊กตาโดเรม่อน จิเหว่ย มาอยู่ที่ชั้นอนุบาลแห่งนี้ ทำให้เด็กนักเรียนมีความสุขและสนุกสนานกับการเล่นตุ๊กตาโดเรม่อนจนบางครั้ง ยังนึกว่าตุ๊กตาโดเรม่อนมีชีวิตเหมือนคนทั่วไป

Translation:

"Mrs. Phlapphlueng Namcharoen held a funeral service for a Doraemon doll, named Jiwoei Nakthong, at Wat Mahalok in Ayutthaya province. ... Mrs. Nipha Rungrueangburanakul, a grade 1 preschool teacher, revealed that Mrs. Phlapphlueng Namcharoen had actually enrolled the doll at Wat Sawang Arom School, and that each day a taxi motorcycle would drop off and pick up the doll like a regular student. She also stated that having Jiwoei in her class had made the students so happy, and they had so much fun playing with the Doraemon doll, that she began to consider the Doraemon doll to be alive like a regular person."

The fact that an "eccentric" lady enrolled her doll in preschool and the school principal and teachers actually played along is bizarre enough, but hardly national news. What has captivated collective attention of the country (for 15 minutes, at least) is the untimely demise of said doll.

That's right, the doll died.

According to various reports including this Matichon article, the doll visited her in a dream to say it had died, and asked that she hold a human-style funeral in its honor.

Now, in America at least we're no strangers to the concept of a graveside funeral for a family pet, but a full-blown funeral with casket and viewing would be odd for even a pet. In Thailand, a human-style funeral involves monks chanting for the welfare of one's eternal soul, followed by cremation. As mentioned above, the doll's funeral was held at Wat Maha Lok (วัดมหาโลก) in Ayutthaya.

Just as in the west, a Thai funeral is a paid affair, so the temple's incentive for accepting this rather odd request seems clear. As a result, the temple and the monks have been the target of criticism from the Thai public for compromising their religious integrity.

In this Pantip.com thread, users discuss whether it was wrong for the monks to agree to participate in a funeral for an inanimate object. Responses range from an adamant "yes" to a firm "no" to "I don't know, because for all I know this story is fabricated."

But most important of all -- more pictures!

[Pictures from here, here and here.]

Podcast: Wise Kwai's top 10 Thai films of 2009

I got together with Passakorn (Hong) and Wise Kwai again this week for another episode of Changkhui in English. Last time we talked about Wise Kwai's top 10 Thai films of the decade. This time we looked at the year 2009 in film. You can read Wise Kwai's original top 10 of 2009 post on his Thai Film Journal.

Other topics we touched on include the new film rating system enacted last year, censorship, the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project, and more. All in all the episode is 90 minutes. We did tend to ramble on a bit, but so be it.

You can get the episode from the Changkhui in English page, or download using the direct mp3 link. (See also Wise Kwai's writeup about this episode.)

Children's Day on Twitter

Children's Day (วันเด็ก) is celebrated on the second Saturday of January each year in Thailand. In observance of Children's Day 2010, lots of Thai twitter users have changed their avatars to childhood photos.

Prominent figures like newspaperman Suthichai Yoon (@suthichai) and hip hop artist Joey Boy (@joeybangkokboy) have even joined in the fun. I smell a new tradition.

Here's a sampling of Bangkok tweeple in bygone days. One of them is me. See if you can guess who. :P

Changkhui in English: Wisekwai's Top 10 Thai Films of the 2000s

The other week when I was a guest on Changkhui, I mentioned afterwards to Passakorn that he should invite Wise Kwai onto the English-language version of his program to talk about his top Thai film picks of the dearly departed decade. If you're interested in Thai film, you probably already know Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal.

Anyhow, we met up this past Sunday evening for 2010's first episode of Changkhui in English.

Thai music sampler: A Cappella 7

The other day for no particular reason, a thought popped into my head: whatever happened to the Thai singing group A Cappella 7 (อะ แค็บเปล่า เซเว่น)?

Now, a cappella music has never really caught on in Thailand. Western-style Thai music, known as "string" music, far too often gives us overproduced pop stars who can't really even carry a tune very well. Sound familiar? Happens back home too, of course. But I'm regularly and genuinely amazed at how terrible the singers are on Thai singing talent shows like Academy Fantasia or The Star. And yet many go on to become big stars. Welcome to commercial pop music.

Perhaps it was simply the novelty of it, but when their debut album came out, I immediately liked A Cappella 7. Despite the name, there are only five singers in the group (shades of Ben Folds Five, which was actually a trio). They've had three studio albums, but nothing since a song on a film soundtrack in 2006, that I can find evidence of.

Though only about half of their songs are actually sung a cappella, their best work is, or has only sparse instrumentation. Humor also plays a big part in their music -- singing about cooking omelets, expensive girlfriends, and even *gasp* farting. But I think overall it works. It's a welcome change from the done-to-death themes of 99% of pop music.

Here are my personal favorites from each album:

อะ-แค็บ-เป-ล่า-เซ-เว่น / A Cappella 7 (2002)

ตุ่ม "Tub"

Intention and action are very different things.

ไข่เจียว "Omelet"

Because sometimes you get hungry.

บิ๊ก แดดดี้ / Big Daddy (2003)

รอยตีนกา "Crow's Feet"

Reminding us that there are things worse than showing signs of aging.

ตด "Fart"

A deliciously sophomoric song about who did or didn't do it.

มากกว่านี้ "More"

Cheesy but catchy -- all about pining for a better world.

เม้าท์ ทู เม้าท์ / mouth2mouth (2005)

เรียนไม่เก่ง "Not Good in School"

Teaching us that love doesn't require book smarts.

Changkhui Thai podcast

Every once in a while someone will ask me, or one of the webboards I frequent, for recommendations for books, movies, or podcasts to help practice their Thai. And so I've been known to recommend ช่างคุย (changkhui.com), the only true podcast I know of in the Thai language. (Hopefully that will change.)

A few months ago, after making just such a recommendation on the ThaiVisa forum, Changkhui webmaster and podcaster-in-chief Passakorn Hongsyok noticed all the referrals coming from the ThaiVisa, and followed the links back to my posting. From there he invited me to be a guest on his show. It took a few months to find a free evening, but last Sunday I finally went to his condo and recorded an episode. It went online today as ช่างคุย #153 (or try the direct mp3 link, 30MB). I was still getting over a cold, and drank ridiculous amounts of water throughout the episode to try to soothe my throat, so please think charitable thoughts when you listen. :)

I really enjoyed talking with Passakorn, and I really enjoy Changkhui in general. Actually, it's a "podcast station" with at least a dozen different podcasts on many topics. See for yourself. Passakorn even does an English language podcast, though he has trouble finding guests. After we recorded a Thai language episode he and I started an English one, but my voice couldn't take anymore and we had to stop. We'll try again soon.

Podcasting is a hobby for Passakorn, and an expensive one no doubt given all the bandwidth he must use. Please consider making a PayPal donation to Changkhui or buying one of the nice polo shirts on offer to offset the site's expenses (links are on the webpage).

There are sundry ways to consume Changkhui:

iTunes - RSS - FeedBurner