You’ve read my previous post and you’re now eager to watch quality subtitled content.
But where to find it?
The first and most obvious source is Netflix. Netflix allows you to select from a great variety of subtitles, and you should make it a habit to watch all its content in English with English subtitles.
The second and maybe not-so-obvious source is YouTube. The secret of a correct use of YouTube is finding high-quality channels that both feature subtitles and are relevant to your interests. I’ve seen too many students looking for videos “about English” or searching for videos that help them “practicing English.” That won’t give you the necessary motivation to watch the videos. You need to find YouTube channels about topics you truly like. If you like fashion, you should be following fashion youtubers. If you’re into art, you should be following youtubers focusing on that topic. How to know if a video features subtitles, also called “closed captioning”? Look for the little “CC” icon under the video description.
The following chart will offer you a variety of channels that I either follow myself or that I have tested and feature the following three elements:
- High quality content
- Good to excellent use of English
- English subtitles available for most videos
Have fun!
| FOOD | |
| The Food Ranger | Trevor James travels the world and tastes street food. |
| SORTEDfood | Four cooks make original videos and test new things. |
| Alex Cooking (French native speaker) | A Frenchman makes great recipes (interesting for accent). |
| HUMOR | |
| Lily Superwoman (Can) | Indian-Canadian Lilly Singh makes humorous videos about society. |
| Aunty Donna (Aus) | Three Australian comedians who specialize in surreal humor. |
| HISTORY/POLITICS/PHILOSOPHY | |
| Geography Now | About geography of the world, especially focusing on countries. |
| VisualPolitics EN | Focus on an analysis of world event and politics with great images. |
| Historia Civilis | Channel focused on the history of the ancient world. |
| ContraPoints (my favorite at the moment) | Natalie Wynn talks about philosophy, gender, and politics. |
| Philosophy Tube (UK) | Olly reviews lots of philosophical concepts. |
| DISCOVERY | |
| Good Mythical Morning | Rhett and Link talk every morning about random stuff. |
| Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell | Channel dedicated to explaining quickly complicated things. |
| TedED | Short videos about varied educational topics. |
| Slate | Short documentaries about society. |
| Vox (not the Spanish political party!) | Short documentaries about what makes the headlines. |
| It’s OK to be Smart | Joe Hanson asks big questions and tries to answer them. |
| Soul Pancake | A channel focusing on humans in all their variety. |
| Matthew Santoro (Can) | Santoro talks about everything (watch his 50 Amazing Facts videos) |
| DO IT YOURSELF (DIY) | |
| BigNate84 | Big Nate teaches you manly stuff. |
| VeryPink Knits | A whole channel dedicated to learning how to knit. |
| Dude Perfect | A bunch of guys do sports and weird stuff. |
| SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY | |
| The Verge | A channel focusing on new technology. |
| Seeker | Focus on science and new tech. |
| D.O.N.G. | Michael talks about math and does weird physics experiments. |
| SOCIAL AWARENESS / RELATIONSHIPS | |
| ASL Stew | Deaf parents film their life and show how they raise their kids. |
| The Tommy Edison Experience | A blind man answers all possible questions about blindness. |
| Hannah Witton | Hannah manly talks about education and relationships. |
| Annie Elainey | Annie is in a wheelchair and talks about race, gender, and society. |
| UNIQUE | |
| English Speeches with Big Subtitles | Important historical speeches with huge subtitles on screen. |
| Tessa Netting | One of the biggest Harry Potter fans ever? |
| Shameless Maya | Maya decided to promote herself on YouTube as an experiment. |
| NPR Music | Fantastic live music, great documentaries. |
| Lindsay Ellis | Lindsay reviews movies, TV series, video games, and pop culture. |