Pratique du Shadowing: The best TV shows to learn English - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

One of the most difficult things,

in my opinion, about learning a language is that moment when you have to make the jump from like learner content,

content made specifically for people who are learning English, to native content.

Even people who speak very, very well often struggle with TV shows made for native speakers.

In this video, I wanted to give you some suggestions for TV shows to watch in English.

I'm going to split this list up, okay, into like two categories.

The first category is going to be shows that I think are a good stepping stone into native content.

So they are native TV shows for native speakers, but for some reason, I think they are are very very intelligible for somebody who is learning.

I think they will be easy for somebody who is learning English.

Then I'm going to make like the second half of this video TV shows

that I think are either culturally important or I just really like them.

So you can maybe get some recommendations from me as to you know TV shows

that I actually think are good and interesting and relevant to what people watch today.

We're going to start this list with TV shows that I think English learners are able to understand.

These will be some of the very, very first pieces of native content that will be accessible to you.

I'm going to start with one that I have already mentioned before, and that is reality TV.

Reality TV is something that is a show about real life, okay?

Real life.

For example, dating shows.

I think that dating shows are one of the easiest things to understand for an English learner because usually in these shows,

the whole concept is that two people are getting to know each other.

So the conversations that you're watching are typically things like, hi, how are you?

Nice to meet you.

Where are you from?

What do you like?

What's important to you?

What's your job?

And that's also conveniently the first thing that we usually learn how to say in another language.

We learn how to talk about our interests, our work, our family and ourselves.

What do you know you never told me?

Build up.

I'm okay.

Do you want kids?

Yeah, I'm open to negotiation.

One recommendation that I have, and I watch this in Spanish all the time, is Love is Blind.

This is a show on Netflix.

And this is a really, really interesting show because basically these people, they meet somebody without seeing them for the first time.

And they basically have to decide if they want to marry this person without ever seeing them.

And it's so interesting to watch another dating show

that I want to recommend and that I think will be so useful for English learners.

And I remember wishing that they had this in Spanish so that I could watch it in Spanish.

But we have a show here in the UK on Channel 4 called First Dates.

And it's basically a TV show that's set in a restaurant where two people turn up to go on a first date,

like a blind date with somebody.

And they have dinner, they get to know each other, and they basically decide if they would like to see this person again.

And you listen to more or less the whole conversation between these two people.

it's a really really good way to see how people actually interact with each other

because there is no script they have a huge age range

they have some people who are in their early 20s they

have people going on dates who are you know older people in their 70s 80s even sometimes

and it's really really interesting to see if these people have have chemistry

so I really recommend that First Dates on Channel 4.

I do appreciate

that you know accessing some of these shows is a little bit difficult especially something like First Dates on Channel 4.

When I lived abroad so I lived in the US

and also in Sweden and I would always use a VPN in order to access my favourite British TV shows.

I actually I used a VPN last week when I was in Spain

so I was very very happy to get in touch with NordVPN who are the sponsor of this video.

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I know that dating shows, like, they're just not for everyone.

I wanted to give you some alternatives as well.

For example, documentaries.

Documentaries are amazing for learning a language because if you think about it,

They are trying to be as clear and descriptive as possible.

They want you to understand what's going on.

It's educational.

It's trying to be clear and communicative.

That is the whole point.

It's the whole point of the show.

So as far as documentaries go, there's a few different options.

One is like nature documentaries.

I'm British, so I'm obviously going to recommend to you documentaries by David Attenborough.

He is honestly like a British national treasure.

We love him.

He just turned 100 this year.

He has a very, very RP pronunciation that, honestly, you don't hear so often anymore.

It's a very, very beautiful voice.

The documentaries that he works on are really, really important.

He had one which he did about the ocean, about the rainforests.

Every few years they come out and they are so beautifully filmed and they're fascinating.

100

They're really, really good.

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So if you haven't watched anything by David Attenborough before, I absolutely recommend him.

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I believe the documentaries are available on BBC iPlayer, but if I'm not mistaken,

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UK Netflix has them as well.

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If nature documentaries aren't really your thing.

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Like, that's fine.

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I get it.

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I honestly, I don't watch lots of them.

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What I like watching is like true crime.

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I love true crime documentaries.

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These are, they are accessible for learners, but some of them are easier than others.

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So I'm going to give you a few.

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These are all on Netflix, these recommendations.

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I'm going to give you a few that I think will be accessible.

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I watched one last week it's called lover stalker killer

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but I think this will be really easy

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because they like act out a lot of the things

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that happen they have like um remakes of the whole situation

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so that you you can understand another one that I watched recently

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that just blew my mind like I I could not believe it was um unknown number the high school catfish

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that documentary was so shocking and had me gripped

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and I also think it will be a little bit easier

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another one is the Idaho murders this has been trending recently on on Netflix on UK Netflix

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but I think this is a Netflix original

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so it should be available everywhere and finally I wanted to recommend um the Murdoch murders because I watched that documentary.

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When did I watch it?

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I watched it, I think two years ago.

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Yeah, I watched it.

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I watched it two years ago in Barcelona in summer.

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So it was freaking boiling.

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Like I could not go outside in the day and I would just sit inside and binge watch this series.

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Like I have never in my life been so invested in a documentary series.

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I don't know if it's going to be super easy to understand compared to the other ones, but I really wanted to recommend it.

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I really think that a lot of true crime is very,

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very 50-50 on whether it is easy for an English learner or not.

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The things that are easy, like I said, are these explanations of events when they're trying to make things as easy for you to understand as possible.

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But something to remember when watching these documentaries is if you are watching like an interrogation or interviews,

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sometimes people are trying to be deceptive.

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And actually, that's really, really challenging to pick up on as like a second language speaker.

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For example, there is a series which is only on...

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There is a series that is only on British Netflix called Murder Suspect, which follows an investigation squad.

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It basically follows the police as you know major crimes take place like murders take place

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and it's how the police within the police station try

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and respond and they'll have some clips for example where they are interviewing suspects people

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that they think did the crime and they will be interviewing them

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and that is going to be so hard to understand because usually the quality is very bad.

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A lot of the people they are speaking to have quite, quite strong accents.

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Um, I think this is all set in the North of England.

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They're trying to lie and deceive the police.

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So honestly, and they're shouting a lot of the time, these suspects are like yelling, screaming, swearing.

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It's a strong accent.

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I do think this could be a good moment to maybe discuss some of the more challenging recommendations that I have.

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These are TV shows that I honestly, I do not recommend them because I think they will be easy for English learners.

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I recommend them because they're really, really good TV.

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Okay.

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I just mentioned true crime, which kind of leads me nicely onto this like thriller category.

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If somebody recommends you a thriller to learn English, take that with a pinch of salt, okay?

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Just be careful because thrillers are designed to have suspense and that suspense,

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that feeling of like, oh my God, what is going to happen?

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That feeling of suspense comes from not knowing what is going to happen.

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They create drama by withholding information from you, by keeping information from you.

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So if you are trying to watch it in your second language, it is going to be more challenging.

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That being said, if thrillers are your thing, like you love a thriller and you think you would be engaged in the story

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and it would help you learn I want to recommend you Happy Valley it's set up in Yorkshire

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and it's a tv show about a female police officer who her daughter

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and she is basically having to balance that and the fact that she is a police sergeant.

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The main police officer is called Catherine Carwood

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and she's played by Sarah Lancashire and she is one of the most fantastic, talented actresses.

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The show is absolutely phenomenal, 10 out of 10.

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Even my mum watched Happy Valley and my mum hates thrillers

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so that's how you know that this show is really, really good.

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It's also a great way to hear a little bit more of that northern English accent,

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which unfortunately, you don't hear very much in the language learning space.

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Going off that, actually, I just thought of, if we're speaking about these regional accents, I'm going to give you two more recommendations, okay?

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One of them is, actually, both of them are comedies.

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One of them, one of my students is watching right now,

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and I was so impressed because when I watched this show I needed subtitles and that is Derry Girls.

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Derry Girls is a TV show set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

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I would recommend looking up the historical context

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which will help you understand the show a little bit more but the girls all speak with a Northern Irish accent,

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which actually you don't hear very much in a lot of television.

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And it was great.

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It was a really, really funny, fantastic show.

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It's actually my aunt's favourite TV show.

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So Derry Girls is a fantastic watch.

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Another really, really good TV show for practicing accents that I want to recommend, which is This Country.

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This Country is a TV show on BBC.

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I think Derry Girls, by the way, is on Channel 4.

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This country is probably one of my favourite comedies.

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It's set in the southwest of the UK, which has a very specific accent that I don't have.

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But this country is a TV show following two pretty stupid people, actually, living in a village.

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It's a mockumentary.

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So a mockumentary is like a fake documentary.

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It's a documentary mocking something, taking the piss out of something, like making jokes about something.

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And it's so funny.

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This country is such a funny TV show.

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I think I've watched it probably like, I'm actually not even joking.

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I think I've watched it 10 times.

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One more comedy for you here, like a TV show.

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And this actually is my favorite show.

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So if you want to learn English with my favorite show, this is it.

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It's Gavin and Stacey, which is again, it's on BBC, BBC iPlayer.

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Gavin and Stacey is a TV show about a Welsh girl

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and a boy from Essex who end up talking over the phone.

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They work in two offices set in different parts of the country.

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They end up going to London and meeting with their two friends.

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And it's a love story and a comedy about these two very, very different families coming together.

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Stacey from Wales, she comes from a more traditional kind of Welsh family,

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whereas people from Essex are generally considered to be a bit more flash they live near London.

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So it's how these two very, very different families come together.

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They actually released a Christmas special, I think two years ago, they released the Christmas special.

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It was one of the most watched TV episodes live in British history or something like this.

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I did mention that like thrillers are difficult because they're withholding information.

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comedy is really difficult as well because jokes are built on the idea

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that you are breaking somebody's expectation so that's why jokes are funny right is

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because something was said

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that was maybe different from what you expected the answer to

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be that's why watching comedies in your second language is kind of hard

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because a lot of the times the setup is going to be built on this idea

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that you are able to follow it easy enough and build assumptions or ideas around what's happening in the conversation.

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That being said, I wanted to recommend you some British comedy sort of things that aren't like sitcoms, like the ones I mentioned before.

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There's a really good show on Amazon Prime called Last One Laughing UK.

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They also have this show for many other countries as well.

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The whole idea is that they take, I think it's maybe 10 comedians, and they lock them in a room together for six hours,

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and nobody is allowed to smile or laugh.

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I was actually like dying watching it.

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I had tears like streaming down my face.

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But one of the good things about the show

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is that it will introduce you to probably the most iconic names in British comedy.

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We have a lot of like game shows and like panel shows in the UK.

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And basically all of them have the exact same people in it every single time.

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It'll be like Jimmy Carr,

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David Mitchell, Romesh Raganathan, Richard Ayuwari, Rob Beckett, Sarah Pascoe.

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It's like the same people every single time.

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And they're great.

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Like, they're super funny.

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But if you know these faces, it's a good thing because they're some of the people that British people know very well.

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So it helps you understand the culture.

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Also be careful of like falling into the trap that kids TV shows are easier or more accessible for English learners.

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They actually typically are not very easy, mostly because children do not exist in a vacuum.

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They do understand words around them and they do have a knowledge of language

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that is very different from what you will have from learning English from YouTube or from a textbook.

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And also kids shows are often designed to be entertaining to children, to like a four year old.

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And I'm guessing that you are not four.

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So it's going to be more difficult for you to focus.

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Often the voices will be a little bit strange or have a humour that's like random and quirky.

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And it's just boring if you're like a fully developed adult adult.

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That being said, I do know that some of you are parents with children, so I'm going to recommend you one children's show,

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so that if you want to watch it with your kids, you can.

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And that is Avatar, The Last Airbender.

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This is a TV show about people who can bend elements.

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So elements being earth, water, fire and air.

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And it's about the avatar who can bend all four of them.

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He has the power to control all four, but he needs to learn how to in order to save the world.

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He needs to master all four elements so that he can save the world.

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I have watched it several times.

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I watched it as a kid and I am now re-watching it again as an adult actually.

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And it's very, very good.

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anyway i think this list is now like pretty long i

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i will put everything down in the description as well along with the places

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that you can stream it there will also be the link

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for nordvpn in there as well i am now going to

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take my dog for a walk he's actually sleeping next to me i can show you

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he is so he is so cute

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if you have any more questions let me know

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if you do go and watch any of these shows please let me know

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if you liked them um if it

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if you could understand what they were saying i want to know

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so in general um go out there enjoy these shows and i will see you in the next video

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Vocabulaire et conseils d’expression pour cette leçon

Cette leçon d’expression orale de niveau B2 s’appuie sur la vidéo « The best TV shows to learn English ». Les mots qui reviennent le plus souvent : recommend, watched, English. Cette vidéo contient 268 phrases et 3229 mots à répéter en shadowing. La partie parlée dure 22:33. Le locuteur parle à un rythme régulier d’environ 143 mots par minute, confortable pour le shadowing. 86 % des mots font partie des 3 000 mots les plus courants en anglais ; le reste mérite d’être vu avant de commencer.

Vocabulaire clé de cette vidéo

Les 15 mots les plus avancés de la vidéo, avec leur prononciation et leur sens :

Mot	Prononciation	Sens
learner nom	/ˈlɜɹnəɹ/	apprenant, apprenante
thriller nom	/ˈθɹɪ.lə/	polar, thriller
accent nom	/ækˈsɛnt/	accent
recommendation nom	/ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/	recommandation
accessible adjectif	/əkˈsɛs.ɪ.bəl/	accessible
suspense nom	/səˈspɛns/	suspension
mockumentary nom	/ˌmɑkjuˈmɛn(t)əɹi/	faux documentaire, documenteur
avatar nom	/ˌæv.əˈtɑː(ɹ)/	avatar, incarnation
sponsor nom	/ˈspɒn.səː/	commanditaire, sponsor
bend verbe	/bɛnd/	courber, tordre
catfish nom	/ˈkætfɪʃ/	poisson-chat, silure
deceive verbe	/dɪˈsiːv/	tromper, leurrer
deceptive adjectif	/dɪˈsɛp.tɪv/	trompeur, qui induit en erreur
fascinate verbe	/ˈfæsɪneɪt/	fasciner
intelligible adjectif	/ɪnˈtɛləd͡ʒəbəl/	intelligible

Les verbes à particule que vous entendrez

Mot	Prononciation	Sens
come together verbe	/ˈkʌm tʊˈɡɛðɚ/	affluer, s’assembler
end up verbe		se terminer, se finir
act out verbe	/ˌækt ˈaʊ̯t/	jouer
build up verbe		s'accumuler, s'entasser
come out verbe	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	sortir
go off verbe		exploser
go out verbe		sortir

Des phrases à répéter

Des phrases courtes et complètes de la vidéo, à réutiliser dans la conversation de tous les jours :

Where are you from?
What do you like?
What's important to you?
What do you know you never told me?
When did I watch it?

La grammaire de cette vidéo

Les structures que le locuteur utilise le plus, avec les mots exacts de la vidéo :

Structure	Dans la vidéo
Voix passive be + participe passé — l’accent est mis sur ce qui arrive, pas sur qui le fait	is often determined · are designed · being said
Propositions relatives who / which + proposition — une précision sur une personne ou une chose	people who are · people who speak · somebody who is
Present perfect have/has + participe passé — une action passée qui compte encore maintenant	have already mentioned · haven't watched · I've watched

Prononciation à surveiller

Le locuteur utilise 46 contractions et formes réduites, comme I'm, they're, don't. Prononcez-les sous leur forme courte, telles que vous les entendez.

Les sons « th »: thriller /ˈθɹɪ.lə/, withhold /wɪθˈhoʊld/, southwest /saʊθˈwɛst/, theft /θɛft/
Les sons « sh » et « zh »: recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, catfish /ˈkætfɪʃ/, phishing /ˈfɪʃɪŋ/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, interrogation /ɪnˌteɹ.əˈɡeɪ.ʃən/
Mots longs — placez bien l’accent: recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, accessible /əkˈsɛs.ɪ.bəl/, mockumentary /ˌmɑkjuˈmɛn(t)əɹi/, communicative /kəˈmjuː.nə.keɪ.t̬ɪv/, intelligible /ɪnˈtɛləd͡ʒəbəl/

Les sons difficiles pour les francophones :

/h/ — il se souffle, il n’est pas muet: withhold /wɪθˈhoʊld/, humour /ˈhjuːmɚ/
/tʃ/ et /dʒ/ — à ne pas adoucir en « ch » et « j »: intelligible /ɪnˈtɛləd͡ʒəbəl/, binge /bɪnd͡ʒ/, pinch /pɪnt͡ʃ/, joking /ˈd͡ʒoʊkɪŋ/, sergeant /ˈsɑɹ.d͡ʒənt/
/r/ anglais — langue recourbée, sans frotter la gorge: learner /ˈlɜɹnəɹ/, thriller /ˈθɹɪ.lə/, recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, mockumentary /ˌmɑkjuˈmɛn(t)əɹi/, avatar /ˌæv.əˈtɑː(ɹ)/

Comment s’entraîner avec cette vidéo

Écoutez la vidéo en entier une fois sans parler et notez les mots que vous ne connaissez pas.
Répétez phrase par phrase à vitesse normale, en reprenant chacune jusqu’à ce que votre rythme corresponde à celui du locuteur.
Enregistrez-vous et comparez avec l’original, en faisant attention à des mots comme learner, thriller, accent.

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?

Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.

Technique du shadowing : lire le guide complet étape par étape →

Pratique du Shadowing: The best TV shows to learn English - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

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Vocabulaire et conseils d’expression pour cette leçon

Vocabulaire clé de cette vidéo

Les verbes à particule que vous entendrez

Des phrases à répéter

La grammaire de cette vidéo

Prononciation à surveiller

Comment s’entraîner avec cette vidéo

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?