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foreign language podcasts

foreign language podcasts
Posted 2021-06-15 01:35:59

Hi!

I believe one of the best ways to get better at a language is to listen to a podcast in this language (as long as you have a strong enough base so you understand *some*thing at least). I looked some time back for italian podcasts (I personally favour fiction podcasts), but I didn't find any, which I'm guessing is not that there aren't any but that I didn't know how to search. So, can people recommend some, in any non-english language?

I'll start by reccing some french ones, but most of those I haven't tried (if I listen to some, or if people here know them, I'll update their description).

I'm planning on updating this post with a masterlist in each language so people don't have to root through the whole topic, as long as it's not too much work.


French:
- le donjon de naheulbeuk ( penofchaos.com ): dnd, crass humor, parody
- les aventuriers du survivaure ( knarfworld.net ): sf, crass humour, parody
- DreamStation ( podcasts.apple.com ): adventury-mystery about a company selling dreams
- L'Employé ( open.spotify.com ): political dystopy
- Queen of Snakes (
podcasts.apple.com ): mystery-adventury with snakes
- Passage à l'acte (
podcasts.apple.com ): family drama
- Doulange (
podcasts.apple.com ): journalist found footage thriller
- Hasta Dente (
franceculture.fr ): police mystery, surreal humour
- L'appel des abysses (
franceculture.fr ): post-apo political dystopy
- a blind legend ( ablindlegend.com ) : technically it's a game, but purely audio, so I'm adding it: medieval fantasy (about a blind knight and his daughter)
- franceculture.fr if you check the "creations sonores" category, there are about ten, from post-apo political, to contemporary-ish spy stories, to kids stories, thrillers, sf, etc. (more thrillers there: franceculture.fr , no clue why they're on different parts of the site); usually short format
- arteradio.com more podcasts of different genres


Fal - semi hiatus
#43456

Posted 2021-11-24 12:43:32
I know this is an old post, but you're awesome for doing that. I am currently trying to learn a second language as well and I've started out listening to podcasts, some that actually teach the language. That, and listening to songs by native speakers. What all languages are you trying to learn?
𝓅𝑒𝓇𝓇𝓎𝓌𝒾𝓃𝒶 ღ
#52079

Posted 2021-11-25 02:51:38
Nice! Which language is it, and which podcasts? I'll add them to the list!

I'm trying to learn italian and spanish, and since I didn't find any podcasts in those languages I'm watching dubbed or subbed anime, which works well too, but requires the use of eyes instead of just ears, so it's sometimes inconvenient (when peeling veggies for example).

Fal - semi hiatus
#43456

Posted 2021-11-26 09:08:59
I can totally relate! I'm learning Korean. It's been a lot easier to learn it than I thought it would be honestly. I only know of one podcast by David Tretell called Learn Korean with David. There's also the Talk To Me In Korean one too but I didn't find it nearly as useful. Maybe it's on a bit more of an intermediate level. What has really helped me a lot especially with intonation and pronunciation is to watch Korean movies and dramas on Netflix. The only thing about that is that I'm trying to learn a specific dialect and it can be hard to recognize or find. Seoul dialect is most common, so much so that it's not even considered a dialect. It's considered standard. Using subs and dubs is a really good idea!

What made you want to learn Spanish and Italian?
𝓅𝑒𝓇𝓇𝓎𝓌𝒾𝓃𝒶 ღ
#52079

Posted 2021-11-26 10:24:16 (edited)
Well, I have some italian-speaking family, and though most of us speak english by now, they still usually speak italian if I'm not part of the conversation (as they should). And they speak, or at least understand, my language, so I decided I wanted to learn theirs, to even out the scales.
But I don't see them often enough for them to teach me, so I had to learn on my own. I'm speaking well enough now (mostly because I went to live there for a bit: fastest way to learn a language), but I still have things to learn, and if I don't practice I'll forget pretty fast.
As for spanish, it just seemed like the easiest language to learn once you know italian XD (and it's convenient in a lot of places, and with a lot of people). I like knowing languages, but I find the initial stages of learning boring.
Why did you decide to learn Korean?

Fal - semi hiatus
#43456

Posted 2021-11-26 13:14:36 (edited)
I totally agree! I would like to learn Spanish at some point as well just because I live in the US and have family in California, so I feel like it's important to at least know a little. Being bilingual here is pretty valuable.
I am learning Korean because my husband's mom is South Korean. I've known her over 10 years now and I feel bad that I never tried to learn her language, neither has my husband . Soon we'll be able to visit often so I want to be able to communicate with her family better. She has the Daegu dialect, which is compared to a Texas or Southern dialect/accent. It's kinda lazy, not as polite, and often sounds super angry For an example, normally if you want to say something like "Is that her/him?" you would say "GeuAeGa GeuAeNi" if you're speaking with no dialect, but with Daegu dialect it's shortened to "Ga ga ga ga". It's hilarious! Luckily, there are some popular Korean stars who have this dialect(I think Shuga from BTS and Irene from Red Velvet), so it's becoming more popular. I guess people think it's cute and/or funny, plus in Korean they view this dialect as being more masculine if you're a man speaking it and adorable if you're a woman speaking it.
Do they have different dialects in Italian or is it all just the same? I've always thought it was such a cool, interesting language! I am taking a course on Domestika and the instructor speaks Italian, with the option for English subtitles. Probably another good way to learn it a little!
𝓅𝑒𝓇𝓇𝓎𝓌𝒾𝓃𝒶 ღ
#52079

Posted 2021-11-26 15:51:29 (edited)
I salute your wanting to learn spanish. I did live in a bilingual country for some time, and thought "I should learn that other language, that would be only polite" and eight years later I could pretty much only say "hi", "thanks", and "have a nice meal". I hope you'll be more successful than I was XD (the hardest part is sticking to it, which is why fiction, with a plot, makes it easier for me)

Awww, your husband can't communicate with his mom's family? :(
As someone who was raised monolingual when most of one side of my family is quadrilingual (mostly bilingual as kids, but still) and found it deeply unfair, and later on read a bit about the US's tentative to eradicate Native cultures and languages, I think parents should always teach their language to their kids (though I understand some people may find it difficult due to things they lived through, and of course that's a personal choice I respect)

I find the idea of the same accent being seen as masculine for a man and cute for a woman kinda weird XD but that sounds fun! (ok as soon as I finish this I'm off trying to find these series to listen to it, though I probably won't be able to tell the difference from regular korean)

Italian has a shitload of dialects. I think (theory I just came up with thinking about that, so not necessarily true) that in North America, english developed as a kind of standardized communication tool (because colons came from all over europe). And then accents developed from that standardized version, but that means they're pretty young, and as such pretty similar.
In Europe, dialects (or, like, differences between dialects) are much older; they're languages spoken in that region that's all in one day's horseride, and kinda similar to that language that's at two days' horseride, due to proximity and cultural exchanges, and a bit more different from that language that's so very far away at three (three!) days' horseride. And maybe they were the same language when everyone spoke latin (I have no clue about the state of dialects during the Roman Empire) but if so, they have had plenty of time to evolve.
And some european countries (France, I'm looking at you) were like "let's eradicate dialects for the sake of National Unity seems like a great idea :) ", but Italy is both more tolerant about languages and more recent as one country, so dialects are still spoken as a mother tongue (though their use is declining, I think; according to this , about one third of Italy's regions has 20 to 50% people speak their regional language as sole or principal home language, another third has 10 to 20% of them speaking it, and the last third has less than 10%), and among people who speak regular italian accents are still very different too.

I didn't know people could make a course in their native language, that's great!

Fal - semi hiatus
#43456

Posted 2021-11-29 12:37:10 (edited)
Luckily we're exposed to Spanish a bit anyway, so some basic words some naturally. I would at least hope everyone around here knows si And I totally agree! It's surprisingly not too difficult to learn a new language. Even learning a whole new alphabet(for me it's Korean hangeul) I thought was gonna be hard, but I picked it up way quicker than I thought I would. Handwriting on the other hand is a different story!

They know a little English so they can communicate a little, but we basically have to use his mom as a translator because she knows English really well. She lived here in the US for maybe 28 years.

It is kinda weird! I think it has something to do with a woman being seen as cute if she's acting kind of aggressive. Kind of like finding it cute when a small petite dog like a chihuahua is acting tough and barking at bigger dogs.

That's cool about Italian dialects! It makes a lot of sense. I recently learned about a specific dialect in the US that is located only in a place in North Carolina called Ocracoke and you won't find that dialect anywhere else. Because the people in that region were so isolated, their dialect is so distinct. It sounds absolutely bizarre. There's a video about it here.

I also wanted to mention that I just found an extension for Chrome called Toucan and so far it's pretty awesome! As you're using Chrome, Toucan changes a few words here and there into the language you're wanting to learn. I'm doing a free trial right now to see how it goes, but it looks like this.
𝓅𝑒𝓇𝓇𝓎𝓌𝒾𝓃𝒶 ღ
#52079

Posted 2021-12-01 03:30:33 (edited)
Wow, I just watched the video and that's super interesting! I didn't know there were localisation-based american dialects.
Toucan sounds fun, I'll try it, thanks!

Fal - semi hiatus
#43456

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