How a TV show taught me English (and why I built IWBTFY)

I did not learn English at school. I learned it on my sofa, with one show on repeat.

For about twelve years I watched Friends again and again. Every season, every episode, more times than I can count. At first I needed the subtitles for everything. Then only for the fast jokes. Then, one day, I noticed I did not need them at all.

Nobody planned that. It just happened, one episode at a time.

What repeating a show does to you

When you watch something once, you follow the story. When you watch it for the tenth time, you start to hear how people talk:

• how a sentence rises when someone is asking, and falls when they are sure
• the small words people use when they are surprised, embarrassed or teasing
• how a joke depends on timing, not only on the words

You stop translating in your head. You just understand. For me, that was the real lesson, and it was more useful than any grammar book.

The question I kept asking

After all those years, I realised something funny. I knew these episodes better than I knew some of my own school subjects. I could remember who said what, which season it happened in, and what the room looked like.

So I wondered: how many people out there are like me? And how would they do on a real test of their knowledge?

I looked around. There were quizzes, but most of them were short, repeated the same questions, and were written by guessing. None of them felt like they came from someone who had actually watched the episodes.

Building it properly

So I decided to build the quiz I wanted to play.

• Every question comes from a specific episode, not from memory or guesswork.
• There are three levels, so a newcomer and a die-hard fan can both enjoy it.
• You can play by character or by season.
• If you get a question wrong, it comes back until you get it right. That is how I learned, and it works.

Today the bank holds more than 44,000 questions across all ten seasons. And it keeps growing, because players can write their own questions too.

Why the name

IWBTFY stands for "I'll be there for you". It is a promise, and it is how this show felt to me for twelve years: always there, whenever I needed it.

I wanted the site to feel the same way. A friendly place, where nobody is laughed at for not knowing an answer, and where the people who do know are happy to help.

Come and play

If you have ever watched the show more than once, you are exactly who I built this for.

Start a quiz on IWBTFY and see how far you get. The first round is free, and you do not need an account.

Tell me which season you think you know best. I would love to see you prove it.

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IWBTFY is an independent fan project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the creators or the owners of the show.