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 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/ Test: 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 right, Blue line – Base Listening Level- First time you watch
from a student who self-evaluated their Red Line— Optimal Listening Level - After a week studying
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? <Intermediate vs Advanced Listening>

When considering whether or not to use English Subtitles for the

first time you watch, ask yourself what percentage of the dialogue
you understand without subtitles. Are you able to understand the
general idea 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.

But if that’s particularly hard at this point, don’t feel bad starting
the course with English subtitles until your listening improves
enough to remove them.

Subtitles in English or Native Language? <Lower-Leveled vs Intermediate Listening>

If you’ve tried to watch the scene the first time with English subtitles and feel like you’re close to
understanding the general idea, keep going. But, if you feel completely lost, you may choose a
different strategy: instead of watching with English subtitles to start with, watch the entire
episode with subtitles in your native language.

This will give you the context you need to go through the most crucial steps of the Power
Learning Method, which will help you build your English understanding of the episode scene by
scene, as our method instructs:
 First by reading and studying the PDF Power Lesson
 Then by watching with English subtitles, frequently stopping, going back, and referencing
the Power Lesson. Repeating until you’ve learned the material well.
 Note: If you want take it to the next level with your listening, add the extra step of
removing the subtitles and repeating this step.
 Once you feel comfortable with the scene, watch it again, with and/ or without subtitles.

Because you lack the vocabulary and/ or reading ability to understand English subtitles the first
time you watch it, it’s going to require more work for you to build both your reading and
listening comprehension together. If you persist, however, you will see dramatic improvements
in both of these skills over the coming weeks and months, and soon you’ll be understan

It will take more work, however, if you’re diligent, patient, and consistent, you will find your
reading and listening dramatically improving over the coming weeks, and soon you’ll be starting
each lesson with English subtitles.