How to learn Chinese from TV shows

Get to about HSK 3, pick one show, watch it in order with Chinese subtitles, and look up the words that keep coming back.

By Mandarin The WildUpdated 14 October 20264 min read

We make Mandarin The Wild.

What the studies found

In 88 English TV programs, knowing the 3,000 most common word families (plus names) covered 95% of the words, and 7,000 covered 98%. Coverage varied a lot from episode to episode, and less common words came up only a few times each. Webb and Rodgers (2009), Vocabulary demands of television programs, Language Learning 59(2). Episodes of the same show share far more of their vocabulary than unrelated programs, so watching one show in order means meeting the same words again. Rodgers and Webb (2011), Narrow viewing: the vocabulary in related television programs, TESOL Quarterly 45(4).

People do learn words from watching. After one full-length TV program, learners knew the meanings of some new words, and they learned more of the words that came up more often and more when they already knew more words. Peters and Webb (2018), Incidental vocabulary acquisition through viewing L2 television and factors that affect learning, Studies in Second Language Acquisition 40(3). Across studies, subtitles in the language being learned helped both listening comprehension and vocabulary. Montero Perez, Van Den Noortgate and Desmet (2013), Captioned video for L2 listening and vocabulary learning: a meta-analysis, System 41(3).

One study tested Chinese learners directly. Intermediate learners who could point at a word in the Chinese subtitles to see its meaning correctly defined more than twice as many new words afterwards as those watching with Chinese and English subtitles together, and understood the clips as well. Kovacs and Miller (2014), Smart subtitles for vocabulary learning, CHI 2014.

我每天晚上看一集电视剧。

diànshìjù: “I watch an episode of a TV show every night.”

电diàn视shì剧jù

Noun

TV series; TV drama

Also written 電視劇

Most of this research is on English. So we counted Chinese.

How much of Chinese TV do HSK words cover?

We took the subtitles of 292 films and shows whose original language is Mandarin, 1.7 million words in all, and checked each title's words against the 2025 HSK list. Lison and Tiedemann (2016), OpenSubtitles2016: extracting large parallel corpora from movie and TV subtitles, LREC 2016 (the subtitles we counted). HSK: the official site of the Chinese Proficiency Test.

HSK words you know	Share of a title's words (median)	Middle half of titles
HSK 1	52%	46–55%
HSK 1–2	63%	56–67%
HSK 1–3	72%	64–76%
HSK 1–4	79%	72–82%
HSK 1–5	85%	78–87%
HSK 1–6	89%	83–91%

Even all six levels leave about one word in nine unknown, and studies of reading put comfortable understanding at 95–98% of the words. Nation (2006), How large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening?, Canadian Modern Language Review 63(1). The rest is everyday speech the list skips, slang and the show's own topic. That is why subtitles you can point at matter more than another level of study: they fill the gap one word at a time.

Chinese TV talks fast

While a line is on screen, the speakers in a typical title get through 3.6 characters a second (the middle half of titles 3.2–4.0), and a line stays up a little longer than it is spoken. Chinese subtitles let you read what you didn't catch, then pause and hear the line again.

One show beats random clips

A typical title uses 608 different words above HSK 4. 426 of them come up only once, and 37 come up five times or more. The words you can learn from a show are the ones it repeats.

Shows repeat their words. We split each title in half: 43% of the words above HSK 4 in the second half had already come up in the first half, against 10% in the first half of a different title. A show's people, places and topics keep coming back, and so do the words for them.

A plan that fits the evidence

Get to about HSK 3 first. Below that, more than a quarter of the words are new. Graded stories in the Library get you there faster, and the level test shows where you are.
Pick one show made in Mandarin and watch it in order. Choose one you would watch anyway: you need many hours of it.
Turn on Chinese subtitles. With Mandarin The Wild on YouTube, Bilibili and iQiyi, point at a word in the subtitles to see its pinyin and meaning without pausing.
Save the words that keep coming back to your Backpack and review them, so the next episode is easier than the last.

How we counted

The subtitles are the simplified Chinese part of OpenSubtitles (2018 release), kept only where the title's original language is Mandarin, one subtitle per title and at least 2,000 words each. Lison and Tiedemann (2016), OpenSubtitles2016: extracting large parallel corpora from movie and TV subtitles, LREC 2016 (the subtitles we counted). Words are cut by our engine and levelled on the 2025 HSK list the way the Library levels a story; names the dictionary only knows as names are left out. Speed counts Chinese characters over the time each line is shown, for lines shown 0.5–10 seconds. "Middle half" is the 25th to 75th percentile of titles.

Questions

Can you learn Chinese by watching TV shows?

Yes, once you know most of the words you hear. Studies find people pick up words from TV, more of them when a word comes up often. In our count of 292 Mandarin films and shows, HSK 1–4 words are 79% of a typical title's words.

Should I watch Chinese shows with Chinese or English subtitles?

Chinese. Same-language subtitles help listening and vocabulary, and Chinese learners who could look up words in the Chinese subtitles learned more than twice as many new words as with Chinese and English subtitles together.

How fast do people speak in Chinese TV shows?

In our count, about 3.6 Chinese characters a second while a line is on screen, a little slower than the actual speech.

Sources

Checked on 14 October 2026. Prices and features change; tell us if one has.