Eurospeak Language School

Learn English through a TV series

The final season of event Tv series « Game of Thrones» will be broadcast on the 15th of April. This series started in 2011 and was produced by David Benioffand Daniel Weiss. It’s an adaptation of          A Song of Ice and Fire, series of fantasy novels wrote in 1996 by George R.R Martin.

Since then, it has become a global phenomenon and here are some figures that better illustrate it:

– The last episode of Season 7 attracted nearly 1 million viewers in the United States.

– During this 7th season, episode 2 was simultaneously broadcast in 173 countries around the world, thus allowing the series to win the title of the most simultaneously broadcasted series in the world.

– As for the final season, it should smash its own record since the first episode is scheduled to be broadcasted in no less than 186 countries.

– For the past 6 years, Game of thrones has won the title of the most illegally downloaded series of all time.

If you want to watch the episodes without having to wait for the translation into your own language, it is essential to understand English!

Indeed, you can enjoy your favourite TV show while learning English thanks to the subtitles. This method has may uses – it can help you with:

  • Grammar:

When you read the subtitles, you will realize that some of the grammatical rules you learned in school do not always apply in real life. It is important to know the grammatical rules but also to know how to recognize the more natural expressions that are used in everyday life. This applies for example to contractions such as “gonna” instead of I’m going to, or “she just woke up” instead of “she has just woken up”.

  • Speaking:

Indeed, you will listen to words & expressions and see them in the context of the series. The visual elements will help you to keep up with the story – hence you will understand what those words & expressions mean. Your verbal skills will then improve as a result.

To better train those skills, you can summarize what the episode was about to a friend – in English, of course!

  • Listening:

The more you listen to words, the more familiar they will become to you. The accent is also very important, you will become familiar with the American accent or the English accent which is not the same. You can also learn expressions from different countries. Finally, subtitles will allow you to better understand what you are hearing.

  • Writing:

If you want to improve your writing skills, you can also summarise what happened in the episode on a note book. Just use your own words and keep it simple. This will allow you to practice, re-use the words learned during the episode and thus better assimilate them in your memory.

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