Learn English with Friends | Part 2 (1)
Hi everyone and welcome to the English LingQ Podcast with me, Elle.
Before we get into the second part of my chat with Cara of Leo Listening
about the TV Show Friends, let me show you the Friends shelf on LingQ.
So you see it here, learn English with Friends.
It is loaded with episodes.
If you would like to learn from one, you click import and you can
see here the instructions on how to import YouTube videos into LingQ.
The episode is hosted on YouTube.
Make sure you have the LingQ browser extension.
You click through then it's as easy as clicking on the extension and import.
And there you have it, your lesson with that episode that you chose of Friends.
You can work through the words and phrases as you watch, turning all
those blue highlighted words yellow.
You can review what you've learned at the end of the lesson if you'd like.
So if you are into Friends, give it a try and learn from content of interest.
Okay, let's get back to that interview with Cara.
We could, we could argue that, that there is a, there is a
lot of escapism and fantasy.
Um, it's fun to watch people living like this in New York.
Um, yeah.
You know, it doesn't, it doesn't ha It's not supposed to be a documentary
. No, exactly.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So, you know, maybe we should be a little bit uh, fairer to it, but I mean, I, I'm
a bit critical of the, the ongoing appeal of, of, of Friends because it's not as
if, like, okay, if for, for whatever reason friends had been the high point
of TV, if like, you know, friends had been the peak, the pinnacle, the ultimate
TV series and everything since Friends was simply a reflection of the decline
of TV and everything before Friends was just not as good, I would understand.
The thing is, I think TV has really gone on, oh, to be a really incredible,
creative medium, you know, since, you know, during the friends period, and
especially after the Friends period.
So we've had some really incredible TV series, you know, in the
two thousands, in the 2010s.
Um, things like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, the Walking Dead, like really
ambitious TV series that have really pushed the medium, like pushed it
to, to, to, to be more ambitious and really creative and really exciting.
Like you wanna stay in and watch certain shows on, on TV
or stream them or whatever.
That's obviously all developed since Friends.
So the idea that people are still watching like a sitcom from the nineties
with problematic, you know, fat, fat phobia, you know, I don't know.
It's, it's as if, it's as if like the last 10 or 15 years didn't happen.
I don't know.
Like, you know, am I alone in feeling this?
I see what you mean.
It's like why latch onto, well, why, let's discuss, why do we think people have
latched onto Friends for this very reason, this for this purpose of, you know,
entertainment and.English learning, so...
And English learning.
Cause it's not as, if, it's not as if there aren't other sitcoms.
I mean, there are good reasons to watch a sitcom, you know?
Um, it's, it's short.
Uh, the episodes are short.
The, the, the situations are very concrete and grounded in daily
life, so they're easier to, you know, understand and make sense of.
Um, and obviously if you enjoy watching the show, then you'll get addicted.
You'll want to keep watching it.
And I think that is often the um, in, in language learning, we need
things we can get addicted to, but you know that that could be a ton
of other sitcoms, either from that period or, or, or, or more recent.
Good ones.
Um yeah.
Good.
It's Subjective.
Good.
Yeah.
Even like, but I mean, I suppose there are quite a few bad ones as well, but
yeah, I mean, this is what, this is what I don't understand and, and occasionally
when I, you know, so there are repeats of Friends on TV all the time, right?
I think in every single country there's repeats of Friends all the
time, and so sometimes I come across them in France and, you know, there's
just all this canned laughter, fake laughter in the background.
I'm like, some of these jokes aren't even like, they're not even that funny.
I mean, if you took away that laughter, would people laugh?
So, I don't know.
I'm confused.
, I'm, I'm confused about this.
I'm with
you.
Yeah, I, I guess I, I was thinking about this, um, lately, and I guess you are
right, it is a sitcom, so people start to kind of feel like they know the
characters, they learn to love them.
Um, they make mistakes.
People like seeing people that they're low point, you know,
it's like everyday life stuff.
But yeah, it is amazing to me too, actually.
Um, I guess, you know, it's, it's easy to follow.
There aren't too many crazy, um, you know, it, it doesn't
go too deep, uh, into anything.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, mean
it's, it's, it's not the goal of the program to such on really deep subjects.
Yeah.
Maybe it's just sheer ubiquity.
So maybe like for a lot of people, this was the first time that they
saw an American TV series, so maybe they didn't see, I don't know,
Cheers or Seinfeld or, you know, whatever other ones we can imagine.
I'd rather watch Frazier.
I mean...
yeah, that, that used to be on after Friends.
I remember when we watched it on Friday night...
yeah.
It was friends and Frazier and I was like, I was a bit too young
I think, becasue I loved watch...
I loved Friends.
Then Frazier, come on, I didn't get like half the jokes.
Yeah.
Frazier's a bit.
Yeah it's a bit more sophisticated for sure.
Okay.
So maybe that would alienate some people.
I dunno.
But um,
yeah.
. Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a bit of a, it's a bit of a, but yeah, I guess people like watching
beautiful people in New York.
Yes.
Um, you know, um, not often, not doing very much.
You know, the ones we talked about, the ones that have these well paid
jobs, they never seem to be at work.
They were always at the coffee shop.
Yes.
Like in the middle of the day.
Right?
In the middle of the day, like I know, you know, you could have some flexibility in
your hours, but still it seems a bit much.
Like are they getting, are they, do they all happen to, of course
Rachel worked in the coffee shop.
Do they all happen to live super close, that they could just walk there?
It's a bit of a coincidence.
I doubt it.
Yeah, that was a bit of a...
Yeah, but I mean, that makes sense from a point of view of a sitcom.
Cause you wanna have like these familiar places and...
anyway.
It's a sitcom.
It's not supposed to be real life, you know, completely real life-like.
Um, so Leo Listening your website and YouTube channel, it's all about
learning from movies and TV shows.
Um, what advice, what tips would you give anyone wanting to learn from a TV
show like friends or, um, or a movie?
Or anything else...
Um, or anything else.
Well, I mean, Yeah, so I, I, I talked about the importance of
like being motivated to watch it.
So I, I mean, I think that's the, the starting point is thinking about,
well, what, you know, what do you like to watch, um, in your own language?
At the same time, taking into account that, you know, it's probably
going to be easier to follow a TV series or a movie if you've already
seen it dubbed into your language.
Oh.
So that can also be a factor.
But I think the, the main thing is to actually find something
that, that you want to watch.
So if you start watching Friends and you're like, what is this trash?
And you want to just turn it off, then you know, there's no point in continuing.
Like there's nothing inherent about friends that you wouldn't find,
I don't think in another sitcom.
You know, if you want something that is fairly accessible with relatively
short episodes and a very concrete like day-to-day life context that could be
found in lots of other sitcoms, and you, I'm sure you can find something
else that you might like, like better.
Um, so yeah, finding the motivation, finding something that is accessible and,
and also potentially, you know, useful.
So depending on your situation, you know, you might want to watch
something a bit more specialized.
Becasue some TV series are to do with like particular professions.
So like, um, medical dramas are so popular.
Um,
Grey's Anatomy
so that could be interesting if you...
yeah.
For example, it's been going for years.
Oh, I know people who've learned English with, with that,
who've been following that.
I mean, that's especially interesting if you're like a healthcare worker.
But it could also just be interesting if you, if you like
that kind of hospital drama.
'm sure they exist in other languages.
Um, and there's also, you know, sometimes there are also TV series that are to
do with, um, yeah, other professions.
I watch a lot of property programs dubbed into French.
So, um, like Property Brothers in French is called ...they're,
they're Canadian, aren't they?
Drew and, um,...
I've heard, yeah, I've heard of it
Jonathan.
I've never seen it, but I, I do know of them.
And that they are Canadian.
Yeah.
So I like, know a lot of words to do with like home renovations and building,
which isn't actually really that useful to me, but I mean, I suppose
it's always good, it's always good to expand your vocabulary, isn't it?
So um, yeah, that's one tip is kind of, you know, yeah.
What you're interested in, what you need trying to find a balance
between those things while also watching something accessible.
Um, and then yeah, kind of getting, getting into it is important.
So that's what I like about TV series is it kind of forces you to get into
the habit of watching it regularly.
Yeah.
Whereas a movie is more of a one-off.
So, I mean, that's why I'm, I have a, a movie club so that we're, we're
kind of go into a bit more depth with watching a movie and you're not
just kind of watching it once and then you never do anything with it.
Like you never talk about it or you never discuss it with other people.
So I think that can also be really interesting is finding people to
talk to about what you're watching.
Um, and then that kind of helps you actually implement what
you're, what you're learning.
So you might be picking up some new words and expressions from watching TV series
episodes or movies, but then you need to actually apply them and use them.
And so the, the most logical way to do that is, is then to
talk about what you've watched.
So I mean, that could be with a teacher, if your teacher is cool with, um, letting
you discuss what you've watched in class or you could just find other people who
like the, the movie or the TV series.
So I'm sure for a series like Friends, I mean there must be endless forums.
Yes.
I'm sure.
Online where people are still talking about it or like sharing
Friends memes or whatever it is.
So, um, it's true that, yeah, the more popular a series is probably