Vocab Hack #3: Watch Smarter TV and Movies
Let me tell you a little story. When I was your age, living in Dallas, Texas, I woke up one morning at the beginning of sophomore year and decided I wasn’t going to consume any culture that wasn’t “productive”. In fact, I was convinced most books, shows, and movies were designed to make the masses dumber, so I tried to steer clear of anything that could potentially compromise my life’s Grand Plan.
I spent the next three years driving my friends and classmates crazy, refusing to read fiction, watch TV or see mainstream movies. At the time, there were only two independent movie theatres in town – the UA Cine and the Inwood Theatre – and each only ever showed two movies concurrently. I think I saw everything from The Red Violin to Existenz and Happiness. Some were whoppers, but my self-righteousness persisted.
Jump cut to now. I happily watch the likes of Vampire Diaries, Revenge, The Mindy Project, Glee, even reruns of MIOBI. And I discovered something shocking: Not All TV Is Bad! In fact, you if must spend time in front of the “boob tube”, I have discovered the singular most vocabulary-boosting show that will quench your thirst for teen melodrama:
DAWSON’S CREEK.
I am soooo not joking here. After missing the show when it first aired out of intellectual snobbery, I recently decided to make up for lost time. First of all, I was shocked at how eloquent and self-expressive the main characters are. And just to test my hypothesis, I watched the majority of Season 2 with a pen and paper in hand only to discover that some episodes utilized up to 37 SAT-level vocabulary words! Not shabby for 43 minutes of indulgence.
So get thee to a Netflix account and introduce yourself to Dawson, Joey, Jen and Pacey!!
