This article was originally posted on WomenLearnThai.com.
Luke’s Farang Pok Pok: Episode One…
The first episode of the Thai TV show that I co-host, ฝรั่ง ป๊อก ป๊อก (Farang Pok Pok), aired in January 2011. In this episode I traveled to Samut Sonkram to live with clam farmers.
Filming the first show was much harder than I expected. Speaking Thai with friends is easy enough, but having to perform in front of a camera is another story!
In each episode I will extract the key vocabulary.
ฝรั่ง ป๊อก ป๊อก | Farang Pok Pok: Episode 1: Part 1…
Part of the theme of this TV show is backpacker-style travel. Which means that we generally have to travel in the most non-luxurious way. So in the past few months, hopes of a TV life being glamorous were shattered.
This first episode shows me traveling to Samut Songkhram. First, via BTS, then by train, then walking, train again, and then via tuktuk. It took almost an entire day to travel the same distance that we could drive in an hour.
The funny thing is that once we had wrapped up the shooting, we all took a รถตู้ /rót-dtôo/ (one of those 15 passenger van things) back into the city. Travel time? Under one hour.
Key Thai phrases:
โอ้วว เจอแล้ว คิดว่าหาย
ôhhh jer láew kít wâa hăai
Ohh … here it is … I thought I had lost it.
ดู ซี สิบบาท ถูกมาก
doo see sìp-bàat tòok-mâak
Check this out … 10 Baht … cheap!
คนมาเส้นนีเยอะมั้ยครับ
kon maa sên nee yúh mái kráp
Is this a popular route?
Farang Pok Pok: Episode 1: Part 2…
Listening to myself in Farang Pok Pok has been incredibly helpful in terms of hammering out problems with my accent. Many words that I thought I pronounced properly show obvious errors when I listen to them in the videos. I highly recommend that students learning languages record both native speakers and their own voice, and then spend some serious time listening to how they speak. It will make a world of difference.
Key Thai phrases:
ถึงแล้วครับ
tĕung láew kráp
We made it!
อันนี้แม่น้ำแอะไรครับพี่
an née mâe náam àe rai kráp pêe
So, what river is this?
แล้วพี่เป็นชาวประมง
láew pêe bpen chaao bprà-mong
You’re a fisherman?
มัลดีฟส์เมืองไทย
man-dèef meuang tai
It’s the Maldives of Thailand!
เคยโดนกัดมั้ย
koie dohn gàt mái
Have you ever been bitten?
มีจำนวนกี่ตัว
mee jam-nuan gèe dtua
How big is the troop?
โอ้่ว มีเป็นพันตัว
ohhh mee-bpen-pan-dtua
Ohh, there are over a thousand.
ทำกะปิตาดำของคุณ
tam gà-bpì dtaa dam kŏng kun
It’s used to make our authentic shrimp paste.
Farang Pok Pok: Episode 1: Part 3…
As we don’t have the budget to send out an advance team to research the locations, there is always a chance that things will not go as we’d planned. The team does do a fair amount of research via the Internet and phone, but sometimes we get to a location and realize that we don’t have enough activities to fill an episode and have to improvise.
In this case, we totally lucked out with Gaan (กาน) who was a total ham, spicing up the show considerably. She even helped me with my pronunciation.
Key Thai phrases:
หนึ่ง … สอง … สาม
nèung … sŏng … săam
One … two … three.
ใครเป็นเพื่อนสนิด
krai bpen pêuan sà-nìt
Which one is your best friend?
ดูว่ามีอะไรให้กิน
doo wâa mee à-rai hâi gin
Let’s see what they have cooking.
วันนี้จะทำอะไรครับพี่
wan née jà tam à-rai kráp pêe
OK, so what are we making?
ผัดผัก
pàt pàk
Stir fried vegetables.
Until the next Pok Pok episode…
Thank you for watching the first episode in my Farang Pok Pok series! Stay tuned…
Luke Cassady-Dorion,
Goldenland Polygot
luke.org
Hello Luke, wow !! great job , i am so pround of you its been such a long time and finally i saw you here, i really enjoy the living of countryside cus i am also come from coutryside…its name Nakhonayok, i really enjoy watching your show !!! cheers, pui
Hmmm, yeah with the iPhone you might do better if you took off your glasses and put the phone about three feet away from your eyes … 🙂
Surprisingly obvious solution 🙂
Will need awfully small post-its for the iPhone though :p
I’m looking forward to ep 3 now. It’s great that the broadcaster allows you to distribute the episodes online.
Emil …. it is broadcast on Travel Channel Thailand (True 73). You can check out the schedule here
http://www.facebook.com/FarangPokPok
but since it is done for a Thai audience, the subtitles aren’t part of the professional putting together. I hard-code them in myself before posting on YouTube. If you want to turn them off, you might have to go the low-tech route of putting a post-it over them on the screen ….
Glad that you like the show, we’ve been having lots of fun making it.
หวัดดีพี่ Luke,
I just watched the first part of ep 1 and really enjoyed it. It seems to have a really nice, positive and humourous vibe to it – congratulations.
It also seems very professionally put together – might I ask if it was made for broadcast?
I ask because I’m wondering as to whether the subtitles need to be hard-encoded. As a (admittedly rather pathetic) learner, it would be nice to have the ability to switch them on and off.
Anyway, thanks again. I should go off and watch part two now ^_^
มา กัน เพียบ which means “come together lots” เพียบ means the same as มาก but it used for groups of people, animals, etc … So these sentences all mean the same thing literally, but have a different feel to them
คนเยอะ
คนมากมาย
คนมากันเพียบเลย
Hi guys, can any kind-hearted soul please translate ‘Tons of them’ in rhe 2nd video when the group saw the monkey. It sounds like ‘maa gaan pier’
Many times while surfing the internet I stumble upon websites and stick around for a while to read many things on them. Same happened with this website and I really enjoyed watching those videos. Things happening in these videos made me laugh and smile.. I miss Thailand so much!!
Very nice I really enjoyed the videos.
Luke,
Great job. Wouldn’t it be great if we all had a little friend like Gaan to help us with our pronunciation? If you are shooting up north drop a line and maybe we can hook up.
Excellent stuff – more of this please. The videos are well made and enjoyable to watch.
It was really interesting to see Luke travelling the more remote parts of Thailand to show us what’s life is like as a farmer or a fisherman. It’s totally 180 degrees different, when to the more cosmopolitan lifestyle of Bangkok or say Chiangmai, it’s extremely down-to-earth. To be able to travel to places Luke went to, you definetly need to have a degree of spoken thai at least to touch their heart. I like the part where that lovely girl corrected Luke’s pronounciation.