English Topics How to Improve your English with Music and Movies
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Alisha: Hi, everybody and welcome back to
English Topics.
My name is Alisha.
Today I’m joined in the studio by…
Davey: I’m Davey.
Alisha: Welcome, Davey.
Thanks for joining us.
Today, our topic is going to be about how
to use movies and music and TV shows to improve
your English.
So, we’re both going to share from our own
personal experiences but maybe we’re going
to share a few things we haven’t done, I suppose,
but perhaps could help you, or not…
Anyway, do you want to start?
Davey: Sure.
Alisha: Alright.
What’s a way to improve English with music,
TV, movies?
Davey: Alright.
Alisha: Any ideas?
Davey: Yes, I do have some ideas.
My first recommendation is, use “subtitles
in English” as early as possible.
This isn’t always very easy if you’re just
starting out learning English.
If you’re starting out learning English and
you’re watching movies in English you’re probably
watching in subtitles of your own language.
But, as soon as you’re comfortable reading
in English and when you’re comfortable getting
most of what you’re listening to in English,
I think switching to subtitles in English
is really important.
Because, I think when people are watching
movies and television shows in English, they
think that it’s really going to improve their
listening more than anything else but I think
you can improve other skills, too, not only
your listening.
And so, if you switch to subtitles in English,
you’re also going to improve your reading.
You’ll learn to read faster, you’ll match
the spellings of English words with how they
sound and that will really help improve both
skills a lot more quickly.
And, will help you understand what’s going
on on-screen.
Alisha: Yeah, actually, I really do agree
with that but interestingly enough I put maybe
the first step to what you just described,
that was one of mine.
So, I said, “listen to movies in your target
language with your native language subtitles
on.”
So, initially, I was thinking of this as an
initial tip.
So, to get used to listening to your target
language but then being able to familiarize
yourself in your native language through using
subtitles.
But then, after you get comfortable with that,
maybe you watch the same movie a few times,
for example, you get familiar with the story,
with the things that the characters say, then,
you can switch to using subtitles and familiarize
yourself with the story in a whole new way.
So, that can be a really fun way, I think,
to practice both your listening and your reading
skills.
Davey: I totally agree.
Alisha: I suppose you could even read the
subtitles out loud along with the characters,
too.
Davey: That’s we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Alisha: Oh, my.
Davey: That brings me to–you should have
gone first.
But, that brings me partly to my second tip
which is shadowing.
So, you can do this not only with movies and
television but with music as well.
Basically, just trying to repeat what you
hear or what you’re reading as you’re listening
to it on the screen very immediately after
you hear it.
And so, for example, if you hear a song lyric
or a phrase in the movie or TV show, immediately
after you hear it, try and repeat it back.
That will help kind of improve your speaking,
especially, regarding pronunciation and how
you connect different words together.
Yes.
Alisha: Yep, yep.
I had to same one.
I had the same point about music.
Mine was—mine, in particular, was “memorized
song lyrics and sing along.”
So, I think that gives you an extra sort of
way to study if you actually have to read
the song lyrics and try to remember them and
repeat them back.
Sometimes even without the accompaniment of
the artist that you’re listening to.
That can be a good way to practice trying
to create or trying to just repeat something
without having necessarily like the audio
prompt.
But, one point, and I was thinking about this
as I was writing this card too, it is a little
bit tricky.
If there is something a little bit different
about music and I think this differs from
TV shows and movies, sometimes, one, music
doesn’t always use perfect grammar.
Davey: That’s true.
Alisha: And, two, sometimes artists will kind
of stretch sounds or artists will kind of
change sounds or change emphasis to make the
words that they’re using match the beat or
the rhythm of their song.
So, sometimes it’s not always the best way
to practice your target language.
And, one more point, if I can add to that,
is that, frankly, a lot of popular music,
there are lots of rude words you have to be
really careful about.
And, there’s also just kind of nonsense, too,
so you can’t expect everything that you hear
in music to be exactly the way that people
speak but in general, yeah, I think…
Davey: That’s exactly right.
Alisha: …in terms of just getting familiar
with them, a better–more natural rhythm,
it can be a really good tool to use.
Davey: I completely agree.
Alisha: Yeah, okay.
So, we’re super—
Davey: You set me up, again.
My third one.
Alisha: Oh.
Davey: I’m just blending right together.
Alisha: Okay.
Davey: My last point here is “don’t believe
everything you hear.”
Specifically, to mean that, yes, not only
song lyrics but TV shows and movies often
times use imperfect or incorrect grammar as
well.
And so, you can’t always think that that’s
exactly how something should be said just
because you heard it in a song or saw it on
TV.
So, for example, right now, I’m actually re-watching
“Buffy, the Vampire Slayer,” I’m a very,
very open Buffy fan.
And, as I was watching Buffy just today, I
realize how they speak on that show isn’t
really like most people speak English.
Especially, that the writers of that show
and the characters on that show sort of have
their own way of speaking that isn’t typical.
If you’re a learner watching that show or
watching other shows, too, you might think
that that’s how people speak English and hearing
vocabulary that you’ve never heard before
but it’s just made up for the show.
It’s only used on the show.
Alisha: So, that’s a key point then.
So, maybe, if you’re going to watch TV, you’re
going to watch movies to try and study English,
maybe like science fiction or fantasy or like
historical movies aren’t necessarily the best—well,
maybe historical movies to some extent, maybe
it’s good to pick like a modern or a more
contemporary thing to study from.
Like, I know “Friends” is a really popular
TV show.
That’s comedy, a lot of people like to use
that.
So, that is a good point, too, I think.
Okay, we actually differed finally on that.
I had something totally different.
This is something that I actually did when
I was studying which is “translate songs
you enjoy” or at least try to translate
songs that you enjoy.
A song is usually, maybe three minutes, four
minutes long, and there probably aren’t going
to be words that entire time and there’s going
to be some repetition of those words.
So, if you can identify, if you can find a
song that you like, an artist that you like
and maybe there’s something that you just
love this particular track or whatever it
is, if you try to translate that, even if
it’s not a correct translation, you can still
be learning those words and you can still
be studying how those words fit together and
how maybe you can understand those words in
other situations.
So, maybe, a word that you’ve translated in
song A, you might hear again in song B, maybe
by the same artist or a different artist.
So, because you took the time to try to translate
it or at least have an idea of what it might
mean, you can identify it in a different context,
in a different situation.
So, this is something that I actually did.
Davey: That’s a very good idea.
Alisha: Yeah.
Davey: Yeah.
Alisha: And it was fun.
Davey: I think any time you hear a new word
or any time you hear a language that you’re
studying, you’re doing that so that you can
use that language in the future in other contexts.
And so, that’s a really good first step to
doing that.
Taking what you’ve learned, trying to translate
it and using it in other ways.
Alisha: I think so.
Okay, that’s all I have.
So, you have anything else?
Davey: That’s all I have for now.
Alisha: Okay.
If you have any other ways that you like to
use, music, movies, TV shows, other kinds
of media to study English or to study another
language, please let us know in the comments.
Alright, thanks very much, Davey for joining
us.
And, thank you, all, very much for watching.
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