with the world's number one English teacher, AJ Hoge,

where AJ's more than 40 million students worldwide

finally learn English once and for all

without the boring textbooks, classrooms

and grammar drills.

Here's AJ with a quick piece to help you learn

to speak fluent English effortlessly.

- Hello and welcome to The Effortless English Show!

I am AJ Hoge, the author of Effortless English, this book.

And this is the show that teaches you

to speak English powerfully.

Many years ago, I was sitting

in Spanish class.

So I was in university, sitting in my Spanish class,

another day of Spanish, (sighs) waiting for the teacher.

And the teacher strolled in, and I'm thinking,

"Oh God, another, another terrible class of grammar rules

"and vocabulary lists."

But on this day something different.

The teacher was pushing a cart, right, with wheels

that had a TV on top.

So, instantly everybody in the class

kind of sat up more straight and smiled,

and there was a little bit of energy in the room,

and we all looked at each other,

and everybody was happy.

This positive energy spread around the classroom.

We all kind of giggled and laughed, and "Ah", "Ooh".

Because we realized that it was Movie Day.

Yes!

No boring grammar rules, no boring vocabulary lists,

no tests, no quizes - we were gonna watch a movie!

Yeah!

Movie Day was always a happy day in school,

in any class, but especially in Spanish class.

So the teacher hooked up the TV, plugged it in,

and, of course, there was a VCR in those days,

so they used tapes.

There was a VCR, and the teacher put in the tape,

and started the movie.

Then she walked over and turned off the lights.

So movies days were wonderful because it was a day

where we didn't have to do anything, right.

There is no real studying, no work, no stress;

the teacher wouldn't call on us

and force us to speak Spanish

and make us all stressed out and worried.

So I sat back ready to watch the movie,

and the movie began.

It was a story about, I don't know, an immigrant

coming to America from Mexico.

But because it was Spanish class, of course,

the whole movie was in Spanish.

So the teacher walked over to her desk and sat down,

and started reading a book.

And I could tell she was also happy,

because no work for her, right?

Just plug in the movie, press Play,

and then sit back and relax for the whole hour of the class.

So, in the beginning of the movie I watched it

with good concentration,

and, of course, everybody speaking Spanish,

and I couldn't understand anything.

Basically - zero (laughs).

So I'm watching - eh, but I'm watching the pictures,

kind of following the story, kind of figuring out,

kind of understanding what was happening.

I managed to concentrate maybe for 10 minutes,

but then after 10 minutes I could feel my energy

dropping down.

And I started getting tired: my shoulders dropped down,

I leaned back, "Aah, oh, well, just enjoy the movie."

(sighs)

And then after 15 minutes my eyes got a little -

we say "droopy" meaning they get kind of low like this,

this is droopy eyes.

So my eyes got droopy.

Then I looked around the classroom at the other students.

(laughs)

I looked over to my right, and I saw several students

with their heads down on their desk, just like this.

Just sleeping or resting, not even watching the movie,

not even trying, just.

Several others looked like me,

most of the others looked like me:

just sitting kind of bored-looking,

with these blank faces,

staring at the movie, but not understanding anything.

And it stayed that way for the entire class.

I got sleepier and sleepier - I didn't fall asleep,

but I was kind of half awake and half asleep

with this look on my face the whole time.

More and more people in the class, my classmates,

put their heads down on their desks.

Some of them started whispering to each other,

passing notes to each other, "Hey!" (whispers).

In English, of course.

Pretty much no one in the class

paid attention to the whole movie

because we couldn't understand it at all.

Finally, at the end of class, the teacher put down her book

that she was reading, walked over,

stopped the movie about half way -

because we couldn't watch the whole thing,

the class was too short -

walked over, flipped on the lights.

And the bell rang "brrrring",

and we all stood up and got our books,

and hurried out of the class off to our next class.

An hour wasted, but at least an hour without stress.

Later in my life I became an English teacher.

And I can remember, at several jobs that I had,

walking by classrooms of other teachers

and seeing the exact same situation,

but in English.

Looking through the door or the window,

seeing an English teacher bring in the television,

looking at all the happy faces of the students,

because "Yay, an easy day of doing nothing!"

And the teacher plugging in the television,

popping in a movie - this time in English,

turning off the lights, pressing Play.

The teacher also happy walking to their desk,

usually reading a book, or sometimes just, you know,

laying back and resting and doing nothing;

and little by little all the students in the class

falling asleep (snores).

That is how most people use movies

or television shows to learn English - sadly.

Now, at home I know that you might try to learn English

with TV or movies.

Perhaps you turn on CNN

and you try to follow the news.

Maybe you watch a movie on television,

you watch the Star Network, or HBO,

or whatever you can get in English.

You turn it on, you press Play, and you watch the movie.

And of course, what happens?

Usually the same thing that happened to me

in my Spanish class,

the same thing that happened to all those students

that I watched in English classes.

In the beginning you try to follow what's happening,

but you can't understand most of it: it's too fast,

they use a lot of idioms, they use slang,

they speak with maybe a little bit different accents.

And so, you try to figure out the story from the pictures,

but after a while your energy drops,

your concentration drops,

because it's too hard to understand.

And then you finish the whole movie - maybe,

and you have basically learned no English at all.

And yet, around the world teachers continue to show movies

to their classes in this exact same way.

A waste of time.

It's used as a waste of time;

it's used as an easy day, a restful day.

It's used as wishful thinking.

It means we wish, we hope this will improve our English,

because it feels fun, it feels easy to watch a movie.

But the truth is using a movie in this way

does not help,

unless you're very, very, very advanced.

Just watching a movie in English

will not help your English.

Why? Why not?

Because you will not understand most of it,

and if you don't understand, you are not learning.

I learned zero Spanish watching movies in Spanish class.

None. Zero. Nothing.

It was a complete wasted hour of time.

If you simply put in a movie and watch it,

you're also just wasting your time.

Again, unless you're very, very advanced.

And if you're advanced, if you're very advanced,

if you understand most of the movies,

most of the TV shows you watch in English,

well, congratulations, you're doing a great job.

But for most people, just watching a movie like that,

it's a waste of time.

So should we forget about movies?

Should we forget about TV shows?

No.

In fact, TV shows and movies

are possibly

a very, very powerful tool

for improving your English speaking.

Much, much, much better than a textbook.

You know, I hate textbooks

because in textbooks the English - it's not real, it's fake.

"Hello, how are you?

"I'm fine. And you?"

Who talks like that?

Nobody talks like that.

But in movies, movie English is much, much closer

to the real English we use in the United States

when we talk to our friends,

when we're at work, at our jobs,

when we're on the street chatting with people,

when we go to a restaurant.

Movies and television shows show you

a much more real kind of English.

Movies and TV shows have slang and idioms

that we use all the time.

They have very, very useful phrases.

Perhaps the most important of all,

movies and TV shows have real pronunciation.

It's how we really pronounce words and phrases.

We push some words together, we cut some words,

some words we stretch and make longer.

All of the real English speaking that we use in real life

you can get from movies and television shows.

So how do we use them correctly?

How do you use them so you could really learn,

you actually improve your English,

not waste an hour of time or two hours of time?

Well, you do it by using

The Effortless English Movie Technique,

which I will teach you

right after I answer a few Twitter questions.

When we come back, I will tell you exactly step by step

how to use a movie or a television show

to improve your English speaking and listening.

But first let's go to a few Twitter questions.

Twitter question time.

Well, this is a good question.

"AJ, which series or TV shows do you recommend us to watch

"for learning English?"

Great question!

Perfect for our topic.

I don't have just one to recommend,

because it depends on you, right?

If you love crime shows, for example,

then you should watch crime shows.

But what if you hate crime shows,

well, then don't watch them.

Maybe you prefer something more light,

something more romantic, something a little funnier.

So I won't tell you exactly what to watch,

but I will tell you which types of TV shows or movies

are best for you.

So, the best kinds are modern.

First of all, they need to be modern.

Modern means they're in this time period in history.

They can be a little bit old like from the 1980s,

or '90s, or 2000s, that's okay -

if you want something a little older

for a movie or a TV show.

You do not want a movie, however,

about the far past.

For example, an obvious example,