Friends - Dubbed in French

When looking for content to watch, it's a classic choice to pick something you love but dubbed in French. I find that dubs are easier to understand than shows that were already in French because the voice actors are required to speak clearly and follow the pace of the original voices. Whenever I can't think of something French to watch I often default to Friends. Sitcoms are also useful for practicing French listening because you don't strictly have to watch the episodes in order, and you're not required to watch all the episodes.

Summary

Do I need to describe Friends? It's an American sitcom that ran for ten seasons from 1994 to 2004 about a group of friends living in New York City. They're really close, they're funny, they get into ridiculous situations, and they make bad decisions.

Review

It feels a little ridiculous to try to review Friends as a piece of media. I find it genuinely funny, but I'm aware there are jokes that haven't aged well. The most common and valid criticism of the show is that the characters are not good people, so it's not always enjoyable watching them be bad people. Most of the time however, I find their antics hilarious. My favourite episode is The One With All the Kissing.

As I've mentioned above, dubs are easier to understand because the voice actors speak clearly. Their tone also varies largely in range, so it doesn't feel like the words are coming all at once in monotone flurry. There is a lot of vocabulary to learn, but since it's just a sitcom, the words all tend to be simplistic. Moreover, Friends is a show built around the premise of friends getting together and just having funny conversations so a lot of the words will be useful in conversation. I can watch Friends without subtitles on, but there are some scenes that I have to replay with the French subtitles on because the vocabulary is out of my reach.

The downside of watching Friends dubbed and subbed in French on Netflix is that the French subtitles are translations of the English audio track, rather than a transcription of the French audio track. I find that it's actually easier to understand the French subtitles than the French dub, which is why I think it would be ideal for a beginner.

It's a fun challenge to have the French audio on. I'd recommend watching it without subtitles for higher Intermediate learners and with subtitles for higher Beginner learners and lower Intermediate learners. The subs aren't a transcription, but they're useful to get the gist or meaning of a phrase that was hard to catch just by hearing.