Is it reliable to learn English by watching American TV series? Of course, it is reliable, provided that you master the correct way to open American TV series!
Isn’t the correct way to watch a drama, moving a small bench, drinking with your left hand and snacks with your right hand, and laughing while watching? No！ It’s hard to improve your English even if you read countless plays like this.
If you want to learn English through American TV series, you need to treat TV series as learning materials rather than entertainment materials, and master a set of correct practice methods. Otherwise, it’s just a waste of time under the guise of learning.
According to the learning method, the entertainment may be weakened, but when you really understand each episode, you will find that this is a more interesting perspective, and you can discover the connotation and even cultural phenomena behind many plots.
So, what is the correct way to learn English through drama?
First, pick the drama series
If you want to improve your English by watching TV plays, you must first choose a suitable TV series, because not all American TV plays are suitable for learning English.
For example, Hollywood blockbusters with cool special effects, or medical drama, crime dramas, criminal investigation dramas, etc. with small themes and strong professionalism are very suitable for entertainment and relaxation, but they are not suitable for learning materials. The length of movies is generally 1.5~2 hours, which is not conducive to repeated learning and easy to get bored. However, most of the words in the dramas with too strong professionalism are related to this specific field, which is relatively uncommon and difficult to use in daily life (unless you are particularly interested in this field, you can challenge it after reaching a higher level).
Choosing a drama for the purpose of learning should not only focus on the plot, but also take life-oriented, multi-dialogue and clear pronunciation as the standards, and also distinguish the difficulty level. Some American dramas speak too fast, and all kinds of accents and slang are mixed, so they are not suitable for beginners to practice.
I suggest to choose life sitcoms at first. 80% of the words in these American dramas are within the common vocabulary of daily communication. The plots are close to life, and the pronunciation is generally standard and clear. Both listening and speaking are ideal materials. Moreover, the duration of a single episode is moderate, and there may not be a plot connection between each episode, which is suitable for learning each episode independently. The most typical recommendation is Friends. The story is light and humorous, and the episode lasts for more than 20 minutes. It is very convenient to listen and imitate repeatedly. Every time you conquer an episode, you don’t have to worry about where you saw it last time, and you can quickly accumulate a sense of accomplishment.
If the foundation is weak, cartoons are also a good choice. For example, the British cartoon "Piggy Peggy" on fire is only 5 minutes per episode, which is more convenient to practice. But don’t underestimate it, its vocabulary in the first four seasons reached 4503, which is about the level of CET-4.
When the level is improved, you can choose drama American dramas for advanced practice. Relatively speaking, melodrama has more complicated scenes, characters and topics, more orthodox and authentic expressions, and a rich vocabulary.
In short, it is the first step to success to choose the most suitable drama according to your own English foundation.
Second, prepare materials
After finding a suitable drama, you can search the lines and scripts of this drama on the Internet (it is also recommended that you choose life sitcoms because such dramas are widely circulated, and it is easy to find scripts and even intensive notes on the Internet).
Go through the script, look up the new words you don’t know, and get a general idea of the dialogue and story. Then take the script, put on headphones and start watching the play seriously!
Third, watch the drama
First of all, it is clear that there is no future to rely on Chinese subtitles all the time! If you want to really improve your level, you have to ask yourself to get used to getting rid of subtitles and learn to chew raw meat. As for how to set Chinese and English subtitles, QQ Video and Storm Video all have the function of "mosaic subtitles", and Baidu’s experience can be found (see the picture on the right).
Step 1
The first time, you can open Chinese and English subtitles, get familiar with the plot, and make comments in the script book, marking the places you don’t understand and excellent expressions. When recording, don’t analyze or try to remember for the time being, and then review it uniformly after reading it all over.
Step 2
The second time, turn off the Chinese subtitles, only look at English to understand every dialogue of the characters, open the Chinese comparison where you really don’t understand, and mark the points you don’t understand.
Step 3
Try to turn off the subtitles for the third or fourth time, listen to the dialogue of the characters, and try to reflect the meaning of each line immediately when you hear it, and fully understand the plot. You can listen to the places that are faster and more difficult to understand, and arrange the practice times according to your own situation.
Step 4
Open your mouth and follow.
The dialogue and narration in American TV plays are the best examples of oral learning. On the basis of watching it carefully for several times, opening your mouth and following it can greatly improve your oral ability, and at the same time consolidate and train your listening.
First, read one sentence after another, watch one sentence, press pause and read one sentence after another. Try to imitate the pronunciation and intonation rhythm of the characters, not only the pronunciation, but also the phonetic forms of words in real communication, such as linking, stressing and shortening, and carefully understand the language habits in expression.
After following the whole episode for 1-2 times, you should already know its contents by heart, so you should try to follow it synchronously. You can practice in 3-minute or 5-minute intervals, and try to keep up with the speed of the characters’ speech until they imitate like the video before starting the next paragraph.
Step 5
Dictation.
If you want to maximize the value of American TV series, you will eventually have to write it. Dictation is definitely a good method. Turn on the video (you can turn off the subtitles) and listen to the sentence by sentence. You will find some problems that you neglected before. The most common thing is that you can’t write words. Master the words that you can’t write, and you won’t really "catch up" with an episode of American TV until you have dictated the content of this episode.
Knowing the correct method, it’s time to choose a play and practice it.
entry level
The Simpsons The Simpsons
Douban score: 9.0
The Simpsons is the longest-lived sitcom and animation program in American history, and it is also an absolute masterpiece in many people’s minds. The story is set in the fictional American town of Springfield. The Simpsons are an ordinary American family of five. His father Homer is the safety inspector of the nuclear power plant in the town, and his mother Ma Zhi is a thoughtful housewife. His naughty eldest son Bart, his clever sister Lisa and his little girl Maggie will never grow up. The happy life of a middle-class family is shown in a funny and humorous way full of nonsense.
For beginners, cartoons are the first, with short dialogue, slow speech, easy dialogue and simple plot. The Simpsons story is interesting and deep, so it is the first choice for getting started.
Friends
Friends
Douban score: 9.6~9.8
One of the most popular American dramas in history tells the story of six friends with different personalities who have gone through ten years of ups and downs together from acquaintance to acquaintance. This play is so classic that I won’t introduce it too much. As entertainment, humor is relaxed and the characters are full; As a learning material, most of its lines are short spoken sentences, with moderate speech speed, daily vocabulary and standard and clear pronunciation.
Other similar excellent sitcoms include Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory (there are too many uncommon words in the first two seasons, so it is recommended to watch them from the fourth season) and Desperate Housewives (compared with Friends, there are more long sentences and advanced words, which are slightly more difficult).
Advanced edition
This is us "our day"
Douban score: 8.8~9.6
The American drama, which is extremely warm and healing max, has the nostalgia of the 1980s in the United States, and also has the laughter and tears that contemporary people feel the same way. It is the drama that touched me the most times. It is about the family life of an ordinary American couple and their three children. Jack and his wife Rebecca have three children born on the same day. Both generations born on the same day have their own troubles and confusions. Faced with countless problems thrown by life, how do they actively resolve and embark on different life trajectories … …
The plot of "thick chicken soup flavor" magically makes people immersed in it and can’t extricate themselves. Laughter and tears are juxtaposed, which is not dull and unpretentious. The dialogue in it is very life-oriented. It is a necessary drama to understand the daily life of Americans and learn common spoken English, and maybe it can cure your "mourning" inadvertently.
Felicity
Felicity
Douban score: 8.5~8.6
Felicity, a girl, gave up the opportunity to go to Stanford Medical School to pursue her boyfriend, but came to new york thousands of miles away alone. The play tells the story of Felicity’s new independent life after she left her parents, and the important choices she and her new friends made for various problems in life when they entered adulthood. Although it is a 1998 drama, it is not out of date at all. The youth, growth and confusion it tells always resonate easily, and it can also be used to explore the daily life and culture of American university campuses.
The plot is very close to daily life (especially college life), the words are more everyday, and there are many authentic oral expressions, which are suitable for learning materials.
Advanced edition
The West Wing "the west wing"
Douban score: 9.1
High-quality American TV series with political themes. Butler, the leader of the Democratic Party, won the election and became the new president in the White House. He and his team were baptized in a series of political events based on real historical events, and experienced the transformation of life in the first year of high-intensity work.
There are countless classic debates and speeches, but the speed of speech and professional vocabulary are very difficult, so it is difficult to chew them down, which is suitable for people with higher English level.
Mad Men
Mad Men
Douban score: 8.7~9.4
The 1960s was the heyday of American advertising. The drama tells the brutal commercial competition of American advertising industry and the scenes of cross-border wars in the workplace, shopping malls and love scenes on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, which are interspersed with many creative cases. If you are familiar with or interested in advertising industry, this drama is very suitable for challenges.
Similar excellent American TV dramas include Newsroom, House of Cards, Prison Break, etc. The plot is very compact and wonderful, and the content is deeper, but it is also relatively difficult, which is suitable for those with higher level to challenge and break through.
Finally, I will give you some important tips:
1. English learning is a process of repeated practice. You should practice and listen again and again until you are satisfied. There is not much in learning, and it is far better to read one episode thoroughly than to watch ten episodes.
2. Learning English with American TV plays is mainly about listening and speaking, so as to improve daily communication ability. You can’t rely entirely on watching American TV plays for English learning, and you have to memorize the words!
3. Persistence is the most important thing in learning English. Repetition over and over may be a little boring, but if the purpose of watching American TV series is just for entertainment, don’t expect it to improve your English. After all, there is no shortcut to learning. (Senior Feng Xiao, Master of Sociology, Cambridge University, UK)
