Afleveringen
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Do you need help finding Friends? Try these links:
Netflix
Amazon
Vimeo
TRANSCRIPT
Whatās up, everyone! Welcome to episode 3. Today weāre going to talk about the Ivy League English TV and Movie Club and Iām going to give you some homework. A lot of students seem interested in watching TV shows and movies together so that they can ask questions and get help understanding the things that they watch. So weāre going to give it a try. Today, Iāll tell you what show to watch. After you watch it, you can post your questions about the show in the comments. Now, pay attention. Thereās one rule about asking questions. Youāre not allowed to ask me what a word means. Thatās what dictionaries are for. You donāt need me for that. If you hear a word that you donāt understand, just look it up. Ok? This TV and movie club is not for lazy students. This is for serious students who really want to learn. Got it?
So, the show weāre going to start with is . . . . are you ready for this . . . Friends! Thatās right. And I know what some of you are thinking. āPatricia, in the last episode you said that Friends was a terrible show for English students.ā Well, thatās not exactly what I said. Friends is an old show so there are some things that you might hear in the show that people donāt really say anymore. But I also said that you can watch an old show if you want to. Itās still good listening practice and most of the English language really hasnāt changed in 20 years. Since you guys will be watching Friends with my help, I can explain what words or phrases in the show are not used anymore. Friends definitely wouldnāt be my first choice for a student thatās watching these shows without the help of a teacher, but you guys have me. So you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Iām going to take good care you guys. To be honest, the reason why I chose Friends is because itās really easy for students to find online. Itās on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and lots of other websites. So, for that reason itās a great choice for what weāre trying to do here.
Alright, letās get to the homework. Your first assignment is to watch season 1, episode 1 of Friends. When you watch the show, remember to use the tips from the last episode of this podcast. After youāve watched the show a few times, post any questions that you have right here in the comments. Then, Iāll answer your questions in another episode of this podcast. Thatās it, guys. I hope this all makes sense. If you have questions about what to do, you can ask in the comments. Good luck with your first TV and movie club homework assignment. This is really exciting! I canāt wait to see your questions and talk to you guys about the first episode of Friends.
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Vocabulary from this episode:
to mumble (v)speech (n)lecture (n)nerd (n)hilarious (adj)Expressions from this episode:
to let the cat out of the bagTRANSCRIPT
Today weāre going to talk about a great way to improve your listening skills in English. Lots of students enjoy watching TV shows and movies in English because theyāre fun and entertaining. But this is also a great way to practice understanding native speakers. Letās be honest, native speakers can be really hard to understand. Sometimes we speak quickly. Sometimes we mumble. That means we donāt speak clearly. Hereās what mumbling sounds like: (example). Did you understand that? Yeah, thatās mumbling. Plus, native speakers use so many expressions and slang words. You need to practice listening to native speakers a lot if you want to be able to understand them easily.
When you watch TV shows in English, youāll hear common words, phrases and expressions that native speakers use when they talk about everyday things like work, family and their personal lives. Youāll also hear references to American culture, so you can learn a lot about that from these shows too. As a matter of fact, most of my students who take private classes with me watch TV shows as part of their homework every week. But hereās a common mistake that a lot of students make. They choose the wrong show. So today, Iām going to talk about how to choose a show and which show my students have enjoyed the most. After that, Iāll give you some tips on how to really learn from watching TV shows.
First, I want to talk about some of the common things that students watch. Ted Talks videos are very popular. There are tons of videos available on YouTube and Ted Talks can be great practice. You can learn vocabulary and expressions from these videos, but you need to remember a few things. First, a Ted Talks video is usually a speech or a lecture. One person talks for the entire video. And the way people talk when theyāre giving a speech is not the same as the way people talk when theyāre having a conversation. Second, the thing that a lot of students need to practice as they get more advanced is understanding conversations where more than one person is talking to them. A lot of students need to improve this skill, especially if they work in a place where meetings are held in English. When youāre trying to listen to more than one person, things can get really confusing. And listening to speeches and lectures, wonāt really help you to improve that skill.
Another popular show is The Big Bang Theory. Iāll be honest. Iām not sure why people think this is a great show for English students. Most of the main characters in this TV show are nerds. Theyāre very smart and they talk a lot about science and math. So, the way these characters speak is sometimes very complicated. They use advanced vocabulary that isnāt important for English students to learn and that can make the show more confusing. These characters also donāt have the best social skills, so the way they talk is not the best example of the English language, unless you want to sound like a nerd. So, yes, the show is funny, but it may not be the best show to use if you want to hear how most native speakers talk. The truth is most people donāt talk like the characters on the Big Bang Theory.
Game of Thrones is another show thatās popular with students, but again, native speakers donāt talk the way the people on this show talk. The accents and the vocabulary are different. So, watch it for fun if you want, but itās not the best example of how people in the U.S. speak.
The last show Iāll mention is Friends. I think every English student that Iāve ever talked to about TV shows has mentioned Friends. So, hereās my advice on that show. You need to remember that itās an old show. Itās about 20 years old. Of course, the English language hasnāt changed that much in 20 years, but there are some things that are different. The most common slang words today, for example, are different from what they were 20 years ago. Also, the references to American culture that youāll hear are kind of old. Honestly, this is my biggest problem with a show like this. Watching TV shows is a great way to learn more about American culture, but culture changes over time. I always prefer that my students watch something modern that will introduce them to todayās slang and culture. I think that those shows are more useful and a better resource for students.
If you want to watch videos or TV shows that only have one speaker, are a bit complicated or are more than 10 years old, thatās ok. Theyāre still good listening practice, but you need to remember the things that I mentioned earlier. Now, Iām going to tell you about one of my studentsā favorite TV shows and if you have access to Netflix or Amazon Prime video, it should be really easy to find. If you donāt have either of those, you can probably find this show online somewhere else, so look around. Maybe some of you know a great website for watching English TV shows. If you do, please share the link in the comments. Iād love to share it with other students.
Ok, I have two students, Steve and Jacky...If youāre listening, hey guys! Ok, I have two students who love this show. Itās called The Good Place. This show is about a woman named Eleanor who dies and goes to heaven, but she wasnāt supposed to go to heaven. She was supposed to go to hell. So sheās in a place where she doesnāt belong. Only one person knows and she needs to make sure that no one else finds out. She doesnāt want to let the cat out of the bag. Do you guys know that expression? Let the cat out of the bag means you tell a secret or you reveal a secret. So Eleanor has to work hard to keep this secret, but of course, lots of hilarious..That means really funny. Lots of hilarious things happen. The great things about this show are that itās current (itās only about 4 or 5 years old), there are lots of group conversations and the language isnāt too complicated. Also, even though the show happens in a strange place, there are still lots of everyday conversations. People fall in love, get in trouble, ask for help, things like that. So give this one a try.
The next show is one you should try if The Good Place is a little too advanced for you. This TV show is a cartoon, but itās not too silly. Itās actually based on a really old computer game that I used to play when I was about 10 years old. The showās called Carmen Sandiego and itās about a young woman named Carmen, who grew up in a school for professional thieves. She learned how to steal things when she was a kid. As she gets older, she realizes that the people she grew up with are breaking the law, so she decides to use her skills to stop them. This show is great for a lot of reasons. First of all, itās less than a year old, so the language is very modern or current. Since itās a cartoon, the vocabulary and story are also simpler than what youāll hear in adult shows. Finally, a lot of the shows that youāll hear people suggest for English students are comedies. If youāre looking for something different, this show has plenty of action that you might enjoy.
Now, let me give you a few tips for watching TV shows in English. The first thing you should do is watch the show without any subtitles and see how much you can understand. Then watch the show as many times as you want with English subtitles only. Donāt use subtitles in your native language. That wonāt help you very much. When you watch the show with the subtitles, you should try to read the words on the screen as you hear them. This will help you to learn how native speakers pronounce words when theyāre part of a sentence. This is a good way to train your ears so that you can understand connected speech. This is how you can practice understanding real English from real native speakers.
Hereās another suggestion: The first time that you watch the show with subtitles, you should take notes on any words or phrases that you donāt understand. At the end, look up the words and phrases that you think are the most important for you to learn in order to understand the show. Then when you watch it again with subtitles, look at your notes so that you remember what these new words and phrases mean. This will definitely help you to understand more of the show. Over the next few days and weeks, make sure that you review the vocabulary that you learned. You need to look at it again and again so that you remember what the words mean and how they were used in the show. If you can remember what was happening when the word was used, it will be a lot easier to remember the word weeks and even months after you learned it.
Hereās one last tip for you: If you have to look up more than 20 words to understand a TV show, itās too hard for you. Pick something easier.
Alright everyone. Iāve given you plenty of things to work on. Now, itās time for you to go pick a show and get started. If you have questions about anything that I talked about today, make sure you leave a comment so that I can help you. Also, donāt forget to answer the question that I asked earlier:
What websites (other than YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video) do you use to watch TV shows in English? -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Do you want to leave a comment?
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Do you want more help with your English? Visit my website and join the Ivy League English Club for study resources.
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Join my Facebook page for lessons and online English classes for adults
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Vocabulary from this episode:
to dine (v)blind (adj)deaf (adj)blindfold (n) / to blindfold (v)finger food (n)theory (n)Expressions from this episode:
To step into someone else's shoes / To walk in someone else's shoesTRANSCRIPT
Todayās topic is dark restaurants and dark dining. First of all, what is ādiningā? If you know what a dining room is then you can probably guess what ādiningā means. A dining room is the room in your house where you eat, but itās not the kitchen. Itās a different room. If youāre alone, you might eat in the kitchen because itās easier or you might eat in the living room while you watch TV. But if you want to serve a big meal because itās a special occasion or you have lots of visitors, thatās when most people would use the dining room, if they have one. āTo dineā is a formal way of saying āto eatā and the dining room is a formal room for eating.
So what is dark dining? Hereās where things get interesting. There are restaurants in North America, Europe and Asia called dark restaurants. People who eat at these restaurants eat in complete darkness. Can you believe that? It sounds strange, I know, but thatās what ādark diningā is. So why would anyone want to do that?
First, let me tell you how dark dining started. The first dark dining event that I could find information about happened in 1997 in Paris, France. These events happened from time to time for years, but the first restaurant to have dark dining every single day of the week was in Switzerland. It was established or started by a blind man named Jorge in 1999. In case you donāt know the word "blind", that means you canāt see. Some people are born blind and some people become blind during their lives. Hereās another good vocabulary word for you: deaf. That means you canāt hear.
So the man who opened the first dark restaurant in Switzerland was blind. After having his friends come to his house and try dark dining, he realized that people really liked it. His friends told him that their senses of taste and smell improved when they couldnāt see. That made the meal taste and smell even more delicious than usual. So Jorge opened a dark restaurant because he wanted people who were not blind to experience what itās like to be blind. In particular, he wanted people to experience food and eating the way blind people do.
Iāve never been to a restaurant like this, but it sounds really interesting so, of course, I decided to do some research. Hereās what happens when you go to a dark restaurant. There are two ways that these restaurants create darkness. One way is to turn off all of the lights in the area where people eat. If restaurants do this, they also take away peopleās electronic devices, like cell phones and cameras because they want the dining area to be completely dark. The other way is to put a blindfold on everyone. We just talked about the word blind. So whatās a blindfold? Thatās a piece of cloth or fabric that you put over your eyes and you usually tie the ends of the cloth together at the back of your head. That way, you canāt see. When youāre wearing a blindfold, youāre blind. So hereās my first question for you guys. If you had to go to a dark restaurant, which would you prefer? Would you want to be in a room thatās totally dark? Or would you want to be blindfolded?
Personally, I think Iād prefer being in a dark room. If youāre blindfolded for the whole meal, that could get uncomfortable. If youāre in a dark room at least thereās nothing on your face. But I do wonder what would happen if there was an emergency in the restaurant. What if everyone had to get out of the restaurant fast because of a fire or something like that. Iām sure that the people who run these restaurants have thought about that. So hopefully thereās a quick way to turn all of the lights on.
I also started thinking about what I would want to eat if I had to eat in total darkness. I mean, how well can you use a knife and fork if you canāt see anything? So with that in mind, I thought that I would probably choose some kind of finger food if I had to eat at a dark restaurant. Ok, really quickly, whatās a finger food? Thatās a food that people generally eat with their hands. Hereās another question for you guys. If you were the chef at a dark restaurant, what kind of food would you serve? Would you serve finger foods? What kind of finger foods would you serve? And what other foods can you think of that people could easily eat even if they canāt see?
And the last thing I want to ask you guys is this: If a friend asked you to go with them to a dark restaurant, would you go? I think that it would be interesting to experience a meal the way a blind person does. Personally, I enjoy stepping into someone elseās shoes or walking in someone elseās shoes. Those are common expressions in English, by the way. They both mean the same thing: experiencing life the way someone else does. Walking in another personās shoes is a great way to understand that person better. I think it would be really interesting to walk in a blind personās shoes even if itās just for a few hours.
Thereās also a popular theory that Iām curious about. A theory is an idea that people believe is true, but it hasnāt been proven, so itās not a fact. Thereās a theory that if you canāt see then your four other senses become stronger. Or if you canāt hear or canāt smell then your four other senses get stronger. I wonder how true that is. Is it something that happens as soon as you lose one sense? Would I notice a difference in my sense of taste or smell if I ate in complete darkness? Or is that something that takes time. Maybe it takes months or even years for your other senses to become stronger. Or maybe that theory isn't true at all? Who knows?
Well, maybe one day Iāll experience dark dining. I actually thought about trying it at home. That wouldnāt be too hard to do. But Iām pretty sure that my husband would think that I was crazy if he saw me eating with a blindfold on. So maybe Iāll just wait until I can visit one of these dark restaurants.
Ok, guys. Thatās it for today. Donāt forget to answer the questions that I asked earlier:
If you had to go to a dark restaurant, would you prefer to be blindfolded or to be in a completely dark room.If you were the chef at a dark restaurant, what kind of finger foods would you server? Can you think of other foods that you would serve?Finally, if a friend asked you to go to a dark restaurant, would you go?
