Speak With Me: English Speaking Practice

Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from  

SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. You've watched  anything good lately? Let's talk about it.  

I just finished binge-watching reruns of my  favorite series. And now I'm looking for an  

indie feelgood show or maybe some kind of crime  docuseries, do you have any recommendations?  

If I said this to you, would you go, oh no.  Well, never fear because today I'm going to  

help you speak about movies and TV shows naturally  in English. You're going to learn some important  

questions that you can ask about movies and TV  shows, some common vocabulary. You'll also see a  

little sample conversation and you will have the  chance at the end of this lesson to speak with  

me about your favorite movies and TV shows. So  prepare yourself, take a deep breath and let's get  

started with some of the most common questions.  But before we do that, like always I have created  

a free PDF worksheet for today's lesson. You  will get all of the questions, vocabulary, sample  

sentences, and at the bottom of the worksheet,  you can answer Vanessa's challenge question so  

that you never forget what you've learned. You can download that free PDF worksheet  

with the link in the description. All right, are  you ready for some of the most common questions  

that you can ask and you might get asked about  movies and TV shows? Let's do it. The first  

common question that you can ask about movies  and TV shows is, you've been watching anything  

good lately? What's happening at the beginning  of this question. Is there a question word?  

Have you been watching anything good  lately? No, in casual daily conversations,  

sometimes we start questions with just you, you  feeling okay? You doing anything fun this weekend?  

You've been watching anything good lately? So  you can start this question with just you. A  

similar variation of this question is whatcha been  watching, whatcha been watching? The full version  

of this question is what have you been watching?  But what have you been becomes whatcha been,  

whatcha because you sometimes changes to cha. There are a lot of reductions for the word you  

in spoken fast English. So you can say,  whatcha been watching, whatcha been watching?  

And someone might say, oh I haven't really been  watching anything lately. I've been too busy.  

Whatcha been watching? Another common question  is, have you been watching? And you can add a  

TV show that's really popular at the moment. So  for example, the TV show, Stranger Things is very  

popular right now. So you might ask, have you been  watching Stranger Things? And you're hoping that  

they'll say yes so that you can chit-chat about  what's going on. I have a little secret. I hardly  

ever watch movies or TV shows. So this lesson is  very out of my element. It is not my strong suit,  

but I know that a lot of people love movies  and TV shows. So this is for you, not for me. 

If you're like me and you don't watch much, you  might ask this question, is that the one with?  

And then you can insert anything that you know  about that TV show or movie. So you might say,  

is that the one with Tom Cruise and the fighter  jets? Oh, Top Gun. Yeah, that's that movie.  

Is that the one with, it could be a person. Is  that the one with Tom Cruise? It could be some  

element of the show. Is that the one with fighter  jets? Is that the one with the really scary story?  

Whatever it is, it's anything that you know about  it. And you're trying to connect with someone.  

If you don't know anything about the show  or the movie that someone is asking about,  

you can ask what's the premise? What's the  premise? This word premise simply means  

what's the story about? And it's a common  word that we use to talk about the storyline. 

So if someone asks you, what's the premise of your  favorite TV show, would you be able to explain it  

quickly? You might say, oh, well, there's  this guy, and he goes over to another  

country and he finds some kind of mystery.  And it's all about him trying to solve it.  

You need to be able to explain your favorite  TV show or movie in this succinct way.  

When someone asks you, oh, I haven't  heard of that, what's the premise?  

Now you can practice. Our final common question  about movies and TV shows is, when is the new  

coming out? When's the new Toy Story coming out?  Here, you're asking, when will it be released? And  

that's what this phrasal verb to come out means,  when we're talking about movies and TV shows,  

when will the new Toy Story be released?  When will the new Toy Story movie come out? 

Beautiful question to ask. Now let's talk about  some common expressions and phrases that you can  

use to talk about movies and TV shows. Indie,  indie usually means that it is an independently  

made film. It's not from Hollywood, it's not from  a big producer. It's just an independently made  

film. Maybe it's something about your city or  something smaller, but it can be really touching  

as well. So you might say, Captain Fantastic  is one of my favorite indie films of all time.  

Feel-good. It's a feel-good movie.  This is pretty self-explanatory, right?  

It doesn't make you feel stressed, it doesn't make  you feel worried. Instead it makes you feel good.  

So you might say, my favorite feel-good movie  of all time is The Princess Bride, coming of  

age. It's a coming of age movie, or it's a coming  of age series. Can you imagine what this means? 

Someone who is a teenager or maybe like  a 12 year old, 14 year old, 17 year old  

is becoming an adult. So it's the story of them  becoming older and more responsible, moving from  

childhood to adulthood. So you might say, one of  the most classic American coming of age movies  

is Stand By Me, a docuseries or you could  say it's a documentary, but a docuseries is  

several in a series. And a documentary is usually  just one. But you might say I watched a really  

interesting docuseries on the fall of the Roman  Empire, it was fantastic. This is the kind of  

thing I love to watch. To binge watch or to binge.  Originally this expression means that you drank  

too much alcohol. They binged, and now they're  feeling really sick. So they drank too much  

alcohol. But in the age of movie streaming, and TV  show streaming, especially starting with Netflix,  

this term has been turned into watching series  after series, after series, after series  

at one time. So maybe you don't sleep all night  because you binge watched your favorite TV show. 

You might say, I can't believe it.  I just binged the entire series of  

The Great British Baking Show. It was  great. And I watched it all night. Oops,  

to be really into something. This just means  you love it. You're very interested in it,  

but a cool way to say it is, I'm really into  something. So you could say, I'm really into  

murder mysteries these days. Do you have any  recommendations? This is definitely not true for  

me. Those types of things freak me out and scare  me too much. I'd rather watch something feel-good.  

A movie buff or a film buff. You could say  my friend is a movie buff, but really for me,  

I'd rather read the book, talking about books. This expression is something I often say, the book  

was better. Have you ever watched something after  you read the book and you were so excited and then  

you felt just disappointed. You might say, you  know what? The Harry Potter movies weren't bad,  

but the books were better. A series finale or a  season finale. Did you see the season finale last  

night? I can't believe how it ended. This is the  final episode of a long series. Usually these are  

highly awaited and people are anticipating it. And  hopefully you are not disappointed by the ending.  

Dubbed or subtitles. I'd rather watch a  foreign film with subtitles than listen to it  

dubbed. I'm curious, what's the case in your  country? When there is a news report or a TV show  

in English, for example, do they show subtitles  in your native language or do they dub the voices,  

when you dub the voices, it means that someone  is speaking over top of the original voice  

and you can't hear it. In my mind this is  such a shame because you really don't get a  

chance to listen to the original language. And if you're trying to learn English,  

that is a big bummer. You want to be able to  hear English. And if you see the subtitles in  

your native language, that's okay. But if someone  dubs the voice, then you can't hear the original  

language at all. I'm curious. So what's it like  in your country? Let me know in the comments.  

This next phrase is one that my friends say  to me a lot. I can't believe you haven't seen  

The Godfather. It's a great movie.  Well, I haven't seen many movies.  

That is a little secret.  That's not a secret anymore.  

I have seen some movies. For example, I have  seen The Shawshank Redemption, which is amazing. 

So if you have not seen The Shawshank Redemption,  then I might say to you, I can't believe you  

haven't seen The Shawshank Redemption.  That is a great movie, highly recommend.  

If you watch a movie or TV show and you just don't  like it, you're not into it. You might say the,  

ruined it for me. The acting ruined it for me.  It was just so awful. The storyline ruined it  

for me. The premise ruined it for me, or maybe  the last episode just ruined it for me. I can't  

believe that the season finale was that, it just  ruined the whole series for me. Maybe you don't  

like something because it was hard to follow.  It was hard to follow. When I watched the movie  

Inception, it was hard to follow. I just didn't  get it. Maybe my brain is not at that level. 

It was hard to follow. This means it was  difficult to figure out what was going on,  

and you can even use this expression for anything  really that's difficult to understand. So let's  

imagine that you are sitting in a university  lecture and the professor is speaking in  

English and it's just too fast. You might  say, oh man, his English was hard to follow,  

or that lecture was hard to follow. You just  couldn't understand all of the directions that  

he was taking, it was hard to follow. Our final  expression. I don't want to end on a bad note,  

is a positive one. Let's say you loved the TV show  or movie. You might say I was on the edge of my  

seat the whole time. And you can imagine what this  is like, if you're on the edge of your seat, oh,  

I can't wait, I want to see what's happening. And your body might be a little bit tense. You  

might be excited. You might be a little fearful  to figure out what's going on, but you are on  

the edge of your seat because whoever wrote  this story had it perfectly laid out so that  

you were excited to figure out what's going to  happen. I was on the edge of my seat, wonderful.  

All right, now that we've talked about the most  common questions and common phrases to talk about  

movies and TV shows. Now I would like to show  you a sample conversation between my husband,  

Dan and I, where we talk about movies and TV shows  and use some of the expressions and questions that  

you just learned. I want you to listen carefully  because after this, it will be your turn. We are  

going to have a conversation about movies and  TV shows. So let's watch this conversation with  

Dan and then be prepared. It's going to be your  turn. Hey Dan, you watched anything good lately? 

Dan: Oh, hey Vanessa.  

Yeah. I just started a new show. I like it so  much. I binged the whole first season last night. 

Vanessa: Oh, it must be good. What's it about? 

Dan: Oh, it's kind of a coming of age  

sci-fi adventure story about friends who  discover aliens in their neighborhood. 

Vanessa: Oh, I think I've heard of that show. Is that the  

one with the girl that has superpowers? Dan: 

Yeah. That's the one. I can't  believe you haven't seen it yet. 

Vanessa: Yeah. I read  

the book and I think the show would just ruin  it for me. The book's always better, right? 

Dan: Well, that's true. But I was on  

the edge of my seat the whole time. Vanessa: 

Oh, well you want to borrow the book? Dan: 

Yeah. I'd love to. See you around. Vanessa: 

See you later. All right, now it's your turn.  Let's imagine that we work in the same office  

together and we're walking around during our  break time. I'm going to ask you a question  

and we're going to have a little casual chit-chat  conversation about movies and TV shows. This is an  

extremely common casual conversation topic. So I  want you to reply to me. If you need to pause this  

video and go back and repeat this section, please  do that. It is a great chance to speak out loud,  

low pressure, no one needs to listen to you unless  you want them to. And you can practice speaking  

out loud and use what you've just learned. Are  you ready? All right, let's go on our break at the  

office. Hey, I'm thinking about watching a movie  this weekend. Do you have any recommendations? 

Oh, what kind of movie is  that? Oh, what's the premise.  

That sounds great. Thanks the recommendation.  I'm not much of a movie buff, so I always like  

hearing what other people recommend. Well, thanks  so much. See you later. All right, how did you do?  

I hope that you could gain some confidence to  speak about movies and TV shows today. And I want  

to know in the comments, tell me your favorite  movie or TV show in English. Let me know what  

it is and we can get some recommendations  from each other as well, especially me,  

maybe I need some recommendations because I don't  know what I'm doing with movies and TV shows.  

Well, thank you so much for learning English  with me, and I'll see you again next Friday  

for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.  Bye. The next step is to download the free  

PDF worksheet for this lesson. With this free  PDF, you will master today's lesson and never  

forget what you have learned. You can be a  confident English speaker. Don't forget to  

subscribe to my YouTube channel for a  free English lesson every Friday, bye.