10 Fantastic American TV Shows to Learn English

Here are ten fantastic American TV shows that you can watch to improve your English.

Number one, Game of Thrones. Now i don't need to tell you about Game of Thrones, I'm sure

you've seen it. But if you haven't, it's a fantasy drama that is winning every award

there is. Now why is it so good for learning English? Well, first of all the accents. Now

these are British accents that they use and you get a variety of different British accents.

Now I know this is an American TV but in this case there is a bit of British English. So

you have a variety of British accents. You also have some vocabulary that's quite tricky

to be honest. Now what I would suggest is that you watch it with a dictionary or a translator

just to help you out with any tricky words that you encounter. Now Game of Thrones embodies

everything that I think is important about learning English and that is that you learn

English through the things that you love. Now millions of people love Game of Thrones

and I believe that you should learn English through your passions, your interests, whatever

they may be. So start watching Game of Thrones, get addicted. You'll be consuming so much

English that it will inevitably improve your English. Your listening, your vocabulary,

your speaking as well. I think it's a great idea.

Number two is an absolute classic, Friends. Now this TV series is slightly older than

the other ones I'm recommending today but it's just so good that I couldn't leave it

off the list. It's about five (six) friends who live in New York city and we follow their

relationships, their friendships, their work problems. There are three reasons why I love

Friends to learn English. First of all it's quite clear, the accents are sort of clear

to understand. You are also going to get fantastic natural conversations and dialogue whether

it's an argument or just a debate about something. They are really well written and very naturally

written. So the conversation, the language that you are going to get is really every

day English. Thirdly I think personally that Friends is brilliant with intonation. The

writers use intonation really cleverly to play with the meaning of their sentences.

So for example there is a character called Joey and he has a catch phrase which is 'How

you doing?' and he stresses the 'you'. He's taking a normal sentence 'How are you doing?'

and it's becoming a kind of chat up line which is quite funny in the context. So they use

intonation really cleverly to change the meaning of words and intonation became a huge part

of why Friends was so iconic. It was because of the way that the characters said their

lines.

Number three is just one show it's actually a number of shows and it is American talk

shows. Now you can get them on YouTube for free and they are bitesize clips of famous

American talk shows. For example The Ellen Show, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Late Late show with James Corden. Now why

are they so good? Well there are a number of reasons. First of all they are bitesize

which means they are short clips so you can watch one on the bus or on the train. Secondly

they are all subtitled so you have some support for your listening. Thirdly because they are

new and they are every day you can keep up-to-date with American culture, what's going on. Each

one features a famous film star or a musician so you are keeping up with what's new in American

culture that way. The conversations are fantastic. You'll get lot of question forms particularly

from the hosts and then you'll get lots of stories from the guests. So you've got question

forms, past tenses, narrative tenses, a range of English language. And I think it's a great

way to keep up-to-date with what's going on at the time in America. What are the important

stories, what are they talking about, which films are out, which songs are popular. Politically

you'll hear interesting things. I think talk shows a re a brilliant window into American

culture.

Number four, Breaking Bad. Again this is another really addictive TV programme. It's about

a teacher that becomes a drug dealer, there's a lot more to it than that but that's the

essential story. Now this one maybe isn't to watch with children. There's a lot of great

slang vocabulary. So great conversations, I mean it's so well written that yeah the

dialogue is just so rich in interesting vocabulary, expressions, phrases as I said slang language.

This is one that you will love I promise.

Number five, Suits. This is an American legal drama set in New York. Now it's very fast-paced

and very compelling so you are really going to get drawn into the story with this one.

Now obviously you've got a lot of legal vocabulary so if that is something you are interested

in then fantastic. It's also very clear so the accents that you are going to hear are

pretty clear, probably quite easy to understand. Although it is quite fast-paced so you might

need to rewind, stop it, start it whatever you need to do to maintain your understanding.

And again you are going to get some really well-written dialogue and conversation between

the characters.

Number six is New Girl and this is a group of friends in L.A. again quite young, probably

in their twenties just living their lives, their relationships, their friendships that

kind of thing. And it's really fast-paced so it's quick, very witty, there's a lot of

jokes flying around. You have to be quite alert to kind of get the jokes but once you

get used to the way they talk and the characters and the context it'll become easier to understand

what's going on. So thematically they talk about every day problems, relationships, struggles

with work things like that so you are going to get a lot of vocabulary that relates to

every day life which i think is really important for you guys. I think because it's quite a

new programme you are going to get a nice model for how sort of young people speak in

America. The kind of phrases they will use, the intonation. The sentence structures, stuff

like that. So I think it's quite a good example of modern American English. Again the accents

are quite clear as well so that really helps when you are trying to understand what's going

on.

Number seven is a personal favourite of mine, Silicon Valley. The story is all about a company

that's trying to get funding to grow bigger. Now it's a young tech company so what you

are going to get is vocabulary related to technology, to business and to start up culture

and entrepreneurship. So there is loads of really fantastic vocabulary that you can learn

if that's something that you are interested in. Again i think the accents are quite clear

and it's also an interesting window into Silicon Valley like where Google and Facebook and

YouTube all those companies, where they are based. So it's a really interesting kind of

cultural experience to kind of understand the way that these tech companies work.

Number eight is a comedy called Modern Family and this is a very contemporary view on what

American family looks like today. So you've got some very culturally interesting stuff

going on here. It's really well-written again so the dialogues are fast, they are funny,

they are punchy, they are full of interesting vocabulary. You've got some great characters

and relationships going on so it's a really enjoyable TV series to watch and again you

are going to get great new vocabulary, modern vocabulary. So you are going to get expressions

to give opinions, to argue, to disagree yeah it's a really, it's a fast funny programme

to watch.

Number nine, House of Cards. This is a political drama set in Washington. Here you are going

to get some really interesting language because some of it is very informal. You are going

to get quite a lot of swear words and rude language. On the other side you are going

to get more formal stuff like more political language. So you've got both sides formal

and informal. The conversations are fast-paced again, they are witty, they are natural so

all those things are great for you to kind of understand. It's also a really fascinating

window into the political world in America. Kind of getting to understand how it all works

and yeah it's absolutely fascinating especially in this era where we have Donald Trump and

other interesting politicians. It's a fascinating look into that world. And of course your topic

vocabulary will be about politics and about business as well.

And the last one on this list, How I met your mother. This is a hugely popular programme

and i know that a lot of my students over the years have loved this programme. It's

again just a group of friends hanging out, just chatting, every day conversations about

their problems, about their lives and it features informal vocabulary and phrases, expressions,

slang language. It's witty, very funny, there's so much to enjoy here. And what's nice is

that each episode is kind of compact so you can just watch one episode and you don't need

to watch the one before or the one after. You'll get the idea about what's going on

and who the characters are. So yeah I really recommend watching How I met your mother.

Alright, I know that i have missed out so many fantastic TV programmes. The list I was

preparing was huge and then had to pick ten that I thought were the best but you guys

can tell me in the comments below which ones did I miss out? Which ones would you recommend

other Eat Sleep Dreamers watch? Which ones are your favourites, so let me know in the

comments below. If you haven't seen it yet, I've done a similar video about ten British

TV shows that you should watch to learn English. I'll link that just above me right now. And

I'll also do a special video about how to use TV programmes to learn English. So what

should you be doing whilst you are watching the programme, That is coming up really soon

guys. Remember I've got new videos every Tuesday and every Friday teaching you fresh modern

English so that you can take your English to the next level. I hope you have enjoyed

this guys, please give it a massive thumbs up, share it with your friends and remember

to subscribe so you don't miss one single video. This is Tom, the Chief Dreamer, saying

goodbye.