I’m from China, I’ve been learning English for more than ten years, I’ve been exposed to English information such as TV shows, interviews, tweets almost every day. I think I have some basic English, but when I watch American shows such as Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, etc., I realize that I don’t know any English at all, every episode has words or phrases I’ve never seen before, and I have to look up almost every sentence in the dictionary or google it to find out what it means in plain sight or potentially. So I’m really curious, for the average American (e.g. with a high school education), do you guys need to look up a dictionary while watching American show? Or do you guys know exactly what almost every word means？
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Even if you don’t know a word, you can usally understand its meaning from context.
Unless it’s some weird science term no I wouldn’t need to crack a book.
The Big Bang Theory is not a smart show.
I’ve seen it listed in a Venn diagram under the “show about smart people, for dumb people” category. They use some bigger vocabulary but anyone who graduated high school in the US can at least reason their way through any new vocabulary using context clues.
ordinary americans will not even do a google search, much less consult a dictionary.
I sure never have. They never really used a term without setting it up, really. There are much more difficult shows, in terms of assumed vocabulary.
No, I’ve never had to do this to understand a show/movie. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t think I’ve heard these shows use words I’m unfamiliar with. They are all very viewer friendly.
English can be tricky with all of our backwards phrases. I know extremely intelligent people who practice medicine here in the US and still struggle with a few phrases/behaviors/sarcasm/etc. It’s not uncommon for them to ask me to explain “jokes” or things said by patients/families that they haven’t heard before. A lot of it can be cultural/we just grew up understanding and speaking this way.
Sometimes there is a scientific term that I have not heard before. But, there is usually enough information in the show that I can figure it out. So,I don’t think I’ve needed to look up words in the dictionary. I think I have heard about scientific theories and done a little bit of searching for more information about a particular concept, just because I found it interesting.
I think that the bigger issue might be that there is a lot of American slang or common expressions for Americans that are just not as common in your native language. That show has a lot of sarcasm and hyperbole (exaggeration). So, it could also partly be that the words are not being used literally and that is confusing to someone who is not a native American English speaker.
No that’s not common.
That being said I want to applaud you for your excellent English skills!! And even more for continuing to learn and grow!! It’s not easy to learn a new language and I think it’s great you are putting in this effort!!
If it’s any consolation, I can get along okay and read Spanish fairly well. But when I try watching either dubbed shows or native comedies in Spanish, I have difficulty keeping up.
I think most Americans who are native or fluent English speakers generally understand the words used in shows. I would say it is more common for people like this to look up specific cultural, scientific, or historical references made in shows than individual words or phrases. I also think it is probably fairly common for non-native or fluent English speakers to look up words and phrases used in shows and movies. I spent some time in Paris and only knew a bit of French when I got there, and I had to look up words all the time when I watched French tv shows or movies.
I do because I’m very nerdy. A lot of their references aren’t linguisitc, but cultural. Some science gets thrown in but its basically irrelevant.
No this is not a thing we do. We understand the dialogue of shows we watch.
The shows are designed explicitly to entertain us, usually in a brain dead way, which means we can follow them.
They may use a lot more slang than you’re used to, but they use slang that we mostly know or can figure out. (Or if the joke is that we’re not supposed to understand the slang, we figure that out pretty quick.)
Also, a lot of it may involve cultural references. We use baseball a lot when we talk (knock it out of the park, hit a home run,..), as well as reference other English literature a lot.
You clearly speak English well, from the text of your post. But the secret is that when we speak to each other, we often speak English “badly”, or using slang, or making references, or…
I’d be curious what types of things you’ve had to look up, if you remember any.
I have a bit more education than high school level, but I’ve never looked a word up that I heard in an American TV show.
Here’s an example of all the words I don’t recognize from Big Bang Theory Season 4, Season 3, can you guys tell me if you all know these words? :
domesticated
vuglar
amalgamation
labyrinth
lure you in
humdrum
intimidated
sanctimonious
obnoxious
spectacle
calloused
condescension
substrate
cognitive
ipso facto
ordo congnoscendi
hit a reef
went splitsville
glaring
stipulate
epitome
You probably don’t understand slang or the figure of speech we use.
No. A dictionary is not needed for any sitcom.
The ordinary American doesn’t watch television shows that have worlds that they don’t understand.