RealLife Power Learning Methodology

Specific Instructions on How to Use the Materials

Now that you’ve had a chance to get oriented with successful strategies in the Fluent with
Friends Success Guide, let’s focus on specific instructions on how to use the materials.

First of all, Fluent with Friends is primarily a self-directed learning experience,

which means that most of the learning material is designed to be studied independently,
by watching and studying the Friends TV series, and using the support materials and
resources.

Again, each lesson contains A LOT OF information, especially the Power Lesson.
For a lot of people, the quantity of information presented can be overwhelming (too
much to handle) at first, and this can be shocking if you don’t know how to deal with it.

But as we keep repeating, you don’t need to learn everything, but you do need to
find a balanced process that works for you and your life.

This means that you’re constantly experimenting

with and optimizing your learning process, and that
you’re finding a way to stay engaged AND enjoy
the Fluent with Friends experience.

As you’ll see, this course will offer you plenty of

support, but it will demand your sincere
commitment.

Before we go deeper into specific techniques, it’s important to recognize that each learner
needs to build a unique process that works for him/her, taking into account important
individual factors, such as:

 Time Available to Study

 General English Level
 Parallel Learning Experiences
 Learning Style & Preferences (What’s worked in the past)
 Language Learning Background (English Course, other languages)
 General Background (Education, Travel, etc)
 Previous Contact with Friends

The RealLife Power Learning Methodology

At the core of each Fluent with Friends Lesson is an exercise we call the Power Learning
Method, which combines the experience of watching and enjoying Friends with the
exercise of Learning English, which results in a significant “upgrade” in vocabulary
and listening comprehension in a matter of days, weeks, and months.

Instructions: Watch each episode of Friends, scene by scene, together with the Power
Lesson. You will alternate between watching, studying, and watching with each scene.

1. Watch The Scene: Simply watch the first scene of the episode (with or without
English subtitles) trying your best to understand the general idea, guess what’s
happening, and diagnose your comprehension difficulties.

 Feel free, but not obligated, to reference the Power Lesson to facilitate your
comprehension, but remember that the goal is to relax, enjoy, and
understand the main idea of the scene.
 For our purposes, each “scene” can be between 30 seconds and 2 minutes (1-
2 pages of the power lesson). Experiment and see what’s best.
 As you improve your listening and reach advanced levels of native
comprehension, you will be able to study longer sections without stopping.

2. Study PDF Power Lesson Only: After watching the scene, pause the episode,
and put your full focus on the Power Lesson PDF for that scene. Read the
transcript and reference the right-hand column of the PDF, identify the gaps (the
confusing parts you didn’t understand) and fill those gaps in with learning the
information. Learn the vocabulary and cultural context, take notes on the most
difficult things (to study later), and use the emotion, the humor, and the story to
fix the words in your memory.

 The FwF Glossary is a great resource to bookmark and have open on your
computer when you’re studying. Also, an online dictionary, or even Google
translate can be very helpful.
 Taking notes is an excellent way to integrate new information into your
English vocabulary. If you print the Power Lesson, take notes on the PDF
pages. If you take notes on a separate piece of paper (or digitally), find a
place to put the information. Either way, build/ schedule a review system for
these new words.
 Your Memrise Digital Vocab Lesson and MP3 Vocabulary Review
(Standard Plan) will help you systematically train and review 30 important
words from each episode. Keep in mind that this is a separate activity, not
necessarily part of the “watch/ study/ watch” power learning cycle we’re
describing here. You’ll probably want to study your Memrise vocabulary
lesson throughout the week as a separate activity, or even before studying
the scene.

3. Study the Scene/ Power Lesson: Now that you’ve taken the time to develop a
stronger foundation for understanding the content of the scene with the PDF
Power Lesson, it’s time to watch it again, but this time really interacting with the
both the audio of the scene AND the PDF Power Lesson, breaking the scene into
smaller parts.
  With each piece, when you don’t understand something, pause the scene,
read the Power Lesson, identify and reinforce the material you didn’t
understand, then repeat that part of the scene again.
 To diagnose the part you missed, constantly ask yourself, “Why didn’t I
understand that?” The most common reasons are: (a) vocabulary, (b)
connected speech- they reduce their words and speak too fast, (c) cultural
context, or (d) grammar problems Note: this is the most important learning
habit you can create for yourself and the key to your success.
 It may help to read the Power Lesson while you’re listening, and slow down
the audio (if your video player allows it- a really great program to play video
is VLC Player), and once you catch the words and understand, then speed it
up until you can hear it at full speed.
 Depending on your level, and how much time you have, this step could take
several days. You can go through it quicker and more superficially, and
repeat the process, or you can go deeper into each step and only pass
through the process once. We recommend experimenting to find what works
best for you and your life.

The first time you repeat the scene, even though you’ll see a significant
improvement from before, you’ll probably still have at least some difficulty
because:

(a) You’re struggling with native pronunciation

(b) You haven’t fully integrated the new
information from the Power Lesson (don’t worry,
it takes time and repetition), or (c) some
combination of the two.

To solve this, continue repeating the scene part

by part, focusing on the gaps (holes) in your
understanding, repeating, studying, and
listening until you reach a strong level of
understanding for the episode.

Pronunciation Practice: To improve your pronunciation (and even your

listening) imitating the characters is another excellent activity you can integrate
into this step of the Power Learning Cycle. Here’s how we recommend you do it:

Get used to speaking out loud to imitate the characters, especially with (a) the
pronunciation sections you find in the power lessons, and (b) words and phrases
that you feel you have difficulty with. Here are some guidelines to help:

 Make sure you’re familiar with RealLife’s Simplified Pronunciation

System, which will facilitate your use of the Power Lesson’s pronunciation
section.
  We recommend you record yourself together with the native sample. So,
if Joey says, “why don’t you call my uncle?” (it may be transcribed in the
Power Lesson as “whine-chew call my uncle”), you record Joey saying that,
followed by you imitating him.
 Listening to your own voice will probably be uncomfortable because (a)
you’re not used to your own voice, even in your native language, and (b) it’s
particularly uncomfortable to hear your pronunciation problems. But relax,
self-awareness is the first step to improvement. You are able to diagnose and
correct many of your pronunciation problems by listening and comparing to
the native sample.
 Finding a Recording Device: To record yourself, your smart phone may
already have this feature. If not you can search the app store for a free voice-
recording app, or you can even buy a small hand-held recorder.

4. Watch: Now that you have worked hard to install so much new vocabulary into
your brain, and also familiarize yourself with native pronunciation patterns, as
well as the cultural context, it’s time for you to watch this scene one more time, but
this time in a more relaxed way.

When you’re done with the episode,

you may want to go back and watch it
one more time in the same relaxed
way to see really enjoy it and also to
experience what you’ve learned.

After a week, you’ll have reached what

we call your “optimal level” listening,
as opposed to your “base level”
listening, which you had when you
started.

As you can see in the graph to the Blue line – Base Listening Level- First time you watch
right, from a student who self- Red Line— Optimal Listening Level - After a week studying
evaluated their listening progress
through the course,
if you’re doing it right, you should be improving both your “base level” listening, as
well as your “optimal level” week over week throughout the entire course.

Of course, because the next episode will contain new information and dialogues, it
will be difficult again, but it will be a little bit easier, and over the weeks and
months, with persistence and patience, small improvements will result in big
changes in your English fluency. In fact, it is quite common for students to report
around a 50% improvement in their listening comprehension after using it for the
first season (24 weeks).

Naturally, within each weekly lesson, as you alternate between watching and reading,
your viewing experience and knowledge of the vocabulary will deepen. By repeatedly
experiencing new information in meaningful contexts, it becomes a part of us, which is
exactly one of our big FwF learning goals for you.

More Tips
While each person should experiment with what works best for his/ her process, here are
some key points to consider:

 Watch the episode in a relaxed, engaged way. For this, you should be able to
understand 50-60% of the episode. If you’re upper intermediate or advanced, you
may be able to do it without subtitles, while intermediate learners may need
English subtitles. Lower level learners may need to use subtitles in their native
language.
 If you prefer to read first and then watch, that’s perfectly okay. Some people have
been successful with that sequence too.
 Make sure you are having fun! You’ll learn a lot more and it will be easier to build a
consistent habit. If you find yourself getting frustrated, take a pause, and come
back to it later, or ever the next day (new knowledge is fortified in your brain while
you sleep).

With or Without English Subtitles?

When considering whether or not to use English Subtitles, ask

yourself what % of the dialogue you understand without
subtitles, and how far you are from understanding the story
without subtitles.

Remember, subtitles are “a crutch” (artificial support

mechanism), and the sooner you are able to stay engaged
without subtitles, the closer to our goal of understanding
natives without subtitles you are.

If it’s super hard for you to watch without subtitles now, just
wait until you get used to the show and the characters, and a
few weeks or months down the road you can start to
experiment.