Watching the Oscars in Thailand: It’s Strange and Weird

Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in ' The Iron Lady'

 

Watching the Oscars from Thailand is a a very weird thing indeed. In fact, up until the last couple of years when I stopped teaching in Thailand, I rarely saw them as they aired between 6am and lunchtime when I was already at my school or in my classroom teaching. In recent years, now I no longer work, I can watch the Oscars from my Bangkok home while I eat my breakfast. Weird when you think about it and it never feels quite right.

One nice thing about watching the Oscars from Thailand though is you don’t usually miss the big awards. Whenever I used to watch them in the US, I’d invariably get bored at how long they were taking and give up the ghost and go to bed. After all, you can always find the results online the following morning.

In Thailand, though, even if the Oscars run over time, that just means I end up eating my lunch while they’re handing out Best Actor and Best Picture awards. That’s quite pleasant actually.

So, will I be watching the Oscars in Thailand tomorrow? (Monday morning Thai time).

Honestly, other than having them as background noise, probably not. I’ve only seen two of the movies up for awards this year as I’ve been too busy to see the rest. Which means, other than Meryl Streep for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Iron Lady‘, and Gary Oldman in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, I don’t really care who wins either.

How about you?