How to Watch TV Shows WITHOUT Subtitles
Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Do you wanna watch English TV shows without
subtitles?
Let’s talk about it.
If you want to enjoy watching English TV shows
or movies without subtitles, you’re in the
right place, but first, we need to address
your mindset.
To watch the Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones,
or even Friends without subtitles, you need
to know, you will not understand every single
word.
Especially if right now it’s really challenging
for you to understand anything in an English
TV show, your goal is not to understand every
word.
Your goal is to enjoy watching the show and
to understand the context and the general
ideas without subtitles.
So in your mind, you need to let go of any
frustration, “I can’t understand that phrase!”,
“Oh I missed that expression.”
Don’t worry about it, let it go, the main
purpose here, especially starting off is to
understand the context.
Before we start with my method, my one tip
for subtitle success, let’s find a short three
to five minute YouTube video or TED Talk that
is a good maybe too fast, not too slow video.
Let’s imagine you can already understand 10
words.
Okay, it’s a good start, I wanna make sure
you don’t start with a video where someone
is talking like, it’s just so fast in your
ears that it is unbelievable.
Let’s start with something a little bit simpler
and use this method and then you can work
your way up.
What’s the method?
Let’s talk about it.
My number one tip for subtitle success is
to first watch the video without subtitles.
Here you’re testing your ears, what can you
understand?
What don’t you understand?
Second, watch it again with subtitles in English.
Here you can see each word, you can catch
each word, even if you need to pause it.
Great, you are seeing each word and you’re
hearing it at the same time.
And then the final part, is to watch it again
without subtitles.
Did you hear more than the first time?
Probably because now that you’ve seen those
words in the English subtitles, you’re gonna
be able to pick them up audibly when you are
listening without subtitles.
This one tip of actually using subtitles to
help you slowly get away from using subtitles
is an excellent method and it’s something
that I’ve used a lot as I’ve been learning
French.
So let’s see how you can use this in the real
world with a TED Talk.
Let’s go over to the TED Talk website.
Here you’ll find a lot of great speeches about
interesting topics.
Most of them are about 15 minutes, but I see
one here that is only five minutes and 41
seconds, great.
Let’s click on that.
You can listen to the speaker, but the cool
thing about TED Talks is that you can click
on the transcript.
You can choose different languages, if you
would like, but I recommend starting with
English.
You’re learning English, so test your English
skills, and you can click on any sentence
and it will take you to that exact place in
the speech that used that sentence.
So if you want to test your ears again and
again, listen to that sentence, read the sentence,
use the subtitles, don’t use the subtitles,
use this method with TED Talks.
Be consistent and practice understanding fast
English every day.
I recommend taking this technique and challenging
yourself for three days.
One day one, choose a short video clip, three
to five minutes and use those three different
steps.
Use it without subtitles, with subtitles,
then without subtitles.
And on day two, go and listen to a new clip
and use those three steps, but when you’re
finished, you back and watch the day one clip
without subtitles.
You’ll be surprised that you can actually
understand more and more each time that you
listen, and then one day three, chose a new
clip, use those three steps without subtitles,
with subtitles, without subtitles, and then
guess what?
You’re gonna go back, go back to the day two
clip, go back to the day one clip, and watch
those without subtitles.
You can repeat this for as many days as you’d
like, but I think three days is a good starting
point, it’s a good challenge, you can do it.
If you’re studying a five minute video, it
should only take you 15 minutes the first
day, 20 minutes the second day, and 25 minutes
the third day.
That’s not too bad, especially if you are
focusing and really improving your listening
skills, of course you can always join the
30 day English listening challenge and challenge
yourself for 30 days, you can join up here
or learn more information about it, but you
can also use this technique yourself when
you are proactive and taking action to improve
your skills.
And now I have a question for you, in the
comments below this video, let me know, do
you want to watch TV shows without subtitles?
Have you ever watched an English TV show without
subtitles?
Let us know in the comments and I look forward
to seeing what you have to say.
Thanks so much for learning English with me
and I’ll see you again next Friday for a new
lesson here on my YouTube channel.
Bye.
The next step is to download my free e-book,
Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English
Speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently and fluently.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for more free lessons.
Thanks so much, bye!