How You Can Use Podcasts to Learn a New Language
June 20, 2010 | Lauren Van Mullem
A Street Sign in Nikko: Knowing Japanese would have been useful
Learning another language isn’t easy, but whether it’s for your undergrad prerequisites, study abroad, or to prepare for a graduate program, you are going to have to do it. Personally, I hate learning languages. I am not a polyglot, it does not come easily to me, I can barely remember how to ask where the bathroom is in Spanish. But I travel a lot and learning a few key phrases (like “where’s the bathroom?”) come in handy. I don’t have the time or money for a class, and I’m lazy. That’s where learning languages via podcast comes to the rescue.The internet is packed with fairly affordable ways to learn languages. For example, eduFire allows you to take classes online from tutors teaching all sorts of subjects. Social networking sites are also getting in on the action with services like LiveMocha, where you can enroll in courses and practice the language you are learning with other users.
However, for my time and limited money, Podcasts are becoming my favorite new tool for learning languages online. Podcasts are portable: you can download them onto any media player you want; take them wherever you go; and listen to them in the car, on the train, on the treadmill or on the walk to campus. You don’t need an iPod – podcasts can easily be put on any MP3 player.
I am going to focus on one language learning podcast company since it is the one I know best: Innovative Language Learning.
An advantage to this particular company’s podcasts are that the lessons are presented in a very casual manner – the hosts chat and joke around – which makes it easy to listen to. The hosts share cultural tips and insights that would be impossible in any other format. It’s like an educational talk show. You can learn words and phrases from a textbook, but in a language as different from English as, say, Japanese, there are rules on how and when to use certain words, as well as vocal nuances you can only learn by ear.
Some podcasting sites feature only the podcasts for download – in other words, audio only – but sites like www.japanesepod101.com also offer interactive exercises, forums, dictionaries, and video lessons. For me, Japanese and Italian would be useful to know – Japanese because I’ve been there twice and knowing a basic “thank you” isn’t cutting it anymore, and Italian because I want to go to Italy someday and not feel like an idiot.
Tip: If you create an account for a free 7-day trial, you’ll receive a torrent of emails. You can always click the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any email, or register using a secondary email address that you don’t mind filling up.
For www.japanesepod101.com and www.italianpod101.com, free 7-day trials allow you to test drive everything on the sites before committing money – and to make sure you really want to learn the language. A new podcast is put up every day and there are also video lessons on culture. A native speaker is paired with an English speaker in each lesson so you can hear the language spoken with the native accent, and then have the content explained in English. Lessons are separated by proficiency levels: Newbie, Beginner, Lower Intermediate, and Upper Intermediate. With a Beginner Italian Lesson titled “What Will You See in the Italian Club?” and “Italian Knock-Knock Jokes” I can see already that language learning goodness is in my immediate future.
Here is a beginner lesson from www.japanesepod101.com if you want to try out learning by podcast. Just click “Play” where it says Free Content under the picture.
The Innovative Language Learning sites like those above are great for learning the most common languages, but podcasts are exploring more unusual and specialized languages also.
Radio Lingua offers “One Minute Gaelic” lessons for free online, which is a misnomer because they last from 2-4 minutes (hey, it’s not how to count in Gaelic).
www.OpenCulture.com has links to a number of iTunes foreign language downloads, including the most common languages, but also Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian…you get the idea. Since the language lessons are from many different companies, sites, and probably a few entrepreneurs, you might not find the best quality – so it’s a good thing they’re free.
Now for your English word of the day: Autodidact.
Good article! Listening to comprehensible language is very important and podcasts can really help.