Lazy English
Primary learning method
From Tim Ferriss's blog https://tim.blog/2009/01/20/learning-language/
Repeat listening to material; repetition is extremely, extremely important. If you can't repeat, don't bother learning. Repeat for three months and you'll master 95% of a language.
How can you get yourself to repeatedly listen to material and stick with it for three months?
According to the Fogg Behavior Model, action depends on: the difficulty of the action, your level of motivation to do it, and whether you receive a trigger (a fixed time point, e.g., 8 AM; a fixed event, e.g., when you finish work).
So you should do this:
Use the “Daily English Listening” or “Light Listening English” app, choose material you’re interested in. For example, I personally like podcasts (I recommend Planet Money; most episodes aren’t too long and you can get through several rounds quickly), while I’m not interested in the stories in New Concept English lessons or the stories told by AJ Hope. Listen once or twice, then look at the subtitles, check which words you didn’t catch, replay the corresponding segments, then turn off the subtitles and listen several more times.
I’m too lazy to set aside dedicated time to study English, so I listen while doing tasks that don’t require attention, like when I’m washing up (don’t listen while running in the street — I won’t say you might get hit by an electric bike, but you could be crushed because you didn’t hear a palm frond fall; that has actually happened. Don’t listen while working out — it can affect muscle recruitment).
When you’ve already listened without subtitles a couple of times and need to check which parts you missed, you can do this while flossing or brushing your teeth. Buy a floor-standing reading stand or a height-adjustable desk that can hold your phone at a comfortable level.
Secondary learning methods
The “don’t memorize vocabulary” app: learning words through example sentences is indeed good, but according to the Fogg Behavior Model, I wouldn’t stick with it.
Watch English videos mainly for entertainment — this method is quite inefficient for learning English; just pick up bits along the way.
Recommended materials
House of Cards
There are many great lines, for example: "She is as tough a two-dollar steak" "I never make such big decisions so long after sunset and so far from dawn" "Money is the McMansion in Sarasota that starts falling apart after ten years; Power is the old stone building that stands for centuries. I cannot respect someone who doesn't see the difference." But the characters speak too fast; I have to watch a bit, pause, then give up.
Breaking Bad
The first season is a bit boring; it gets interesting from the second season, especially after the lawyer Saul Goodman appears — a very flashy character, which led to another show, Better Call Saul. Compared to House of Cards there aren’t many quotable lines to learn from, but it’s great for practicing listening.
Better Call Saul
A spinoff of Breaking Bad. Personally I feel some parts just stretch the runtime, but overall it’s still good.
Arcane
An animated series based on League of Legends; it’s okay and can be used to practice listening.
America's Test Kitchen Cooking tips: the fastest way to thaw frozen meat, the ultimate guide to air fryers Tom ScottPopular science Oversimplified Uses animation to tell history: the Pig War between Britain and the U.S., the Napoleonic Wars, the Three Kingdoms... Zach Star Recommended to watchThis is How Easy It Is to Lie With Statistics Mustard Introduces interesting historical vehicles: the “Caspian Sea Monster,” a supersonic bomber fitted with six jet engines, the mighty MiG-25 Talk at Google Interviews with figures: actors, scientists, stand-up comedians, and more SmarterEveryDay Interesting popular science videos: the Coast Guard’s Z-shaped search method, how the famous magician Houdini died Vsauce Popular science MIT OpenCourseWare F-22 flight controls, how to give a presentation, linear algebra, algorithms Harvard Business School RecommendedTake a Seat in the Harvard MBA Case Classroom
Chrome’s built-in caption feature: Settings -> Advanced -> Accessibility -> Live Caption, which works with audio content on any website.
Press C on YouTube to hide captions, which is convenient for taking screenshots of slides.
Shala word lookupA built-in Chrome selection plugin that’s more convenient than Eudic dictionary and also supports automatic Anki card creation.
Language Reactor, automatically highlights words based on your vocabulary level (seems not very useful; it can’t automatically show definitions for highlighted words) Features: you can switch between sentences, repeat a sentence, smart pause, and auto-hide the YouTube status bar with shortcuts. **Updated 2022/8/10:** This extension can blur Chinese subtitles; when you encounter “I know every word but don’t know the meaning,” hover over the blurred subtitle and the Chinese translation will appear. For example, in Breaking Bad the phrase “cheese eater” means “informant.” Click "Hide subtitles" in the settings to configure it.
Use PotPlayer to play English videos with subtitles; you can use Home and End (on the top-right of the keyboard) to jump to the previous and next sentence.
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