The American TV show “Friends” has helped people all over the world learn English.
A recent article in The New York Times talks about why the show is so popular with English learners.
It says that compared to many English TV shows, the language in “Friends” isn’t too difficult for learners, and the stories are easy for people everywhere to relate to.
In short, “Friends” provides many learners with a lot of spoken English that is both understandable and interesting for them.
That’s what we need to become fluent in any language—to hear it a lot in ways that we understand what is being said.
This kind of language that we can understand is known as comprehensible input.
What we listen to and understand should also be really interesting—ideally, so interesting we even forget that we’re learning another language!
While shows like “Friends” help many people learn English, they are only understandable to learners who know some English already.
This is because, like other TV shows, “Friends” was made for fluent and native English speakers, not English learners.
To learn English efficiently and effectively, beginning English learners need content that is understandable and interesting at their level.
I create English videos that are understandable for total beginners—even those who don’t know any English at all yet.
I tell stories in English and talk about things in English, using many drawings and other visuals with everything I say.
This makes it easy to understand and start to learn English, no matter what one’s first language is.
You can find my videos on my YouTube channel English Comprehensible Input for ESL Beginners.
Comprehensible English 