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Kru Ma, Thai PBS
21 Aug 2024 08:31 amThai PBS has a lovely 12 episode drama, Kru Ma, about an idealistic teacher with unconventional teaching methods and his class (Prathom 3 = US grade 3, UK year 4, mostly 8 yo). It's slice of life revolving around the kids, their problems and their play, his creative lessons and the teacher next door whose interest in complaining about him probably stems from more than the noise his class makes. Set in a village near the border with Cambodia during the 70s with aspects of the war across the border as backdrop and plot points. Also student protests in Bangkok. I don't know how much/if any of this is based on his own life, but the screenwriter & director was born in 1967 and would have been their age in 1975.
The title is romanised as Kru Ma on Thai PBS and Khru Ma on MDL
Subtitles on this seem to be auto-generated without editing. Reasonable results but there are some mistakes where English demands something which can be implied/omitted in Thai and the auto-generator guessed wrong. Here are some tips on working out what was meant:
Thais have many ways of saying "I"/"me" & "you", including omitting them altogether. When subtitles show a teacher seeming to talk about himself in the third person or plural, he's just using his title as his "I" with his students.
Teacher Lalana uses "Na" as her "I" with Wichai in later episodes. Teacher Sumalee also uses the last syllable of her name in this way on occasion.
Frequent mix-ups between "he" and "she". I never had any problem working out who was meant but it could cause confusion if you're not aware that these can be wrong in the subs.
These and any other pronoun mistakes, just go with context. When in doubt, go with context. This is easier than it sounds, it's not court intrigue CDrama :)
Between idioms which don't translate well, word play, alphabet games (Thai letters have double barrel names where the second is a word - "gor gai", "gai" means "chicken") and accurate portrayals of young thought processes veering off on a non-sequitur, some of the kids' slice of life conversations are confusing. Those which are needed for the plot are clear enough.
The translation "gold necklace" is used in place of a girl's name. (If anyone catches her name in the 1st or 2nd episode, please let me know.)
A boy's name (Pichit) is sometimes given as the translation "Conquer" or "Conquest" and is sometimes interpreted as a verb. Whenever you see "conquer" or "conquest" just adjust so Pichit is being spoken about.
Prasert's name is given as the translation "noble" a couple of times.
Instead of "faen" (boyfriend/girlfriend), the translation went with "fan of"... which does sort of work :)
Feel free to ask if you have questions or need some help navigating Thai PBS and their vipa streaming service. Direct link above (twice) and I've put it in the comments on the MDL page too.
The title is romanised as Kru Ma on Thai PBS and Khru Ma on MDL
Subtitles on this seem to be auto-generated without editing. Reasonable results but there are some mistakes where English demands something which can be implied/omitted in Thai and the auto-generator guessed wrong. Here are some tips on working out what was meant:
Thais have many ways of saying "I"/"me" & "you", including omitting them altogether. When subtitles show a teacher seeming to talk about himself in the third person or plural, he's just using his title as his "I" with his students.
Teacher Lalana uses "Na" as her "I" with Wichai in later episodes. Teacher Sumalee also uses the last syllable of her name in this way on occasion.
Frequent mix-ups between "he" and "she". I never had any problem working out who was meant but it could cause confusion if you're not aware that these can be wrong in the subs.
These and any other pronoun mistakes, just go with context. When in doubt, go with context. This is easier than it sounds, it's not court intrigue CDrama :)
Between idioms which don't translate well, word play, alphabet games (Thai letters have double barrel names where the second is a word - "gor gai", "gai" means "chicken") and accurate portrayals of young thought processes veering off on a non-sequitur, some of the kids' slice of life conversations are confusing. Those which are needed for the plot are clear enough.
The translation "gold necklace" is used in place of a girl's name. (If anyone catches her name in the 1st or 2nd episode, please let me know.)
A boy's name (Pichit) is sometimes given as the translation "Conquer" or "Conquest" and is sometimes interpreted as a verb. Whenever you see "conquer" or "conquest" just adjust so Pichit is being spoken about.
Prasert's name is given as the translation "noble" a couple of times.
Instead of "faen" (boyfriend/girlfriend), the translation went with "fan of"... which does sort of work :)
Feel free to ask if you have questions or need some help navigating Thai PBS and their vipa streaming service. Direct link above (twice) and I've put it in the comments on the MDL page too.
