Hi everyone, welcome back to English with Max. In this video
I'm going to talk about TV shows that could help you improve your English.
In my last video I talked about movies. If you haven't seen that video yet,
I recommend that you first go and watch that, because a lot of the things I said
about movies also apply to TV shows. As usual, I'd like to remind you that you
can follow me on social media - I have Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Don't forget to hit the red subscribe button if you haven't yet subscribed to
my channel - it's free, so why not? And remember that there are English
subtitles available for all my videos. If you're watching this on a mobile device,
you need to click the little three dots - the three little dots in the corner - and
then click "captions". If you're watching this on a computer, you either need to
click the CC button, or the little button that looks like a credit card. Thank you,
Thomas (who's one of my viewers) for pointing that out to me. I knew the
button looked different, but I didn't know how to describe it. Okay, let's get
started. Firstly, let's look at some terminology. Some of you might be
wondering why I've said "TV show" and not "TV series". What's the difference?
Often you can use them interchangeably, but in my mind "TV show" is more generic, and it
refers to any programme on television, apart from the news and movies.
These include fictional shows, game shows, shows about politics, or documentaries.
There might just be one episode, or a series of episodes.
And just so you know, in the UK and Australia people often say "TV programme"
instead of "TV show". A TV series is a type of TV show that has multiple episodes
and often the same people or characters appearing in those episodes. And yes,
"series" is plural and singular. One series, two series, three series. And yes, we can just
say "series" instead of "TV series", just like we can say "show" instead of "TV show",
if it's clear that we're talking about television or something that appears on
the internet. I think watching TV shows is generally more beneficial than
watching movies. The first reason is that if you find a TV show that you really
like, you might become addicted to it, so to speak, and you'll just continue
watching because you want to know what happens. So you'll be working on your
English, but it won't feel like work. Another reason is that series are
typically a lot longer than movies. This allows you to get used to different
characters' accents, and you'll probably hear the same words and phrases repeated
a lot, which is good for your vocabulary. A lot of the things I said about movies
are the same for TV shows. Dramas are generally easier than comedies; very old
shows are normally harder to understand than newer ones (when I say "old" I mean 60
or 70 years old); shows with regional accents are typically harder; and so are
science fiction and fantasy. To give you some concrete examples: Game of Thrones
is quite hard. That's mainly because it's fantasy and there are a lot of names and
words that the author invented. Some of you might have also seen the series
True Detective. I thought it was very good, at least the first season (I didn't see the
second season because people told me not to bother), but even I sometimes didn't
understand every word. That's partly because it's set in Louisiana and lots
of the characters had strong southern accents. But it's also because
Matthew McConaughey mumbles. If you mumble, it means you don't open your mouth very
wide and you don't articulate very well.
I went to the beach yesterday and it was really great. There was like,
lots of sun and waves and everything, but I got lots of sand in my clothes
and it was just... yeah, even in my underwear.
I sometimes mumble as well, but not normally when I'm teaching English. So what do I think are
some good TV shows for your English? Firstly, I think Friends is a good option.
I know I said that comedies are often a bit difficult, but there are exceptions,
and I think that Friends is definitely a lot easier than something like The Big
Bang Theory, because there isn't all that scientific language. Even though I think
that The Big Bang Theory is a better show. While we're on the topic of
comedies, I also enjoyed Sex and the City, and I think that the actors normally
speak quite clearly. Be careful, though, it's for adults. I thought that Desperate
Housewives was pretty good, and last year I watched a black comedy called
Imposters, which was actually one of my favourite shows last year. A black comedy
is a comedy that has some darker or more serious elements. When it comes to dramas,
last year I watched Broadchurch, which is a very good British crime drama. Another
good British show for working on your English is Dr Martin. It's more a comedy-drama.
I also really liked Homeland, but I have a Spanish friend who said he
found it a bit difficult to follow at times. Another popular drama was Mad Men.
I only watched a few episodes, because I found it a bit boring,
but that's just me. Lots of people liked it, and I think it's relatively easy to
understand. I've also heard very good things about Stranger Things. I haven't
watched it, but I've seen clips of it and the English doesn't appear to be too
difficult. If you want to hear some Canadian English, you could watch
Anne with an E, which is based on the book Anne of Green Gables.
I watched it recently on Netflix. If you like soap operas or telenovelas ("telenovelas"),
you might like shows like Beverly Hills 90210, The O.C., Party of Five,
Dawson's Creek or Felicity. All of those shows are a bit old now - they're about 15
to 20 years old. I'm not really sure which soap operas or family dramas are
popular right now.
I didn't watch all of those. I only watched part of Dawson's Creek, and I did
watch Felicity. But I think Felicity was a little better than your average soap opera.
Something else that you can watch is reality TV. I know a lot of people
turn their nose up at reality TV, because it's not considered very intellectual,
but I think some shows are a bit better than others.
Reality TV shows are shows in which there are no actors. It's just real
people being filmed doing various things. Of course there's some debate about how
"real" it actually is, but that's another topic.
Reality TV can be useful for learning English, because you hear how people
speak in real life. This has its advantages and disadvantages. It's good
because you hear natural English, but some of the people on these shows speak
very badly. Nothing's perfect. I admit that I watch some reality TV.
My favourite reality TV series is The Amazing Race, which is basically a race
around the world, so you get to see lots of different countries. I also like
Survivor, and I admit that last year I even watched parts of The Bachelor.
Oh the shame.
Another show I can recommend is called Extreme Cheapskates.
A cheapskate is a person who is stingy - someone who really doesn't like spending
money, in other words. Lots of the episodes are on YouTube. It's really
quite hilarious at times. Finally, you could watch game shows. Game shows are
just shows in which there's a game that regular people participate in, for
example, Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune. My favourite game show is The Chase. If you
like trivia or you like expanding your general knowledge, and you really want to
expand your English vocabulary, then I can highly recommend The Chase.
I recommend the British version and the Australian version. There are lots of
episodes on YouTube. Thanks very much for watching, guys. I'll put the names of all
the shows I've mentioned in the description box. If you have any
questions, don't hesitate to write them in the comments, and also please tell me
what your favourite TV shows are. Don't forget to hit the thumbs up if you
liked the video, and as usual please share this with your friends.
See you next time!