Skeebdo is a new service that promises to help you improve your English vocabulary through films & TV series.
Update: Since publishing this article, Skeebdo has now moved to a mobile app.
How does it work?
In short, you tell Skeebdo your level of English and which TV show or film you are watching (or you are going to watch). Skeebdo then finds words from the subtitles that it thinks will be difficult for you. For each word Skeebdo shows you the translation in your language and the context the word is used in the film/TV show.
You can remove words you already know, or don’t want to learn. When you are happy with your list, you can start to learn the words using flashcards. When you’re confident you understand the words, give yourself a Challenge to test yourself.
Here are more details on how Skeebdo works:
When you click the sign up button, one of the things Skeebdo asks you is your level of English on a scale of 1 to 5. (Note that you can change this later if you find the level is too high or too low)
Clicking ‘Let’s go!’ means it’s time to start selecting what you’re watching at the moment.
We are watching the BBC’s ‘Sherlock’ again, so we chose the first episode of that.
When you click ‘Learn’, this is what you’ll see
Here are the files generated by Skeebdo for the first episode of Sherlock:
This PDF file is the simple word list.
This PDF file is the printable flashcards.
If you click on the ‘Skeebdo Flashcards’ option, you can practise and challenge yourself with this list of words on the Skeebdo site itself. Have a look at the next image to see for yourself
Practice mode allows you to:
- listen to the word
- see a translation in your native language
- see the word in the context it appears in the film/show
Challenge mode tests to see if you can remember the meaning of the words in your list. There are different styles of challenges:
Now you can repeat the process with the next episode, or with a different film or show.
Is it free?
Skeebdo has a free mode, so it costs you nothing to sign up. The first 20 words for each episode or film are free. We certainly recommend trying Skeebdo to see if you like it.
After that, you can upgrade to unlock unlimited words via your Dashboard if you want.