Is it useful to learn English by watching American TV shows?

1. Watching American TV shows is helpful for learning English. As a seasoned English learner who has been studying English since the third grade of elementary school, watching American TV shows is definitely helpful! Learning* is a long journey; it’s not just about learning English – any language learning, in fact. Without an appropriate environment, it’s difficult to make rapid progress. That’s why watching American shows serves as a way to find an environment where English is spoken. But as someone with no foundation in English, it’s better not to try to watch American TV shows just to be part of the trend. Why say that? The original poster has been watching Korean dramas for ten years, but to this day they only know phrases like “Oppa,” “Kamsahamnida,” “Oh My God,” and “Saranghae”; they don’t know anything else. This is what happens when you watch Korean dramas with no prior knowledge. So for those with no prior experience, it is recommended to find a good teacher and enroll in a course to study properly*.

This post was last edited by jimmiy on 2015-9-2 at 17:19. II. How to learn English by watching American TV shows? 1. It’s best to watch American shows every day, in large quantities, to maintain a good sense of language. If possible, it is recommended to download the bilingual alphabet version for viewing. My personal suggestion is: first watch it without the subtitles, then watch it again with English subtitles, and finally watch it once more with both Chinese and English subtitles. It’s a good idea to prepare a notebook during this time to jot down any words you don’t understand, as well as some short phrases and sentence patterns. 2. Practice *spoken English while watching American shows. If you are watching American TV shows with the intention of relaxing, then don’t focus on improving your spoken English – just enjoy yourself. Stop with the nonsense. If you want to improve your spoken English and enhance your ability to express yourself in English. Here are the suggestions: Be sure to watch with bilingual subtitles; try not to watch without them, and it’s best to practice speaking at the same time*. That is, say what the other person is saying, and repeat it yourself. If you don’t understand something, pause, look at the subtitles to read those parts several times, then watch again until you can pronounce the sentence smoothly, after which you can continue watching normally. This must be a very boring exercise; there’s nothing to do about it. That’s how learning goes; there are always times when it’s boring. Self-study is like that. Of course, if you don’t want to study on your own and would rather find some friends to learn English with. The original poster suggests finding a training institution to study properly. Or find an online English school on the internet. Here are a few recommended websites for learning English: Hiknow (Lezhi English), hiknow.com/sessionhall.html?uid=Ylt0901. It is an online English training institution based in China that has been operating for a long time; it offers a wide range of courses, covering everything from basic levels to advanced business English. Students can choose between teachers from China and abroad. The courses are completely open; each class has 2-8 participants, and there are also one-on-one sessions. There are over 200 classes per week, and you can choose the courses you want to try out first. You can also pay for classes to communicate orally with foreigners directly. It offers great value for money.

III. Which American TV shows are suitable for learning English? For beginner-level American shows, the poster truly thinks that animations are very suitable. The speaking speed won’t be too fast, and it will be all everyday conversations that are used frequently. I recommend DC’s \"Superman The Animated Series\" – an edition released from 1996 to 2000, consisting of four seasons. It features many DC heroes in the background scenes, including Lex Luthor, who has a complex relationship with Superman; it’s absolutely entertaining. Justice League: It premiered in November 2001 and ended in May 2006, with a total of five seasons and 91 episodes. In July 2004, the animated series Justice League Unlimited (JLU) was released as a sequel to Justice League. It had three seasons, with 13 episodes per season, for a total of 39 episodes. In China, the animations of \"Justice League\" and \"Infinity Justice League\" are generally referred to as \"Superman Justice League\".

Sex and the City: Many people say Desperate Housewives is great for learning spoken English. I’ve watched a few; the original poster seems to prefer Sex and the City more. A more feminine type of drama. More lifestyle-oriented, everyday spoken language. And there are only 6 seasons, so it’s easy to finish watching. Modern Family: A comedy series that I’ve been watching recently. Actually, the original poster prefers short and concise American dramas, and this one is great – it’s similar to \"Life Is Wild,\" with each episode lasting only about 20 minutes. Compared to “Life is Wild”, this is more suitable for learning spoken language. For more advanced readers, I recommend the political series \"House of Cards,\" which deals with matters related to the White House and has received high praise. There’s also “Don’t Lie to Me”. The original poster really likes this series; it’s a shame that there seem to be only three seasons. Personally, I think the first season is the most exciting, as it focuses on solving cases through microexpression analysis. It’s really good, and the lead actor’s performance is excellent as well. Thumbs up! Summary: You must persevere. Transferred from the English Speaking Learning* website: http://site.douban.com/198136/

American dramas are quite good material, but whether they are suitable for “learning*” is still up for discussion

It’s best to watch it with English subtitles; when you encounter jokes you don’t understand or parts you can’t hear, pause and rewind to listen again and search on Google

For 99% of people, it’s sufficient to have a clear and understandable pronunciation. It’s too difficult to train one’s pronunciation to the point where others think you are a native speaker.

I think the Lezhi courses are quite good; I signed up for those designed for beginners, and later I subscribed to other courses as well. Avoid classes that are recorded; live classes are better as you can communicate directly with the teacher.

To put it simply, it’s a case of having high expectations but lacking the necessary skills. Many people think that only the cool slang used in American TV shows can be considered real spoken language, and they believe that the dialogue in those shows is worth imitating; they consider the dialogue in materials like New Concept 1 and Traveling Around America to be too simple. In my opinion, it are the words, phrases, and sentence structures found in materials such as New Concept 1 and Traveling Around America that we should focus on, striving to make them part of our own vocabulary.

I think it’s still useful, but don’t overgeneralize; a binary approach isn’t good