Summary

A French high school student improved their English fluency significantly within a year by watching American TV shows with a strategic transition from French to English subtitles, and finally no subtitles.

Abstract

The author, a French individual, recounts their journey from mediocrity in English to achieving fluency within a single year. Initially uninspired by conventional teaching methods, they were motivated by a peer's exceptional English proficiency, which was attributed to watching a large number of TV shows. Adopting this method, the author progressed through stages of watching with French subtitles, then English subtitles, and eventually no subtitles at all. This immersive approach, which mimics language acquisition in early childhood, led to a dramatic improvement in both comprehension and speaking skills, with the added benefit of developing an American accent. The author emphasizes the importance of first having a foundational understanding of grammar and vocabulary before employing this technique, which can be applied to learning any language with the help of modern resources like Netflix.

Opinions

The traditional method of learning English through rote memorization of vocabulary and grammar was deemed insufficient for achieving fluency.
Immersion through TV shows is an effective way to access and utilize previously learned English basics in a practical context.
The process of transitioning from native language subtitles to target language subtitles, and then to no subtitles, is key to improving listening skills and accent.
Spending a significant amount of time watching TV shows in the target language can lead to a high probability of developing a native-like accent.
The author believes that this method, while requiring patience and dedication, can be life-changing and is adaptable to various languages with the availability of subtitles on platforms like Netflix.

The Unexpected Advice Which Got Me Fluent In One Year

How I went from an average level in English to never having to worry about it again.

As a French person, I had to take English classes from the first year of middle school. I was never awful at it but definitely wasn’t the best either. I was always right in the middle, just barely getting 55–60% right in each test.

That somehow felt enough and despite wanting to know more, I never put the time into it.

Until the second year of high school.

I pretty much didn’t have a teacher in my first year of high school due to my main teacher taking maternity leave and the following three substitutes teachers having all kinds of problems (from one being drunk half the time to another quitting in a month, to the last one teaching us content we all learned in the second year of middle school).

Obviously, when I got to a new high school my second year, I got awful grades.

But then, I met one person who could speak almost perfectly English, with a proper accent and incredible grades in English. No matter how good my first year in high school could have been, it felt I still wouldn’t have gotten to his level.

So I ask him straight up:

“How did you do it?”

His answer was as simple as my question:

“I just watched a massive amount of TV shows.”

That got me by surprise. I definitely wasn’t expecting such an easy reply. I was sure he had had to go through a whole lot of rote learning of vocabulary and grammar.

After all, that was how I had been taught to learn up until that point. Watching TV shows was supposed to be how I relaxed. Not learned.

So I dug deeper.

What was your process then?

And there he gave me real insights.

Being in high school, we had already learned all the basics in English. Whether we could use it or not, it was somewhere in our heads. We just didn’t know how to access it.

“Here’s how I did it: I first spent a few months watching TV shows with French subtitles.

Then I changed to English subtitles. Yes, I couldn’t understand everything but I could get the gist of things.

Finally, after 6 months of watching TV shows with English subtitles, I just took them off. Once again, I couldn’t get everything, but I could get the gist.

I took subtitles off 2 years ago. Now I don’t have any problem anymore.

Wait. That was it? I was in shock. How could such a simple process turn him into this English speaking machine!

He had been watching 1 or 2 hours of American TV shows daily for more than 3 years total and that got him there.

I was already interested in TV shows at that time, but my interest suddenly skyrocketed.

I spent 2 more months watching 3–4 hours of TV shows per day with French subtitles. After all, I had been watching shows for quite a while already.

Then I switched to English subtitles for 4 months. Some days I’d spend 6 hours watching all kind of series.

At the beginning, I could only understand about a third of all but that was enough to follow the general story. If I didn’t get something in the 3rd episode, then I would get the gist in episode 4 or 5.

After 4 months, I took off subtitles and never looked back. By the end of the school year, I had almost caught up with him and my grades in English class had gone through the roof.

During this time, my only real exposure to English was classes and TV shows, I had no speaking practice whatsoever so that also got me to truly start speaking the language with a rather American accent.

After all, this is how we got our native language’s accent when we were baby: listening to it so much without being able to speak that when we did start, it sounded like our anybody else in our country.

While this clearly cannot work without laying any grammatical and vocabulary basis first, this has proven to be the best technique to improve overall for me.

Obviously, I blew everything out of proportion, spending between a third and half of my waking time watching TV shows, but doing this just an hour or so can do wonders.

Here’s a quick summary for anyone who has the patience to give it a go. Obviously, if the resources are available, this can work to learn any language:

Watch in your target language with your native language’s subtitles. Do that for a few months. I’d advise between 2 and 6, based on your current level. From time to time, try noticing patterns in the audio related to the subtitles.
Watch in your target language with subtitles in the same language. Do that for a minimum of 6 months. Don’t do it for more than a year or you’ll get stuck and won’t want to change anymore. Make sure your eyes and ears are well connected and receiving the same words and sentences.
Get all subtitles off and be patient. You won’t get everything from day one. It’ll start to make more sense as time passes by.

If you do the whole process while you don’t have any opportunity to practice speaking, then you’re in for a treat when you’ll start speaking. The probability of getting an awesome accent is quite high!

While, apart from English, it was difficult to get subtitles in a target language back in the day, now you can easily find it on Netflix.

You can watch TV shows in Japanese, subtitled in Japanese; Korean movies subtitles in Korean, and so on!

This one year process I did almost 15 years ago changed my entire life for the better. I couldn’t wish anything else for anybody. So, if you’ve got the guts and patience, give it a go!