#15 Fun Ways to Build Your English Proficiency (Movies)

Hello everyone and welcome to the official Selpit podcast where we aim to help you, our test takers, get the best possible scores you can and where we help support newcomers building a life in Canada. My name is CJ and along with my co-host Chris, we talk to a variety of guests from test takers,

language teachers and test raters to employment counselors and immigration consultants just to name a few. We also bring our in-house staff on the show to get their perspectives.

And they're the people in the company that work behind the scenes to make the self-test available to you. Hey, Chris, how's it going?

How's your weekend? Hey, CJ, it's going well. I took it pretty easy over the weekend, got in a couple of nice autumn walks,

took advantage of those overpriced fall drinks at some coffee shops, and I got in some quality time in front of the screen. I think I watched three movies.

Oh, nice. You basically just described my three favorite things about this season. Nice fall weather, salted caramel mochas, and movies. I mean, who isn't a fan of those things? But wait, what do movies have to do with the fall? Okay, well, I guess like nothing technically, but it seems like most of the, you know,

big exciting releases come out just before the holidays. And then there's definitely some new films that I'd love to see right now. Plus, there's just like a lot of independent film festivals

at this time of year. Huh, I hadn't thought of that. But now that you mention it, yeah, that makes sense. So some of our listeners have probably clued

into this already, but can you guess what we'll be talking about today? Movies! I mean, it was also in the title of the episode,

so our listeners are pretty smart and we probably already tipped them off. And it's why they're listening, but movies.

Oh, right. Yeah. So anyway, today's episode continues our series on media recommendations that can help our listeners strengthen their English and prepare for self-hip. Last time, on episode 14, we talked about TV shows, so it only makes sense that we give them some movie recommendations as well.

I'll use cinephiles out there, this episode's for you. So, Cinephile being someone who loves movies. So basically, that's definitely me. Movies are near and dear to my heart.

Like I actually don't want to say how many movies I've watched lately. It's a little bit embarrassing. And since so many streaming services seem to release movies so quickly these days, there's always something new to watch.

And then there's also all the old favorites to go back and watch. it can be a lot less intimidating than binging an entire season of a TV show. Yep, that's a great point. So I'm almost finished watching Modern Family like we were talking about last…

Wait, isn't that show like 10 season long? You definitely got some great TV watching skills right there. Um, thanks. It's actually 11 seasons.

Anyway, that's a whole lot of screen time so I can definitely identify with watching a movie now and then being less time intensive. And of course, you can watch movies not just for entertainment, but also for English practice. As a quick review in case you didn't have time to check out the previous episode on TV shows, for starters, we're not recommending that

you just close your textbooks or drop out of English class and watch movies all day long or anything like that. Yeah, not recommending that. Although let's be honest here, that wouldn't be a pretty great life but not what we're recommending. You're right, that would be amazing. But if you are actively

trying to improve your English, watching movies is no replacement for dedicated study. But movies can definitely act as a supplement to your other means of preparation. And whether you're passively watching them or actively trying to write down new words or expressions that you hear, they can still be beneficial. That's right. And as I think we've discussed before,

you don't necessarily need to pause the movie now and then to write things down. Like if I'm watching some intense car chase or action scene or something, I'm not going to pause. There's no chance. But even if you're watching the movie all the way through, you'll still be able to pick up on lots of things like how the speakers enunciate their words, the pacing, the rhythm of their

speech, and stuff like that. And what you said about pausing there, that's a good point. Of course, you can't do any of this at a theater, but whenever you're watching movies movies from home, remember that besides pausing, you can also slow down the movie if you're having trouble understanding everything that's said, and you can also turn on the subtitles

if you want to read what each person is saying. This can be especially useful to check if you understood the wording correctly or if you want to confirm how a certain word is spelled. Yeah, it's the exact same as TV shows, and you can usually find these options on the bottom of the screen somewhere.

And in any case, movies are just a great way to experience realistic interactions between people using natural English vocabulary and expressions. One small thing to keep in mind, though, is if you're watching a movie from a long time ago, like the 1970s, the type of expressions people might use could be a little bit different than what's used today. But generally speaking,

movies are a great demonstration of authentic language use. I love it. And I think that that just about covers the basics. So essentially, movies are a great way to experience natural use of English,

and there are plenty of ways to help you determine exactly what people are saying if you're having any trouble. And whether you watch a movie all the way through, or whether you stop and take vocabulary notes

from time to time, they can be an awesome way to improve your English. Great summary. And with that covered,

I think now it's time to introduce our guests. Today we'll be chatting with Simon, Brandy and Barry about some of their favorite movies. Welcome everyone, Brandy and Simon.

It's so good to have you guys back on the show