I always wanted to be able to understand the real-life content in English. Generally, I don't have problems with understanding natives, even when they speak different accents. That's probably because they're aware that English is my second language, and therefore speak slower and use simpler vocabulary. I'm totally fine with that since the goal is to communicate and get the message across. But, even though I can easily maintain a conversation with natives there's always an entrenched thought in my mind that the whole conversation is artificial. There's something missing, something that usually moves the conversation to the whole another level - spontaneity. I wish I was treated by natives like someone so advanced that they can use the language the way they normally do. I don't blame anybody for treating me like a non-native speaker. It seems that the ball is in my court and I'm the one to show others that I can keep up with them. I need to show my skills in the first place, so they know I'm good enough to behave naturally.
I've been kept in a bubble where the progress in this area was almost impossible. I've been watching and listening to the same things over and over again expecting to transcend to another level. The content was the right one to get the knowledge, but it wasn't spontaneous at all. I tried watching the Friends series a couple of months ago. I even watched the whole 2 seasons, but it was full of cultural references and jokes I couldn't get, and eventually, I gave up. Maybe that wasn't the right moment to watch it, or maybe I didn't really enjoy it as much as I thought. No matter what was the cause I stopped and got back to the standard content I'd been watching before. Luckily, a couple of days ago I recalled another American series I've been advised to watch many times - The Office. I decided to give it a shot and I don't regret any single second spent on this so far. I've already watched 4 episodes and it seems that's the right resource for me. The way actors speak is just a little bit easier than in Friends and therefore it gives me much more satisfaction because I can keep up with the plot. I understand the jokes and laugh a lot when watching it. I love the way they act and speak. It's full of spontaneous dialogues I've been craving and at the same time, it's so much fun to watch it.
I'm delighted I finally found an enjoyable source of natural, real-life English. It's no longer a duty to consume the content in the target language. I fell in love with this series. I'm looking forward to getting my job done today and devouring more episodes.
I've heard it several times and if I'm not mistaken, that sitcom is huge in the US until now. But, what I didn't know is that it could be helpful for learning natural English. As the title says, I was thinking it might be centered around office life and doing business so, the plot didn't grab my attention at first. Now that you said good things about it, I'm getting interested in it. Are you watching it with subtitles or not?
The action takes place mostly in the office, but it isn't entirely about the business. In fact every episode has it's own topic, so you can learn a lot of words related to festivals, customs and daily life. Most of the time I watch it without subtitles, I turn them on only for a moment whenever I feel that something goes over my head.