Thoughts for serious language learners
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Tom’s List (high-quality sources of regular audio/video input for English learners)

If you want to learn fluent English, you should probably get about 6 hours of spoken input a week. This usually means that you need a constant supply of interesting audio/video content to listen to/watch at home.

It is not always easy to find new sources of input every week, so it is a good idea to watch and listen to episodic content. That way, rather than wonder “What movie am I going to watch today?”, you can just tune in to your favorite show regularly and get your dose of English.

With this in mind, I have decided to publish a list of episodic content (TV shows, podcasts, etc.) that I have found exceptionally entertaining or informative. I will add to this list as I discover new shows, so check back in a while.

Video

  • The Office (UK) – 14 episodes
    David Brent, a middle manager at a paper trading company, is convinced that his employees love him because he is an expert business leader and the funniest guy in the office at the same time. In reality, Brent is an anti-manager who constantly embarrasses himself with his incompetence, horrible leadership, and unsuccessful attempts to be funny. The Office is not a traditional sitcom, where every line is supposed to be funny. Instead, it creates a believable office environment with characters that are just slightly over the top. The humor is subtle and many scenes are simply painful too watch, as we feel sympathy for both Brent (who’s trying so hard to be admired, yet fails so miserably) and his employees (whom Brent often hurts through his insensitivity and selfishness). I recommend watching this show with subtitles, as the non-RP British accents of David Brent and several other characters can be quite challenging.
  • The Office (US) – 201 episodes
    The American sibling of the UK show is surprisingly successful at developing its own unique characters and storyline. The US version generates less pain and more laughs, without compromising on intelligence. It is also easier to understand than the UK version, as the actors speak standard US English.
  • The Wire (US) – 60 episodes
    The Wire is an extraordinary show that works on many levels. First, it tells an epic story about police detectives trying to take down dangerous gangsters. Second, it exposes, with an almost documentary realism, the mechanics of police work and drug trade in the streets. And I don’t mean just the fact that everyone swears like a sailor and and uses slang straight from the streets of Baltimore (by the way, subtitles are a must!). In The Wire, as in real life, cops lie and cheat to get the evidence they need, and their success depends on personal connections, internal politics and lucky accidents as much as on their wits. Drug lords, as vicious as they are, have many of the same headaches as any other business people: how to find smart employees to manage sales in the streets? how to deal with competitors who have a better product? But The Wire is more than that. Through its five seasons, it examines the various mechanisms which contribute to the tragedy of the American inner cities: police commanders insisting on meaningless arrests to inflate departmental statistics and shutting down investigations when they get too close to their political friends, teachers struggling to control violent 12-year-olds as their most promising students slip through the cracks, politicians who would rather sweep problems under the rug than try any solution that might make them look bad in the media. A lot of bad things happen in The Wire – people die senseless deaths, clueless people get promoted to positions of power, the truth is ignored, good solutions are dismissed. But what makes it truly horrifying is that it not only shows you those things – it shows you why they must happen over and over again. According to many, The Wire is the best show in television history. I’m not going to disagree. The only problem is that it spoils you – after you watch it, every other police show will feel like a sitcom.
  • South Park (US) – 209 episodes (and counting)
    Violates social taboos and satirizes American life and politics. Extremely funny and insightful, it goes to places no other show has gone before. If you haven’t seen it, you have missed a cultural phenomenon. Can be watched for free on the Web.
  • Extras (UK) – 13 episodes
    Features Andy Millman, an unsuccessful, cynical 40-year old extra (or “background artist” as he’d rather refer to himself) who’s doing whatever he can to make it big in movies, his Scottish friend Maggie (also an extra), and his comically incompetent agent Darren. Each episode also features a celebrity who plays a sort of parody of themselves. Made by the same people who made The Office, Extras contains more straightforward humor while not shying away from poignant social observations and genuinely moving moments. It is a comedy with a brain and with a heart. Possibly the best comedy series I’ve ever watched.
  • Arrested Development (US) – 68 episodes
    Depicts the life of a rich California family who is going through rough times as their family business comes under federal scrutiny. An innovative comedy with clever humor, quirky characters and memorable lines. Has a cult following on Reddit, and deservedly so. I watched all the episodes in a week while recovering from minor surgery – it worked better than any painkiller.
  • Curb Your Enthusiasm (US) – 80 episodes
    Larry David is a screenwriter who co-created Seinfeld, the most popular American sitcom of the 1990’s. Curb Your Enthusiasm is a show about his life in Los Angeles. The main theme of the show is Larry’s getting in trouble because of social norms. For example, one episode sees Larry at a dinner where some acquaintance asks him to write him a letter of recommendation for a job. He doesn’t want to recommend someone he barely knows, but how can he refuse the request in front of all the guests? In another episode, a little girl at a party asks him to give her doll a haircut. Larry obliges, but minutes later the girl bursts into tears as she realizes the doll’s hair won’t grow back. The girl’s mother gets furious at Larry: what was he doing in her daughter’s room, why did he cut the doll’s hair, and why didn’t he warn the girl that the hair wouldn’t come back? She expects him to replace the doll, which turns out to be very rare, leading to further misadventures. A lot of Larry’s problems result from the existence of “hidden” social norms that everyone except Larry seems to know. In one episode, a friend invites Larry to a birthday party, insisting that he shouldn’t bring a present. When Larry arrives at the party, it turns out that everybody else has brought a gift, and his friend gets offended. When he confronts his friend, he is told “Everybody knows that’s bullshit. You say ‘no gift’, you bring a gift.” We’ve all been in awkward social situations like that, and Curb Your Enthusiasm exploits them for full comedic effect with a cleverly constructed plot and perfect acting.
  • Futurama (US) – 101 episodes (and counting)
    This animated sitcom follows the adventures of a pizza delivery boy, Philip J. Fry, who wakes up in the 31st century after being frozen for a thousand years. The show uses a wide variety of humor but a lot of it comes from a satirical depiction of the future – a world where robots can be alcoholics and womanizers, there are automated suicide booths on every corner, and sewers are populated by mutants. There is satire of our times as well, as many of the issues in the 31st century are extrapolations of our current issues (global warming, pollution, bureaucracy, etc.).
  • Blackadder (UK) – 24 episodes
    Each series of this show takes place in a different historical era, starting from the Middle Ages and ending during World War I. In each series, Rowan Atkinson plays a cynical, scheming character (named Blackadder) who hatches complicated plots against his (usually dumb) superiors. While Blackadder’s misadventures are enjoyable to watch, the show’s strongest point are his snide remarks (an example exchange: “If we do happen to step on a mine, Sir, what do we do?”, to which Blackadder replies: “Normal procedure, Lieutenant, is to jump 200 feet in the air and scatter oneself over a wide area.”). The first series is not very good (in fact, I recommend skipping it), but each subsequent one is better. The final two are just great.
  • The Simpsons (US) – 618 episodes (and counting)
    Just in case you haven’t heard of it, The Simpsons is a brilliant animated sitcom that satirizes American culture and society, as well as more universal topics. Many people think the first few seasons were better than the more recent ones because they had touching moments as well as funny ones.
  • Onion News Network (US) – over 300 episodes
    A video version of the brilliant “fake” newspaper The Onion, the ONN produces parodies of TV shows that make fun of everyone and everything, but most of all the idiocy of American media. Example stories: CIA’s ‘Facebook’ Program Dramatically Cut Agency’s Costs, Scientists Successfully Teach Gorilla It Will Die Someday, and How Can We Make The War In Iraq More Eco-Friendly? My favorite show on the network is Today Now!, a parody of morning TV shows, with topics such as Ex-Pedophile Shares Tips On How To Make Your Kids Less Attractive and How To Pretend You Give A Shit About the Election. As far as I’m concerned, the humor, the production values, and the acting couldn’t be any better.
  • Desperate Housewives (US) – 180 episodes
    This comedy/crime show is about the things women do to get what they want. One of the most intelligent series in recent TV history, it impresses with its perceptive observations about people, especially those living in American suburbia. Easy-to-understand American English makes it a good choice if you’re new to watching TV in English.
  • House, M.D. (US) – 177 episodes
    While Desperate Housewives is about people in general, House revolves around one central character – but what a character! Dr. Gregory House, head of a diagnostic team at a New Jersey hospital, is legendary for being able to solve difficult medical cases through a mixture of subtle insight, dogged persistence and utter disregard for the rules. He’s the kind of doctor who will have his subordinates break into your apartment to look for environmental toxins, find your girlfriend’s former sexual partners to rule out STDs, figure out the rare condition that, in conjunction with your steroid use (which you tried to hide from him), is making your heart accumulate an excess of calcium, and finally make you agree to a highly dangerous test to confirm his hypothesis, in violation of hospital regulations. House is a complicated personality – at the same time a formidable intellect, a dedicated physician, and an arrogant, childish jerk who does whatever he wants to, whenever he wants to. Fortunately most of the time he wants to solve interesting cases.
  • Northern Exposure (US) – 110 episodes
    Focuses on the life of a New York doctor who is forced to take up practice in a small town of Cicely, Alaska. Northern Exposure is a unique show on TV because it references ideas from philosophy, spirituality and art. With its array of people of different background and attitudes living peacefully at the end of the world, Cicely represents an unattainable hippie dream, but it is a dream well worth showing (and watching). Note: You may be a bit frustrated if you watch this show without subtitles, as it has a few hard-to-understand characters such as Dr. Fleischman, who talks fast and uses a lot of intellectual vocabulary, or Maurice Minnifield, who uses a lot of colorful antiquated expressions.
  • The X-Files (US) – 202 episodes
    This classic show of the 90’s follows the story of two FBI agents, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, investigating supernatural phenomena. While the main storyline involves Mulder’s search for proof of the existence of aliens and related government conspiracies, there are many “standalone” episodes where the show covers other topics, such as liver-eating monsters, rogue supercomputers, Satanists, timewarps, and people with supernatural powers. For the first few seasons, the main storyline seems to work well, as we are being revealed one piece of the UFO puzzle after another. Unfortunately, the show went on for too long (as is often the case with successful series) – in the final two seasons (8 and 9) the storyline became an insult to the intellect, with the most ridiculous and illogical explanations being given for the characters’ actions, life-changing events happening and never being mentioned again in future episodes, etc. The show’s strengths are its likable characters, an aura of mystery, and many cleverly scary moments (warning: you may get nightmares!).
  • BBC Crusades (UK) – 4 episodes
    Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) takes a fascinating look at one of the most cruel episodes in history – the crusades. It appears that the crusaders weren’t the smartest bunch, and Jones does a great job of highlighting that. I’ve seen a lot of documentaries, but this one takes the prize.
  • Top Gear (UK) – 133 episodes (and counting)
    In theory, this is a show about cars. In reality, it is a high-budget entertainment show for men. Each episode is divided into several segments, many of which involve crazy challenges (e.g. a race from Italy to England – one person drives a sports car, the other flies in a small airplane), tests (e.g. three people spend 24 hours in a Smart Forfour), stunts (e.g. snipers shooting at a driver in a Porsche) and experiments (e.g. what will happen if lightning strikes your car with you in it?). All this is sprinkled with politically incorrect British humor and some breathtaking cinematography.
  • Look Around You (UK) – 15 episodes
    The show comprises two very different series: the first is a parody of British educational videos from the 1980’s, introducing scientific concepts through experiments. The second series is a parody of 1980’s pop-science programs showing the world of the future. A word of warning: the first series may be a little hard to “get”, unless you like science and parodies, and were alive in the 1980’s.
  • Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (US)
    A daily satirical take on US politics, world news and the news media.

Audio

  • This American Life (US) – over 400 episodes (and counting)
    Probably the best podcast on the Internet, This American Life features regular people talking about important things that happened to them, short pieces of literature, and documentaries on important social topics. The nice thing from an English-learning perspective is the fact that you can listen to how regular people talk in various parts of the US. Here are two of my favorite episodes: Starting from Scratch, The Cruelty of Children. See also other favorites.
  • The Bugle (UK) – over 200 episodes (and counting)
    British comedian Andy Zaltzman delivers his hilarious commentary on current events. Tune in for a healthy dose of fine British humo(u)r, reminiscent of Douglas Adams.
  • Car Talk (US) – over 1,000 episodes (no longer produced)
    Extremely popular public radio show about cars and car repair hosted by two Massachusetts mechanics (and MIT graduates). I listen to it for the hosts’ infectious humor and the Massachusetts accent.
  • Nature Podcast (UK) – over 70 episodes (and counting)
    Produced by the renowned science journal Nature, this podcast highlights the most important scientific research going on right now. Every week, listeners can hear scientists of various disciplines explain their work and the results they have achieved. The interviews go into a bit more scientific detail than what you get in the mainstream media.
  • Radiolab (US) – 44 episodes (and counting)
    Stories and interviews from the boundary between science, philosophy and human experience. If you like pop-science books, you should like Radiolab. Here are two of their most popular episodes: What is music? & Memory and Forgetting
  • You Look Nice Today (US) – 39 episodes
    Basically three funny guys chatting with lots of dry humor and references to the Internet, pop culture and other things that only someone living in America would understand. I probably shouldn’t be recommending this to learners, as even I cannot understand some of what they’re talking about. Too bad a new episode hasn’t come out in months.
  • Idle Weekend (US)
    Do you play videogames? Would you like to listen to two videogame critics talking about videogames, not just about current releases, but also about videogames as an art form, with a healthy dose of discussion about books and TV shows? Check out Idle Weekend! You may also like its sister show, Idle Thumbs.

Other shows worth checking out:

  • Mr. Show (US comedy show with innovative sketches of various quality, ranging from hilarious to mildly entertaining)
  • James Burke’s Connections (explores surprising connections between various inventions and their effect on history)
  • Medieval Lives (BBC show narrated by Terry Jones tells you what it was like to live in the Middle Ages)
  • The Genius of Photography (BBC show on the history of photography as an art form)
  • Stephen Fry in America (British actor Stephen Fry visits all 50 American states)
  • Apocalypse: The Second World War (4.5-hour history of WWII, with unique color footage)
  • The Peter Serafinowicz Show (parodies of TV shows by the talented creator of Look Around You)
  • Flight of the Conchords (two guys from New Zealand come to NYC to start a band; sitcom with funny musical interludes)

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38 Comments so far ↓

  • Asad

    What about your views on TV series and sitcoms like Prison Break, Seinfeld etc

    • Tom

      I haven’t watched these shows, so I can’t comment. This is just a list of shows that I have enjoyed; I’m sure there are many others that are worth watching.

      • Asad

        I second that.

      • Test

        What can you suggest to listen. I’ve just finished listening elementary podcast from british council and I don’t know what to listen next. Radiolab podcast seems a bit difficult to me. I tried to listen VOA Special English podcast, but it’s too boring.

  • Steve Pen

    Thank you for the extensive list of audio and video teaching materials.

    I am looking for a similar list of audio materials with a slow speech for students at the Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate levels.

    If you know of any downloadable materials, please publish their links. Your help will be appreciated.

  • Asad

    Steve, you can download such materials from englishtips.org for free.

  • Ali.Sh

    I think every USA and UK tv-series and movies would be a great video resource. In my view, it’s your listening and reading sources that you should share with us.

  • Anne

    Hi! Thx for the List. Should I concentrated on understanding every single word when I’m listening to?

    • Tom

      Only if you feel like it.

      The idea is to have fun and get lots of input, not make yourself miserable. Use your common sense. You don’t need to understand everything to make progress.

      When I’m watching a movie, I might replay a few lines that I didn’t get, but if I find I have to do it every minute, I usually give up (ignore what I don’t understand or use English subtitles). Although that depends on my mood – sometimes I’m in the mood for a comprehension challenge.

  • Andy

    All right… i’ll bite and pretty sure the new Chinese boss would take a chunk. Let’s prove this can be done with children in an Internationl Boarding School ages 4-12. (all Chinese) What info can you give me before 4pm in Shangahi…. it’s important.

  • kiana

    please some body help me i really need help.Im an English learner.my listening isn’t good.every one syas it’s a good idea to watch news but news is very difficult for me.how can i improve my listening.when i can’t understand something what should i do.

  • Adrian

    And I thought I was the only Pole that listened to Car Talk. :D I love the show even though I’m not into cars.

  • TomFromPoland

    Hi Tom,

    What are you thinking about http://www.eslpod.com resource for beginner, pre-intermediate students?

    Audios are recoding slowly and have a lot of explanation, each file has a transcript.

    I wonder your opinion about it, it’s worth interesting in? Or do you avoid materials prepared especially for ESL students?

    All the best

  • Anibal

    Hello Tom!

    I’ve been watching lots of english episodic content… I started two years ago. I can see clearly that I’m getting better, but some sitcoms still cause me a big problem to understand!

    When I was watching South Park, for instance, I’d say I could c0mprehend 50% to 80% of everything that was said. While watching Curb Your Enthusiasm, on other hand, I’d say at the very best I can understand 20%.

    If it’s still fun to watch, should I keep watching hoping that eventually I’ll get better? Or should I find another source that is easy to get along with? (Then, when I get “pretty, pretty, pretty good” I can move to the hard stuff lol)

    Thanks!!!

    • Tom

      Interesting. It might seem that South Park is more difficult (the characters speak less clearly).

      You should probably do whatever is fun — motivation is the most important factor in your success! People are not robots and the solution which is theoretically optimal is not always the best one. Maybe you can get a hold of some subtitles for CYE?

  • Test

    What can you suggest to listen? I’ve just finished listening elementary podcast from british council and I don’t know what to listen next. Radiolab podcast seems a bit difficult to me. I tried to listen VOA Special English podcast, but it’s too boring.

  • yemek tarifleri

    Your site is very nice. I got good information. Thank you.

  • Mike Ellwood

    If they can access it, I’d really recommend people try to listen to BBC radio over the internet, using the BBC iPlayer facility.

    I’m not 100% what is normally accessible outside the UK, but “on demand” is less restricted than “live”, and with suitable technology, one may be able to side-step the restrictions (do your own research).

    I’d suggest BBC Radio 4 and Radio 4 extra.

    Both of these are essentially speech based.

    Radio4 is a mixture of news, comment, documentaries, features, entertainment, and a huge unclassifiable miscellany.

    Radio4 extra is a mixture of drama, comedy and entertainment. Originally it was only old material from Radio 4 or similar, but increasingly they have original material as well.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra/

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/

    There are various ways of finding programmes, but what I personally do is click on the respective “schedule” links, and browse through it, then follow the links to any particular programme I want to listen to. Once it has been broadcast live, it is then usually available for 7 days. (Occasionally things last longer).

    Note that this is all streaming output. You can’t (officially) download it. However, there are a limited number of podcasts also available if you look around.

  • Sergio Rodrigues

    I have subscribed a lot of podcasts and sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount of áudios I have to listen, whitout uderstanding some of the. This is American Life is a good example: after listening for one hour, I end up not knowing to tell what the story is about.
    So, I would like a piece of advice about what level of dificulty would be more suitable. Some people say we should listen to only we understand most of what is said (say 90 to 95%); otherwise, they claim, would be a waste of time. Others, however, say we should listen to virtually everything, even not uderstanding much, just to get in touch with the intonation, melody and rythm of the language.
    What is your take on that?

    • Tom

      Sergio, if you have enough audio that you like and can understand, then listen to that instead. As you said, you can learn some intonation, pronunciation etc. from things you cannot understand, but if you listen to understandable things, you learn the same things PLUS vocab and grammar and you get more fun, too!

      I really don’t see any benefit to listening to stuff you can’t understand if you can listen to stuff that’s just slightly above your level.

  • Bonnie

    Hi Tom,

    I love your website. I’ve been actually reading it over to learn tips for learning German. I live in Germany and have so for 8 years and am still on a beginner level. This is because hubby is associated with military and I hear English all day. I’m a perfect example that living in the country doesn’t mean a thing.

    I can’t even string a basic sentence together (hardly)’ The problem is I agonize over how to go about learning it and then accomplish nothing. I just got a language teacher a few months ago but feel like I am getting nowhere. I mostly want to be able to understand material that I read.

    How do you progress from the very beginning. I realize you need lots of input but if I listen to German tv, I understand very little. Even words where I know the meaning, I can’t understand when the people are speaking fast. I don’t think my hearing is all that great.

    I have Charlie and the Chocolate factory in German and I know the story but even though I know what is going on, I can’t really follow the dialogue.

    After that long winded reply, my question is how exactly do you get started and progress? Do you read simple books and look up every word you don’t know? I have Anki but even if I memorize a word in Anki, many times I find I don’t remember it when I come across it in other texts. I see the word in my mind but not the definition. I took a premade one with the first 1000 words German frequency list because I’m too lazy to put my own in.

    I have a German friend who I wouldn’t exactly consider educated (didn’t even really go to school….rough life) and she is fluent in English. She was married to an American but she didn’t take the first class.

    So why am I so slow? lol I’m so aggravated. I just don’t know how to proceed to get the best use of my time. I am listening to a series on DeutschWelle and I found a youtube comedy with subtitles that I listen to but any tips on how to get to point B when I’ve been at A for years? Thank you.

    • Tom

      “Do you read simple books and look up every word you don’t know?”

      Well, that’s what I did a while back (I read a couple simplified German books by “Felix and Theo”). As I was reading, I paid attention to grammar, noticing things like verb forms or word order.

      Reading a beginner grammar course might help, too.
      I’m not saying you should memorize the declension tables, but if you familiarize yourself with the problem points of German grammar, that should help you notice those things while you’re reading. More on that here: http://www.antimoon.com/how/readhow.htm

      Once you get to intermediate-level books, start watching TV.
      The “Slow German” podcast is also good for beginners.

  • Stranger

    Hi Tom.

    I’d like to ask you about one thing. What do you think about listening to the same podcast several times even though a person understand everything what is being said? I mean, is it enough to listen to the podcast or other episode of something (like a TV shows, adaptive books and so forth) only once to build a vocabulary?

    Here’s a little description about how I do it:
    1) Listen to podcast like ESL podcast
    2) Read the description of the podcast (transcript)
    3) Check all the words and phrases that I’m interested in
    4) Add these words and phrases in my Anki collection.

    Best regards.

    // Sorry for my English.

    • Tom

      Both extensive and intensive input (listening to the same thing many times) are helpful. Listening to the same thing over and over again can help you reinforce grammar, vocab, pronunciation and intonation. I would recommend it as long as you don’t find it too boring.

  • Stranger

    person understand_s_ – of course

  • Stranger

    Oh, there’s another question I’d like to ask. Is there any limit for the number of cards which I add every day to Anki?

    Are there any consequences related with learning process? I mean, I feel that I build my English vocabulary very slowly, because I add to my Anki collection only 10 maybe 15 cards every day. Probably I don’t have to worry about that and add as many cards as I can. What do you think?

    • Tom

      You probably shouldn’t think of your Anki deck as synonymous with your vocabulary.

      You can build your vocab in many ways — using an SRS is one of them. You’ll never be able to add ALL your English knowledge to Anki, so you should focus on the high-value items (for example, things you’re likely to forget or make a mistake in). Also, the more input you get, the less you need an SRS.
      The optimum mix of SRS/input also depends on your personality.

  • Sergio Rodrigues

    I would like to know your take on the so-called shadowing technique (listen and speaking simultaneously). Does it help fluency or should be detrimental to that?

    • Tom

      I don’t have experience with shadowing. The only similar thing that I did was listening to the same recording over and over again.
      It sounds interesting, and I suggest you try it and see if it helps you pronounce things in a more native-like way.

      • Sergio Rodrigues

        Just another question, if you don`t mind. Are you a proponent of what they call ã silence period, during the input acquisition process, and only start speaking after we feel confortable to do so, Some people advocate this approach, while others say we should start speaking from the scratch, since the purpose of any language is comunicate.

        • Tom

          This is off-topic for this post, but briefly, I think you should speak unless you make a lot of mistakes. It’s okay to speak if you can control your mistakes (not completely, just keep them below a certain level).

          If you don’t feel like speaking yet, it’s okay to be silent for a while, too. But you have to start eventually, otherwise you’ll be one of those shy bookworms who can watch movies in English but never open their mouth.

          Okay, how about this: If you can write in English with few mistakes, then you should start speaking. Because if by that time you are still “uncomfortable”, that means you are just shy and you should try to get over it.

          You can start by saying short simple phrases — as opposed to having a full-blown conversation. So it’s not a binary choice — you can ease your way into speaking. Personally, I like to start repeating short simple phrases as soon as I start learning a language — I enjoy imitating the pronunciation.

  • anibal

    Hi there! I’ve been a visiting your site for a long, long time! I love it. I came back to share some ideas on how to find good content to watch or listen to. My internet is shitty. I can only watch TV programs in my native language. So, how did I overcome these barriers? I use”youtube-dl”, an extrememely simple line-command program to download videos or audios from Youtube. I can download a whole playlist – just the audio! – so it’s fast and easier. Then I convert it to MP3 and put the files on my MP3 player. If you download something like “The Early Middle Ages, 284–1000 with Paul Freedman” (Yale Courses), less than 1GB, you will have content to listen to the whole month, while you do the dishes, sweep the floor, make the bed, brush your teeth, and all other chores. There are many universities offering free courses in YouTube, like UCBerkeley, Yale and Harvard. I’m sure anyone can find a course of personal interest. Thanks!!!

  • saeed sohrabi

    you can add this to you’r list:
    How I Met Your Mother!!
    9 seasons and over 200 episodes

  • Ali

    Hi Tom
    I’m a beginner learner and I have a question about using podcasts:
    Is it good to listen to an audio and write what you hear at the same time?
    I mean isn’t it better to imitate and write what we hear instead of just listening?
    I hope you have enough time to answer me, because it’s a serious confusing problem that I have.
    Thank you so much for your perfect article’s on Antimoon.
    I’ve started using that method and I can see that my English is improving every day :)

    • Tom

      Absolutely, it should help you remember more of the grammar and vocabulary. The only problem is that it takes a lot of time, so you probably shouldn’t do it all the time.

  • Khldob

    Hi TOM
    Your site is awesome!
    Please answer me…is the english used for dubbing anime good to go with instead TV shows?

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