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Cafetalk Tutor's Column

Tutor Elza B 's Column

How to accommodate yourself to a new culture?

Weekly Topic: A TV show you watch right now

Jul 5, 2022

In today's world, there are plenty of ways of entertainment. Almost all of us have some kind of subscriptions to online movie streaming sites even if we don't have the time (and money) to spend it in the traditional cinema. 

Honestly, I wasn't keen on watching TV series before moving to Thailand, but I really got used to it here, for two reasons. For one, I have more free time nowadays than before, but the bigger reason is that I feel disconnected from the culture since I don't speak the language, sadly. One way for me to connect with my students here or at least understand and learn new chunks of the language is to watch Thai series! :-) 

There used to be a boy group, called 9x9 who are quite famous and its members are not only singing T-Pop (Thai version of K-Pop), but also the main characters in the most popular TV series, nowadays! 

Let me introduce my favourite TV series today! It's called: The Great Men's Academy. I wholeheartedly recommend this series for you - not only because of the handsome actors that play in it - (great eye candy by the way!!) ;-)) - but also because of its plot. It's a relatively short series (only 8 episodes), but in every episode there is a turn or twist that makes you watch the whole almost on one day!! 

The basic story is about a girl who has a crush on one boy, who studies in this special boarding school / academy. Her crush is so big that when she meets the unicorn, she changes into a boy so that she can attend the school and meet her crush for real! It poses several questions about love and life: are our stories that we are telling ourselves always true? Is it worth changing for someone? Can we believe our presumptions?

One thing that I love in the story is that it does not focus only on the main characters, but on the side character's lives, as well. We can get to know many families, get to know a bit of Thai culture (which was helpful for me, and I even picked up some slang words!), and in general, a great way to immerse myself in the contemporary T-Pop trends! 

If you're interested in learning more about this series or more about how to get adapted into a new culture, check out my latest class about it! I also recommend you my film talk classes, if you would like to discuss about your favourite series! :-)

This column was published by the author in their personal capacity.
The opinions expressed in this column are the author's own and do not reflect the view of Cafetalk.

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