Oh my god guys, 2 million subscribers!
This is incredible!
So I want to hear from you at home
can you give me an "aww yeah"?
Let's do it together.
3, 2, 1, awww yeah!
So I wanted to do something really crazy to celebrate this
but of course I am in confinement here in my home in Barcelona so it would just
have to wait, but we do have a really special lesson planned for you guys today
where we are going to look at the six best series to learn British English.
So this is actually an excerpt from our podcast the real-life English podcast
which we just relaunched this week and if you don't know what a podcast is
it is a really convenient way for you to practice your English listening anytime
anywhere so I will actually link down in the description below our RealLife English Podcast
Now before we get into today's lesson I have three really
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The first winner is @cambot_8 and she said that her favorite lesson is all the
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guys and it's going to be changing things a lot on this channel but in a
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Now thank you so much for your patience and let's take a look
at the six best TV series to learn British English.
So the first one is The Office.
When you laugh your brain releases endorphins, yeah?
Your stress hormones are reduced and the oxygen supply to your blood is increased.
So you feel...
I try and laugh several times a day just bit because it makes you feel good
so let's let's try that.
Just, just...
Come on trust me, you'll feel...
Many people might not have watched it
or might not have known about it because I think it's
like 15 years old now I think he was in 2005 that it started it's it's just one
of those classics you know there was nothing like it before
and I think that that character David Brent is just someone that sometimes
people cringe at what he says and what he does but then you also kind of feel
for him sometimes and...
he's just one of those great screen
characters that you can never forget.
He's a really funny character if you've
seen the US Office, obviously the US Office never would have existed if we
didn't have the UK Office first.
In an episode of the US Office that I just
watched last night he actually made an appearance in it as David Brent as his
character from the UK Office.
And yes, so it was really fun to see Michael Scott and
David Brent together.
-Sorry -Oh I'm sorry, mate.
Excuse me.
-What are you doing? -English?
You picked on the wrong person, I can tell you that.
Oh no no, I’m not picking on you at all.
You’re English, correct?
Yeah big time, yeah.
I’m working on an English character.
Would you mind gi… It’s called Reginald Pooftah.
Ooh! David Brent, my liege. How are you?
Michael Scott!
He often talks a lot with expression so it's a really good series to learn these
expressions that natives use.
Yeah, hi Chris it's David here, yeah bad news mate.
We're gonna have to let you go, we can't use you anymore
No, yeah because the joke.
You don't know who sang 'in the Summertime' do you?
Mungo Jerry. OK.
Yup, yup. Cheers.
Spaceman came down to answer some things
The world gathered round from paupers to kings.
"I'll answer your questions, I'll answer them true,
I'll show you the way, you'll know what to do"
maybe it's not everyone's cup of tea because it's a very dry British humor.
Yeah, I haven't seen really the UK version of The Office actually I'd love
to the USA version but we actually created a lesson I'm not sure
if you've seen this one where we took, I think it's the first scene or one of the
first scenes from the first episode of The Office UK and then we did like the
same one from the The Office US.
So it's kind of like comparing side-by-side
these two scenes and they're they're almost exactly the same but it kind of
like allows you to see a comparison language
I think that can be like really great as well for learners just to if you're
maybe kind of advanced and you're wanting to play with both different
accents you can kind of watch the UK version and you can watch the USA
version and kind of compare the differences in the culture and the humor
like Andrea said and the kind of differences in the language used.
So the next series is The Crown.
You married a wild spirit trying to tame them is news.
This restlessness of yours it was it has to be a thing of the past.
The monarchy is too fragile,
you keep telling me yourself.
One more scandal one more national
embarrassment and it would all be over.
So The Crown, we actually just last week
did a lesson on the Best Series to Learn English in 2019 kind of just based on
different series that I had watched and that I thought for different reasons
were great for people who are learning English who are looking for something
new to watch and The Crown was one of the ones also that I mentioned I think
it's one that it can be like really perfect for British English learners for
getting kind of received pronunciation.
Another name for it is the Queen's English
because it's the way the royal family speak and really the upper
classes in England or in Britain so
it's not, it's it's kind of like a posh accent
we also say it's not necessarily the English that you will hear when you're
visiting the UK but it's really good for learning I think because in a way it's
like the the highest form of speaking English
It’s inevitable that I should seem a rather remote figure to many of you…
But now, at least for a few minutes, I welcome you to the peace of my own home.
I really like it because I like the historical aspect of it and it's kind of
made me appreciate Queen Elizabeth II a bit more, kind of to know how
she started out and how she was just thrown into it and I'm really looking
forward to the the next couple of seasons because it might be things that
I remember more from growing up in London and the things that were
happening with the Royal Family.
I think that that is really interesting kind of
seeing how it goes from being when she first started out and then kind of the
newest season which I actually still have to watch I believe they they even
change they cast and everything because it jumps forward several years, right?
Season three and season four is with Olivia Colman and she's a great actress
and then I know that seasons five and six will be with a different actor.
So every two seasons the cast will change.
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So another one that maybe not many people know about is called Gavin and Stacey.
And again it's just one of those classics, it's absolutely hilarious.
It's with James Corden who is a lot more famous now it's kind of the series that
made him really famous because he created it along with one of the other
actors in it and it's a story it's kind of an it starts off as a love story
really to two people that meet a girl from Wales and a guy from Essex in
England and you know they start this romantic relationship together but it
kind of brings the two families together as well and so you'll have a mix of
Welsh and English accents and also Welsh and English expressions.
Oh my god, you're right.
-What? -You are Welsh.
You got Welsh accent, you're speaking Welsh.
-What you on about? -What you on about?
-Shut up. -Shut up.
It's really hilarious like even not coming from the perspective of an American
I don't always get the British humour but that one I found it's really really
quite witty and really fantastic and it's really interesting too like you said
hearing the Welsh accent which isn't an accent that you get so many
opportunities to hear.
Hello Dino welcome to Barry.
-Sorry but I don't... -Gwen, wait a minute... what you doing?
I've been learning Welsh I did an intensive course cuz I knew we
were coming down I wanted to understand what everyone was saying.
And so many of the characters
I just loved so many of them and quite a few of them can be
quite relatable as well so I often I don't know if my mom would be happy with
me saying it but sometimes Gavin's mom reminds me of my mom and so it makes it
just even funnier so if you can relate some of the characters to members of
your family or your friends then I think you'll enjoy that much more.
British humor can definitely be more sarcastic so sometimes you don't know if someone
is telling a joke or not so we kind of call it a dry sense of
humor it's not as obvious.
I think American said humor it's more obvious.
It's kind of the opposite so it can be a lot more slapstick a lot of
times like physical comedy like someone actually like falling down or getting
hit by something like you might think of series like old series like The Three Stooges.
Where it's just kind of like, you know people hitting each other and stuff
which is just a very obvious kind of crass sense of humor.
So the next one is Fleabag.
and I think this one was on Amazon Prime.
You know when you've done everything?
Squat!
And... and you feel great.
And even though your sister still hates you.
Thank you.
You're pretending to be friends because your dad is...
I'm joking he is just there.
-Here's to love. -Hey!
It's a comedy but it can be quite dark as well at the same time but again it's a
very typical type of British humour the main character in it who is actually the
creator and the writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge she's won so many awards for this
series she's very very witty.
-You really are very good-looking. -Thank You.
Very.
-Thank You. -Very.
Thank you.
So you get another idea of that British humour in
this series as well and also again, it's not quite the Queen's English but there
is more of a received pronunciation so it's definitely good for learning
learning English in that sense because it's kind of like the English in
The Crown but maybe much easier to understand.
-I look so good. -It's okay we can sort it out, just...
take some of your makeup off.
I'm not wearing any makeup.
What?!
What has happened? I have never seen you look so good.
Now everyone's going to think I got a fucking facial for my mother's funeral.
Oh, what the hell? You look incredible.
We're trying to mess her up.
No matter what I do with my hair, it just keeps falling in this really chic way.
-Sorry girls people are starting to arrive. -Thank you.
You don't have to greet them if it's to... gosh you look gorgeous!
Thank you.
So the next one is Black Mirror which is a Netflix series.
You said you don't know how much time there is.
What does that mean?
Sorry for game.
Oh, you recently logged your first kill.
-Huh -And how did that feel?
You ready?
If we drill down into the numbers you have got a solid popularity arc here.
No one is this happy.
A two-year-old with a fucking balloon isn't this happy.
I haven't I haven't watched this a lot but the thing that I like about it is
that you don't have to watch it in sequence so what I tend to do is if a
friend talks to me about a particular episode that they liked or that they're
recommending I'll just watch that episode so I kind of just dip into it
when things are recommended to me really.
Now black mirror is a British series but
a lot of times I think another great thing about it is that it will have kind
of a variety of different accents sometimes also you have American actors
on there they actually did one I think in the last season featuring Miley Cyrus
the singer and I think that whole episode was all American actors so
I think that's that makes it that's really great it's also one that I really enjoy
because of it being so realistic that it seems like things that could really
happen in the near future and kind of some of the scenarios that you see and
and like you said I don't watch every single one and a lot of times what I'll
do is I'll go on to Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB which are different web sites where
you can see ratings and I'll actually like look for like the episodes that are
the highest rated of any season when they come out so I think that's kind of
nice to have that ability to pick and choose based on your interests and
whether or not an episode looks good to you.
-See you tomorrow Jay Jay. -See you Lacy.
Oh, saw your boy in the fire had just now so cute!
Yeah he's really something.
So the last one is Peaky Blinders.
It's delicate Mr. Shelby.
Concerns to the factory
down the road of BSA,
rumors get started.
Rumors that there was a robbery.
Robbery of what?
Speak.
I asked my men to steal me four bikes with petrol engines.
They picked up the wrong fucking crate.
So that's why they sent a cop from Belfast?
Maybe, maybe not
The thing I love about this series is the way it's shot and the
historical aspects I really like the 1920s and often in movies in series you
see the 1920s in America but not necessarily in the UK.
I would say I feel
the same I love history and I thought it was really interesting kind of seeing
what this period was like in the UK which I didn't really know anything
about yeah it's really good to see that and it's also it's it's kind of hard to
understand sometimes so even as a native speaker I do find myself reading the
subtitles I have to watch it with subtitles because, I mean the Birmingham
accent can be quite strong.
What?
-Not Michael. -No, no Michael, no.
'Cause Michael deals with legitimate business.
-You saw him before us. -John, not now.
Wait, what did you say?
You saw Michael before us!
Fuck's sake, John.
And I believe if people are really interested in historical series like
this you mentioned one that's kind of taking more the perspective of the same
era in the United States, right?
Yeah so one of my top three seasons ever is
Boardwalk Empire and it's set in the time of prohibition in Jersey in America.
So it's true it's set during the same time so a lot of the stories kind
of overlap a little bit you'll come across some of the famous gangsters
I suppose that you hear or that you watch in movies but the thing I love
about Boardwalk Empire is just it's everything about it is amazing the
acting, the costumes, the scenery, the story it's just one of the best like
every episode is like watching a movie and you just can't take your eyes off it
and you get so engrossed in it so if there is anyone that hasn't watched it
yet I highly recommend it.
Hey guys I hope you had a ton of fun
today and you enjoyed them learning about those series with Andrea as much
as I did now first of all why don't you tell me down in the comments below which
of these series that you're going to check out or if there's another British
TV series that we missed.
And finally if you are ready to take your English
fluency and confidence to the next level and to understand your favorite movies
and TV series even without the subtitles then I want to invite you to check out
our fluent with friends course and remember to get that 49% discount just
use the coupon code two million at checkout!