Foreign Language TV Programming

[Capstone]

I was just wondering if any of you guys out there subscribe to any of the foreign language TV programming that is available in the US and if so how you and your spouse like it.

As for me I am a Dish Network Subscriber and right before my wife arrived from China I ordered the Great Wall TV Package that they offer. That package offers 19 channels which are mostly from Mainland China and broadcast in Mandarin. To be honest my wife did not care for it too much and after watching some of the channels I could see why - it really seemed to be tailored towards an older audience. Most of the programs seem to be variety type shows like the ones that my grandparents would watch when I was a kid. The one good thing about this package though is that there are some good news broadcasts from CCTV.

So several weeks ago we decided to switch from the Great Wall Package to the Taiwanese Mega Package that Dish also offers. This package consists of 16 channels from Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Mainland and my wife really likes it. Even though I don't speak Mandarin I watch some of the shows with her and I can tell that the shows are of much better quality and are tailored to a younger audience than the Great Wall Package is. And I have to admit that my wife already has me hooked on one of her prime time soap dramas that we watch every evening

Anyone else have any experience with the foreign TV programming??

[jm21-2]

I haven't had cable or even a TV for years. I download everything off the internet. You can get a lot of HK and Mainland (as well as Taiwanese, Korean, and Japanese) dramas/mini-series/whatever you want to call them at D-Addicts (http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/torrents.php) using a program called bit torrent. I hate labeling them as soaps because A. I watch them and B. they are nothing like American soaps I've seen bits and pieces of now and then. You can download them with no subtitles or subtitled by fans (in various languages, sometimes multiple languages). I don't believe they allow shows that have been commercially subtitled and licensed in America but I'm not sure. I usually wait until a show is completely subtitled and download/watch the whole thing.

Mainland shows have really improved the last few years. The mainland shows from the '80s or earlier weren't much to look at. Just as an aside, my favorite show is an HK one called "a step into the past" (尋秦記 / 寻秦记 Cantonese/Mandarin title: Cham Chung Gay / Xun Qin Ji) that can probably be found in Mandarin with English subs and/or Cantonese with Chinese and English subs. Awesome show.

[Capstone]

I haven't had cable or even a TV for years. I download everything off the internet. You can get a lot of HK and Mainland (as well as Taiwanese, Korean, and Japanese) dramas/mini-series/whatever you want to call them at D-Addicts (http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/torrents.php) using a program called bit torrent. I hate labeling them as soaps because A. I watch them and B. they are nothing like American soaps I've seen bits and pieces of now and then. You can download them with no subtitles or subtitled by fans (in various languages, sometimes multiple languages). I don't believe they allow shows that have been commercially subtitled and licensed in America but I'm not sure. I usually wait until a show is completely subtitled and download/watch the whole thing.

Mainland shows have really improved the last few years. The mainland shows from the '80s or earlier weren't much to look at. Just as an aside, my favorite show is an HK one called "a step into the past" (尋秦記 / 寻秦记 Cantonese/Mandarin title: Cham Chung Gay / Xun Qin Ji) that can probably be found in Mandarin with English subs and/or Cantonese with Chinese and English subs. Awesome show.

Yea My wife downloads a lot of series & movies from the internet as well. But she still likes to watch TV as she likes the commercials and live newscasts etc - it makes her feel like she is more connected to back home.

[Ray]

Yeah, we have DirecTV, and they offer TFC (The Filipino Channel) for something like$35/mo.

Shyt! I can make a hell of a lot of Cuba Libres for $35!

Overall, I think the TFC is a bunch of nonsense and crap, but the wife would love it, even though she doesn’t watch much TV.

All my neighbors and relatives seem to have TFC, so why should I pay for it? My Filipino dentist has exclusively TFC on the TV in the waiting room, so we see it also whenever we go to the dentist.

They have a lot of silly shows like Wowowee and the worst is probably Morning Girls, if they still have that one.

I think Dave H likes Wowowee, so I won’t knock it anymore or he may get pissed and post a pic of himself in that stupid purple G-string of his… God save us! 

Ray

[Dave H]

Yeah, we have DirecTV, and they offer TFC (The Filipino Channel) for something like$35/mo.

Shyt! I can make a hell of a lot of Cuba Libres for $35!

I think Dave H likes Wowowee, so I won’t knock it anymore or he may get pissed and post a pic of himself in that stupid purple G-string of his… God save us! 

Ray

Hey Ray,

I pay less than $5 a month for all of the Philippine channels. 

I haven't been watching Wowowee since Willie has been gone. But I never miss the FPJ marathon on the weekend!    I took my purple G-string out of mothballs, since there is an upcoming family beach party sponsored by my daughter's school. God have mercy on their souls! 
 
Dave

[Jeff S]

We have TV Japan plumbed in here. It's $25 a month, but we both like some of the series and watch NHK news every morning. No subtitles of course. There's a local on-air international channel that has local Japanese news and some shows, but it's part time. They also have Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai  and I think Tagalog.

[Bear]

My wife thought it was stupid for me to even offer it to her.  She says anything she wants to see is usually free on the internet.  I often see her watching some series on her computer so it must be true.  Saved that $35/mo.

The Bear Family

[thekfc]

I was about to ask  the question on this subject.
Last year my Cable company added a Filipino package - $14.99 per month. That included 2 chanels: The Filipino Channel (TFC) & GMA Pinoy TV.  If I am still in the NYC area when my lady gets here I may add that package.

They also offer a Chinese package $14.99 for 3 channels (they cut down). I used to subscribe to that one package mainly for CCTV 4.
And they also offer a Korean package  as well as a South Asian (India channels), Russian & Spanish package.

I also see that Direct TV offer a 10 Filipino channels package.

I get a few Filipino channels via the web. I let CCTN: Cebu Catholic Television Network run for about an hour to see how the streaming was - no buffering or problems.

[robert angel]

KFC,
I'd wait until she gets here before hooking up with any cable operation. I was real worried that my wife would be really bored and homesick when she got here--especially with me going off to work each day and no family nearby. I'd worry more about a telephone link to back home and delicately discussing the costs per minute and how unfettered usage can really add up, but let her know you realize she needs to stay in touch occasionally--espec. for 'special' events.

I thought about the various Filipino TV options, even getting her a puppy--all kinds of things. Didn't do either of the those things. Maybe ask her what magazines she likes. Magazines are real expensive, luxury items for most people back there. My wife likes Good House Keeping, Readers Digest and those cheesy celebrity rags like "OK" Magazine and "People Magazine", but when she went to work, we cancelled most of them--not much time and she hates the clutter.

You're pretty good with computers--my wife is able to get a lot of Filipino TV (soaps, movies) for free and Youtube and other places has tons of clips of the hottest Filipino music artists--I bet you can do better than us in that area.

My wife, although raised traditionally, was expected to focus on education and never did a great deal of cooking. Furthermore, American style appliances and recipes were really foreign for her--even the microwave. I got her some easy recipe books from places like "abes.com, cheapbooks.com and on amazon, such as "Three Ingredient" "Four Ingredient" and eventually five--using, 3,4 or 5 common USA brand name canned and easy fix grocery products.

 It's real easy for us to assume they know stuff that a foreigner actually might over look in the kitchen here. My wife was making some chocolate chip cookies for the first time for the kids when we were out--she wanted to surprise us. She read the instructions on the frozen cookie batter, cut the cookie slices and like the recipe said, put them in the oven for twenty minutes.

The only little problem was that she didn't realize their were TWO sets of instructions.--one for the 'conventional oven' and the other the 'microwave oven'. She put the cookies in the microwave oven for TWENTY minutes and then went out to pull some weeds from our garden. As you can imagine, we had carbonized cookies and a few laughs. Our home smelled like cookies for quite a while, but it was OK.

Today she's a pretty good, even adventurous at times, cook--mixing Asian and good old American style food. She can grill a mean steak, fix a casserole and I've even convinced her that she doesn't have to always cook her steak VERY well done 'just to be safe". In fact, she's probably figured a dozen different recipes using Campbells cream of Mushroom soup and sour cream! And even though I offered several times, she's always declined a rice steamer and cooks it in a pot like I always did--just have a good bag of Thai jasmine rice ready when she gets here--forget about Uncle Bens and other 'instant' brands!

[thekfc]

KFC,
I'd wait until she gets here before hooking up with any cable operation.

I already have cable, just not the Filipino channels. Sometime I do subscribe to a cheap tv package just to see what it is about. One of the good things about our cable company is that we get no penalty or hassle for canceling any part of our TV package - I have done it a few times before. And it is good to know that I have 2 Filipino channels as an add-on option.

You're pretty good with computers--my wife is able to get a lot of Filipino TV (soaps, movies) for free and Youtube and other places has tons of clips of the hottest Filipino music artists--I bet you can do better than us in that area.

Yes computers I am very good at and may be able to get a lot of free "stuff". She also know a few things about computers too as she help her sister who owns a cafe. With all the internet disconnecting/slow speed that she currently gets, she will be amaze when she come here & discover that my internet  speed is about 30 Mbit/s downstream and 5 Mbit/s upstream.

My wife, although raised traditionally, was expected to focus on education and never did a great deal of cooking.

My girl is just the opposite - cooking wise - She is the one who is or have taught her nieces & nephews how to cook.
 

She put the cookies in the microwave oven for TWENTY minutes and then went out to pull some weeds from our garden. As you can imagine, we had carbonized cookies and a few laughs. Our home smelled like cookies for quite a while, but it was OK.

Lucky neither one of you were on a diet then - that would have been tough trying to keep on your diet.

And even though I offered several times, she's always declined a rice steamer and cooks it in a pot like I always did--just have a good bag of Thai jasmine rice ready when she gets here--forget about Uncle Bens and other 'instant' brands!

I have never used a rice steamer in my life. Jasmine rice - I haven't eaten it in over a year. I used to eat it & brown brown rice a lot.



In my entertainment collection, I have a few hundred dvd/blu-ray/HD movies, the same goes for music. I also have a PS3 & a X-Box 360 both are hooked up & can do live streaming.
That may be enough entertainment to keep someone for a while but.................

I am in NYC and there is a good concentration of Filipinos in all 5 boroughs - 3 of the 5 boroughs have a Little Manila  - I think that she may find a "few things" from "home" there.
My borough is one of the 2 borough without a Little Manila - I haven't  "officially" ventured into any of the Little Manila yet but I have shopped in some of the stores.