- Listening comprehension is one of the most difficult problems which occur when talking to native speakers. The variety of English accents can be even more frustrating. Sometimes it gets so bad that an American doesn't understand a Scottish man, although it is totally fine the other way round (the thing is that American English is more widely spread around the world thanks to movies and other products of mass culture). We'll duscuss the accents next time, but now we'll talk about how to improve listening comprehension of native speakers.
Tv-series are more useful than movies for listening skills training.
- The more you practice, the better you get — an idea that is very pretty banal, but also true. If you want to understand native speakers better, just listen. Listen a lot. There is no way around it. The question then arises — what to listen to?
- Many people try watching movies in English, although it may not be such a good idea. An average movie is about 90 minutes long, there is its own story, which is exposed in 15 minutes, there are a lot of actors, whose pronunciation you are not used to. More than that, most of modern movies are just big–budget blockbusters, the sort of movies where they shoot first and ask questions later. Not much use for your English.
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But how come tv–series are more useful than movies?
- You get used to the main charachters' ways of pronunciation, and extras don't let you relax. Don't get upset if it seems difficult to understand their speech in the first episodes. If you manage to keep track of the story, it means that you are on the right way. We also recommend not using subtitles, because that's what we, humans, are — always trying to go the easy way. When subtitles are on, you are reading them without training your listening skills. If there is a fragment you find hard to comprehend, you should go back and watch it again (don't do this too often, because the whole process may turn into a nightmare).
The best tv–series for listening skills training
The list below consists of the best tv–series for listening skills training with numbers of seasons and episode duration:
- 1. Friends, 10 seasons, 1994–2004, 20 min.
- Absolute classics of tv–series making. There are not many people who have never heard of six friends, fans of Central Perk cafe who often get in funny situations. It is not just interesting to watch, it’s also extremely useful in terms of studying the English language. The actors speak pretty fast, but not much faster than real people. Their language is full of expressions, which are still widely used. Many jokes are based on puns, which can’t be properly translated into other languages.
- 2. The Big Bang Theory, 10 seasons, 2007–…, 20 min.
- The story focuses on friends who are brilliant physicists, but who can’t communicate with other people in a normal way. It is thought that since this show is about scientists, it is hard to watch due to terms that are used. Unlike «House M. D.» where terms actually move the story forward, here they are a mere background.
- 3. Desperate Housewives, 8 seasons, 2004–2012, 45 min.
- An amusing story of four women living in a residential area was interesting for both men and women. The plot is pretty simple, there are its ups and downs, but the language used in the show is simple, most of the time it's obvious what the characters mean.
- 4. Lost, 6 seasons, 2004–2010, 45 min.
- Do you remember the time when everybody was talking about people who sirvived a plane crash and lived on a mysterious island? This show marked the era when simple soap operas started turning into real cinema. If it had not been for «Lost», we would have never seen such series as «Breaking Bad», «Game of Thrones» and «True Detective». Yes, it gets repetitive. Yes, it is often hard to believe what you see on the screen. But this is nothing compared to the chills this show will give you. The language is very simple, so after you get used to the actors’ pronunciation, it will be easy breezy. But be careful with watching it in the evening, as you risk spending a night awake!
- 5. The Mentalist, 7 seasons, 2008–2015, 45 min.
- A great detective story that is focused on a genius detective Patrick Jane. It often reminds of House M. D. (thanks to piercing look and sarcastic comments), but it is really well made. The actors speak fairly slowly (unlike Sherlock’s stream of consciousness) and use common vocabulary.
This list contains such series that should be watched anyway. They also happen to be quite easy with the original sound. As soon as you get used to the language, you will be able to watch the shows, you are interested in. Don't get intimidated by the first impression, when you hear a lot of words you don't know.