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Hi everyone. Happy Monday. Thanks for joining us again today. Are you up for a challenge? If you are. I’ve got a great freebie for you. So go to the link in the description and you’ll find a link to download everything you need for a free seven day challenge. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Learning English is like brushing your teeth. You don’t need to do it for hours, but you do need to do it every day, so this is a totally easy way to get in at least five minutes of English practice per day. And I promise you, once you’ve done it for seven days, you’ll see how incredibly easy it is once it becomes a habit and you’ll be ready to do it week after week. And that’s how you will improve. Sign up and get that free download and then come over to Instagram. Let us know how you’re doing. Tag learn.anglais.paris in your story, and we’ll be happy to give you some love and some encouragement.
(en français)
Today we’re giving you our best tips on what to watch to help you improve your English in terms of movies, series and so on. And you’ll see Matthew and I don’t always see eye to eye, 100% see eye to eye, see eye to eye. It means to agree as a bonus expression for you. So whose advice are you taking? 4s Yeah. Um, for you, what are some good films that you like suggest to students to watch when they’re learning to improve? 1s Well, that’s a trick. Learning to improve tricky questions. Films, films would like. I would not be a particular film. Yeah, but I would say, for example, like something that I would always tell people to watch. We could say series as well, but different. Yeah. But in terms of films, I think a really good one is, um, Forrest Gump. It’s really like it’s long and it’s slow. Mhm. And the way he talks is very slow. Strong accent though. 1s Yeah it’s strong but it’s so it’s I find that accents can’t be strong if the person speaks really slowly. I think it’s easier to understand. He articulates if you’ve got an accent it’s one thing. But when you articulate. Yeah. Um, I pick from TV shows what I think would be suitable if the students never learn. For anybody, friends is a good show to watch. Uh, obviously watching French first for lunch. Well, if you if you want to get the kind of the comedic content, you know, because you’re not going to get it if you’re not a beginner, but if you’re a lower intermediate, you’re not going to get a joke. It’s not funny, but to learn or watch it in English with French subtitles. But then you can watch it again. And this time you put it in English with English subtitles, and you’ll make the most of it. Because what’s important here is it’s syntax. Uh, it’s articulate. Um, the grammar is, is like every day kind of doesn’t mean much. But say anything. Something something like friends or anything that’s like, based. And, you know, it’s full of puns, full of jokes the whole way through that it’s for advanced. Well, I, I tend to disagree with that because I feel like, uh, a lot of shows that are not funny are very serious. We’re talking like either sci fi, vine, and there aren’t any shows where it’s just not funny, not violent, it’s just boring, basically. And you can just learn English, like really at your rhythm. It doesn’t work like that. TV shows are either about fun or about violence. The violent ones are too loud. They have to speak quickly because everything has to happen really quickly. Uh, you got if you take like a show, like what? You watch what was called again, I can’t stand it. Uh, sorry for the. 1sNo, no, 1s no, no, that’s another. That’s a new watch. Selling something 1s graphic. Wait, wait. Welcome to reality TV. I’m talking about that violent kind of. It’s set in the past, but not really. That everybody loves really violent. Loads of different accents. Come on, everybody’s talking. Yes. You watched it. It’s about ten season long. What’s it about? As long as it’s just violent. It’s like, you know, they’re you know it’s medieval kind of Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones, that’s it. But it’s not really a set at a medieval time, a particular time. Because it’s got a bit of sci fi in it as well, like monsters. So I’ve never watched it and I do not want to watch it. But if you give that to a student like an intermediate student, you’re killing them. They’re just going to watch a show that they’re not going to understand. They only understand the pictures, the violence that they saw that when you’ve never seen it. Well, no, but I have seen it with you. But I’ve never actually deliberately watched it. That’s what I mean. I have watched it with you. I’ve watched a few episodes and I mean the different accents, that the loudness is really loud. There’s always some sort of monster, some sort of fight going on. Yeah, it’s not really about dialogue that much. So it’s not a good show, but a lot of shows, a lot of TV shows or a lot of TV shows are like that. Either that or then you’ll get shows with serial killers and it’s mostly, mostly visual. You know, I mean, yeah. So I think reality TV is great, though it’s not that funny. And I’ve just said that reality TV is great. Sorry. 2s It’s not funny and it’s not funny TV. It is funny, but it’s not. It’s not deliberately like Selling Sunset. It’s not funny. Really? No. Definitely not. Um. And it’s not violent. It’s not. It’s not. Yeah, it’s. But it’s it’s, um. I think to learn English. It’s a good idea. Yeah, yeah. If we’re just strictly talking about language and accents. Yeah, I think it’s good. It’s. The rhythm is very slow. The people talk. Now, the problem is you’re not going to develop your vocabulary all that much because sorry, sorry for saying this, but these people have you know, but very few. All right. Yeah. And they’re not like the most. They’re not poets. Whatever. Yeah, fine. But they’re using like the language of today. So it’s kind of you learn you are learning language because you’re learning language when you’re going to put yourself in a situation with native speakers, you’ve already heard these words that you’re not going to learn in textbooks, that you know, you didn’t learn at school. You aren’t you learning this vocabulary that’s like today’s vocabulary. So it’s so much less stressful when you’re then in that situation, you’re hearing these words. It’s like, I’d compare it to me coming to France and then, you know, having a degree in French but not understanding anything because everyone’s talking in Berlin. It’s, you know, you need to learn this like shitty language. But I agree. Like I said, strictly speaking, it’s a good show to learn English, but you’re just not going to to be able to get through to the student. You’re not going to be able to convince them that watching the show is a good idea. And even if they convince them, well, you do, because they’re not going to watch it otherwise because it’s crap. You think I’m the only person that watches Selling Sunset? I’m not saying that you’re the only person I’m just. It’s been like, the number one show on Netflix. All right, well, do whatever you want to do and stop judging people that I don’t judge people. Yeah, I do judge people. But I’m just saying, like, I’m not. It’s good. It’s fun. Like, sometimes you just need to, like, stop thinking about serious shit and just watch some pretty people selling massive houses for $20 million, okay? Okay. Well, I’ll sell the show. It’s hard to sell a show that I don’t watch. You know, I have done that before. I’m just asking you not to disagree with me in this instance. No, I just said. She said that I agreed with the with you in terms of learning English. It’s definitely not the worst show. Yeah. And I and I but I disagree on the fact that you, you know, on the fact that you’re saying that funny shows aren’t good for beginners. I wouldn’t advise any beginner to watch any kind of TV in terms of shows or movies. I tell them, you know, watch what you know. Can I say like Ted, I’m at Ted. Com can I use TED.com? Talk about it on the. That works. So yeah, I would turn to watch Ted talks. I’d tell them to listen to six minutes, six minutes English for people who are fit. I don’t mean that negatively, but fit. Ready to listen to English in a TV show, in a movie, in film, then? Yeah, I would, I would advise them to watch friends. I would advise them to watch shows that they enjoy, really shows that they’ve already watched in French. Oh yeah, I, I would advise them to, to watch also like kid stuff. There’s a lot of like movies like Harry Potter where, you know, it’s funny why you advising something that you’ve never watched? I have watched, okay, I have watched, yeah. I haven’t like watched it like been looking forward to watch it but I have watched it. I thought it was okay and not like against Harry Potter at all. Um, but I think it’s, I like the, the language that is used. It’s not too hard to understand either. So I think it’s perfect to learn if you’re at this kind of intermediate level, trying to get to the next step, I think it’s a good idea to do that. Yeah, that plus anything from the 90s. It’s simple to the point for only an hour and a half. True. It’s yeah. Like, what are we thinking? Like 1s Sister Act, Home Alone, Beverly Beverly, Beverly Hills Cop, that one. Is that what it’s called? Yeah, those those movies are great. I mean, anything that you can watch will be helped. Yeah, anything. If you’re at, like, a intermediate or above level, like. Yeah. Don’t watch things with French subtitles. Watch English things with English subtitles. Then anything that you don’t understand by hearing it, you’ll be reading it at the same time. And sometimes, like you’ll, you’ll read it and you’ll understand it where you would have missed it if you were just listening to it. Well, at the same time, if it’s a word that you just didn’t know, then you can see that word. You see how it’s written and you can look it up. Yeah, I, I encourage what I do with my students. I encourage them to watch the thing in French first. I’m sorry, but that’s what I do. But that thing in French first and then watch it again in English with or without English subtitles. But I think it’s great. 1s But because the understanding is what frustrates students. So nobody will put the movie on one night, not understand anything or understand very little, put it back on the next night and the night after that until they understand it’s not going to work. That’s what I do. Yeah, but they want students don’t do that. You know, I’m a student of French and that’s that’s how I learned. Yeah, well I’ve tried. You think I could watch, like, live in English? No. You haven’t watched The Visitor like, every night for, like, a month. But I’ve been watching it. I’ve probably watched it once every at least once every two years since I was at Union from beginning from 2007. Well, think about it. What I’m suggesting every time I watch, I understand better what I. What I’m suggesting is watching French. And the next day you watch the same movie in English and it will just help you understand. Context, you’ll know the context. You will agree to disagree on that one. That’s a good argument. You’ll understand what’s going on. You just ruined and you know you don’t ruin the film. I’m not saying to do that with a new film. You can do that with old films. Don’t do that. I say to them, if you if you’ve already seen a movie in French and you liked it, an American or an English movie, but now watching in English, you know what’s going to happen. No surprises. You’re not going to be disappointed in the end because you don’t understand what’s going on. You’ve seen the movie. That’s what I don’t, you know, tell them watching the French first and then watching. I say, if you want to, you can do that. But my my advice to learn something is to watch the movie in the original language. All right. But actually, that’s my advice. Even regardless of whether you’re learning a language or not, just watching the original version, it’s very important to have the original voice, but yet watch something that you’ve already watched in French. Watch it in English. English subtitles or no subtitles. And you’re definitely you’re going to actually, sometimes it’ll feel like like an epiphany. You’ll be like, oh, that’s what it means. I remember now, you know. Well, okay. So it’s really useful. So we don’t really disagree. All right. Well we’ll leave it there for today. Yes. Thank you very much, Natasha, for having me over. You’re welcome. Great match. Um, played, you know, good game, solid both ends of the field. And no glory hunters. No glory hunters. I think we got straight to the point. We didn’t, like, beat around the bush like we usually do. Sometimes we did. And in the end, you know, we we hit the nail on the head. I think, you know, it’s it’s a good win. It’s a good win for us really.