What. I find is it helps you understand many things about certain Thai attitudes when it's being drip fed into them as to what is acceptable behaviour.

 

Helped me enormously in my learning of Thai language./ettiquette.

Keeps the wife quiet (555)

Allows me to do my own thing undisturbed. ????

 

 

14 hours ago, CharlieH said:

What. I find is it helps you understand many things about certain Thai attitudes when it's being drip fed into them as to what is acceptable behaviour.

 

Helped me enormously in my learning of Thai language./ettiquette.

Keeps the wife quiet (555)

Allows me to do my own thing undisturbed. ????

 

 

I learned this lesson many years ago as a kid

 

I'm Hispanic, so speak Spanish, but one of my summer jobs was working in hotels in California as a housekeeper (cleaner).

 

I'd always try to speak to the ladies in Spanish, but they'd tell me to shut up and speak English as they were watching the daytime soaps in the guest rooms as they cleaned to help them learn English.

 

I used the same technique over the years to learn Mandarin & Thai.

 

Sad but true

On 8/9/2019 at 2:29 AM, GinBoy2 said:

The only difference is that Thai Lakorns are all in primetime. The majority of Western Soaps  air in Daytime TV.

 

Although, Telemundo in US, airs it's fair share of Mexican Telenovela's in Primetime, and they are not a lot different to lakorns

 

Although strangely the breasts and cleavage are a lot, lot bigger! 

Maybe in the US. In UK, Coronation Street and Eastenders are very long running evening soaps, almost every night. Also isn't Emmerdale early evening? I don't know about other European countries but I'd bet they're the same? 

Also they come and go, there was glut in the US during the 90s and early 2000s. Desperate Housewives, 90210, Knotts Landing, many more; even stuff like The Sopranos and Nip/Tuck were soaps. Grey's Anatomy is still going! 

Maybe in the US. In UK, Coronation Street and Eastenders are very long running evening soaps, almost every night. Also isn't Emmerdale early evening? I don't know about other European countries but I'd bet they're the same? 

Also they come and go, there was glut in the US during the 90s and early 2000s. Desperate Housewives, 90210, Knotts Landing, many more; even stuff like The Sopranos and Nip/Tuck were soaps. Grey's Anatomy is still going! 

Yep, in the uk the soaps go on forever ( except for the laughable Crossroads ), even the Aussie soaps Neighbours and Home and Away go on forever.

They are now repeated on daytime tv as the omnibus editions ( on a weekend I think ) so the soaps junkies can catch up.

 

Dallas and Dynasty were popular in the uk but I never liked them, couldn’t take anyone who wears a cowboy hat in these times seriously [emoji52]

 

In Brazil soaps ( or Novelas ) are life, they change people’s fashion and home decor !!

Usually last around 6 months and, admittedly, some are very good !! , particularly the historical ones .

They are also repeated on daytime tv in a program called Vale a pena ver de novo . ( well worth watching again ) !!

3 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Yep, in the uk the soaps go on forever ( except for the laughable Crossroads ), even the Aussie soaps Neighbours and Home and Away go on forever.

They are now repeated on daytime tv as the omnibus editions ( on a weekend I think ) so the soaps junkies can catch up.

 

Dallas and Dynasty were popular in the uk but I never liked them, couldn’t take anyone who wears a cowboy hat in these times seriously

 

In Brazil soaps ( or Novelas ) are life, they change people’s fashion and home decor !!

Usually last around 6 months and, admittedly, some are very good !! , particularly the historical ones .

They are also repeated on daytime tv in a program called Vale a pena ver de novo . ( well worth watching again ) !!

Crossroads was so bad it was good, man! I loved when it was shown live, just amazingly bad. I'd rush home to catch it. Brookside also was a long runner. There are new evening soaps in the UK, like Riviera, The Royals etc. , but they come in series nowadays, not all year round. People don't fashion their lives around them though, that must be a crazy, powerful marketing tool! Asians love they soaps best though, surely? Chinese, Korean, Viet, Thai. You'll see them on the TV in every small bar when there are no customers, or on people's phones everywhere. ????

 

PS - you see a lot of cowboy hats in Thailand, they love country music too. 

On 8/10/2019 at 2:52 PM, Speedhump said:

Crossroads was so bad it was good, man! I loved when it was shown live, just amazingly bad. I'd rush home to catch it. Brookside also was a long runner. There are new evening soaps in the UK, like Riviera, The Royals etc. , but they come in series nowadays, not all year round. People don't fashion their lives around them though, that must be a crazy, powerful marketing tool! Asians love they soaps best though, surely? Chinese, Korean, Viet, Thai. You'll see them on the TV in every small bar when there are no customers, or on people's phones everywhere. ????

 

PS - you see a lot of cowboy hats in Thailand, they love country music too. 

Yes, the Korean serials seem to be very popular here - the production quality looks to be excellent, buy the dubbed Thai soundtrack is surreal.  Why the forced low-toned voice for the bad guy - nobody talks like that! 

 

On 8/8/2019 at 9:10 PM, GinBoy2 said:

Gay Man

Possibly a Ladyboy as well

Screaming

Mia Noi

Evil Woman (often older MIL)

Good Girl

Face  Slapping

Dramatic Music

Gunfight, nobody ever seems to get hit

Perfect Hair

Hospital Vist

Perfect hair again....in Hospital bed

Bandage around the head...without it appears damaging perfect hair

Guys fighting, keeping perfect hair, and never seeming to get a bruise, accompanied by lots of grunting

In case of injury, slight stream of blood from corner of mouth

More screaming

Face Slapping

Women's clothes, which I've never seen on anyone shopping in Big C

TV House with lots of gaudy gold furniture

Groveling maids 

 

...Oh I forgot add a Porsche or Ferrari, both very popular in Isaan LOL

 

I think that about sums it up

Very good.. Just one thing.. The "funny man".. The clown that is a little mental or is the black wolf of the family....

3 hours ago, paahlman said:

Very good.. Just one thing.. The "funny man".. The clown that is a little mental or is the black wolf of the family....

Good point I forgot about the 'clown'

 

Although he/she also can morph into the clown gay character LOL.

 

Oh the complexities of Thai Lakorns are sometimes hard to follow <ahem>

On 8/10/2019 at 6:12 AM, Speedhump said:

I don't know about other European countries but I'd bet they're the same?

No, not where I'm from. Then again we clearly have different definitions of soap operas, as you mentioned Sopranos etc. Where I'm from, the stupid stuff with idiotic "plot" involved drama and love stopped from happening until the very end (incl. shitty, cheesy acting) is usually in the mid-late afternoon, i.e. one every female relative of mine (esp. the older ones) watches runs from 3pm to 4pm.

 

Greys anatomy (not sure if that qualifies, at least the acting is better) and stuff usually runs around 5 or 6 pm afaik.

 

Stuff like Sopranos (I wouldn't call it a soap opera, except for Carmela related stuff, more like a crime drama with some comedy elements) would run in prime time, usually starting at 2015 or thereabouts, sometimes later.

On 8/13/2019 at 3:55 PM, FarangULong said:

No, not where I'm from. Then again we clearly have different definitions of soap operas, as you mentioned Sopranos etc. Where I'm from, the stupid stuff with idiotic "plot" involved drama and love stopped from happening until the very end (incl. shitty, cheesy acting) is usually in the mid-late afternoon, i.e. one every female relative of mine (esp. the older ones) watches runs from 3pm to 4pm.

 

Greys anatomy (not sure if that qualifies, at least the acting is better) and stuff usually runs around 5 or 6 pm afaik.

 

Stuff like Sopranos (I wouldn't call it a soap opera, except for Carmela related stuff, more like a crime drama with some comedy elements) would run in prime time, usually starting at 2015 or thereabouts, sometimes later.

Hmmm .... I think The Soprano's is a different beast entirely to Lakorn.

 

A bit like comparing a Sicilian Gourmet Restaurant with oak-smoked ham and organic sun-dried mushrooms to a pot of Mama Noodles.

 

Both count as food (sort of) but they each serve a different purpose.

Great Post! You nailed it right there!!!

 

I actually taught one of the actresses in one of these epic productions many moons ago and got to meet the director, and after a few whisky cokes, I summoned up the nerve to ask him why the plot is so childish and one tracked?

 

He smiled and said, "If I made it with any depth, no one would watch it"

They should make one about the beautiful immigration officer who falls for a dodgy farang ......

I can see it now, she plots to do his 90 day under the table, and they are caught in a short time motel, thanks to the TM30!!

Actually, I have figured out a great way to watch the lakorn,

 

 

I don't watch the screen, I watch my wife's facial expressions as it unfolds and it is really funny!