TV channels offer you audio and subtitle options, so the time you devote to learning about the world can also be used for language practice, which makes this time twice as meaningful.

There’s one feature where YouTube beats TV channels:

You can adjust playback speed when you watch a YouTube video.

So, while the difficulty of vocabulary, grammar and the sentence structures cannot be adjusted to your level of English, IT DOES MATTER that you can slow the video down to have some more time to process what you hear and read (if you turn on subtitles).

It’s a common misbelief that the you lose a lot from the viewing experience if you slow the video down. In some cases that’s true. But I wouldn’t say that categorically: At 0.75 speed both what you see and what you hear remain enjoyable.

Try it.

Here’s an idea:

1. Go to youtube,
2. enter search words: National Geographic,
3. click on playlist to select what interests you
4. and when you start a video click on the setting options (the gear symbol on the right) and change the speed from normal to 0,75:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NatGeo/playlists

One important warning: subtitles are often machine-generated which means that it’s not the official, 100% correct subtitles that you can read while watching the video.

Check out our previous weekly tips:

• Adventurous vocabulary
• Flashcards!