4 Best Language Learning Podcasts: For Beginners
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Listening resources are perhaps the most important ones for us as beginner learners. Because first of all, you need to absorb as much of the language as possible. You need to start understanding people around you and it’ll all help you to eventually speak and produce your own sentences.
When it comes to listening resources, language learning podcasts are an amazing choice. It’s mainly because they talk about things that interests us like travel, culture, places.
This article will introduce you to the best 4 language learning podcasts with several languages to choose from. You’ll for sure find the one that has your language and the one you like the most. They’re one of the best listening resources for beginners.
List Of The 4 Best Language Learning Podcasts
- Coffee Break Languages (Travel Diaries)
- LanguagePod101 (with 21 European Languages)
- News In Slow
- The Fluent Show
Why Should You Learn Languages With Podcasts?
At the beginning, I have 6 reasons for you to choose podcasts to learn your chosen language:
- They help you to understand the language more
- Practice your listening skills
- You’ll start understanding various accents of the language
- You’ll learn new vocabulary – always use the transcript for it
- Learn more about the language, the country, and culture where it is spoken
- It’ll prepare you for different situations when you will be facing the language
This article will, first of all, explain to you how to work with podcasts and learn languages with them. Then it’ll briefly introduce you to the best language learning podcasts and their features.
These podcasts have several languages, so you can choose the one you want to learn. Some of these podcasts are solely related and focused on the travel and culture of countries. The others will talk a lot about the way people live and think in a particular country.
How To Use Language Podcasts & Learn Languages?
There are many fun and interesting ways for how to learn a language with the best language learning podcasts. The best way is to have a transcript with it. Prepare yourself a nice cup of coffee or tea, print a transcript of the podcast, and have some highlighters ready. Then you can start listening to the podcast.
Work With A Transript
First of all, I recommend you listen to the full podcast and try to understand as much as you can. The second time, listen to the podcast and read the transcript at the same time.
After, stop listening, and dedicate some time only to the transcript. Read it and highlight some vocabulary you want to learn. Then write new vocabulary separately to your language travel notebook.
Once you are done with it, listen to the podcast again, and at the same time, read the transcript. Finally, you’ll recognize a lot of vocabulary from the transcript, and start understanding the entire podcast episode. Then it’s time to leave everything and solely listen to the episode again.
Try To Understand The Main Context
Working with a transcript and writing new vocabulary down is the most effective way to learn a language with a podcast. Another way is to only listen to a podcast when you are doing other activities like going to work, travelling on a bus, etc.
However, it’s always better to dedicate a proper time to the podcast, focus, and also make an effort to learn new vocabulary.
TIP: On the first day, you can listen to the podcast and work with a transcript, as I described to you. Then you will already understand the vocabulary from the podcast episode. On the second day, you can only listen to the podcast episode several times to memorize the vocabulary and get more familiar with the podcast series.
This is how you should work with podcasts. I can assure you that you’ll learn a lot of the language when you work this way.
And now, finally, it’s time to see which podcasts you should pick to learn your chosen language. Below, I’m giving you the best language learning podcasts, which offer many languages.
1. COFFEE BREAK LANGUAGES – Travel Diaries
- Languages available: 7
- The average length of an episode: 15 min
- Language level: beginner to advanced
- Transcript is available
- Total number of episodes: 40
- Accent: all
A fantastic podcast created by CoffeeBreak, Radio Lingua, will take you to many countries and their amazing destinations, even now, virtually. I highly recommend listening to this podcast if you’re a beginner and even an intermediate learner.
Remember that it isn’t necessary to understand everything. The crucial thing here is that you’re in contact with the language and listen to the pronunciation of the words. You’ll also recognize a few words that you have learned. It’ll help you understand the whole context, which is what we are looking for here.
You’ll listen to your chosen language and people talking about different places in the country where it is spoken. They talk slowly, and you’ll have the chance to understand.
After they analyze each sentence together in the podcast, translate and explain the meaning of some words. This way, you’ll learn a lot of new vocabulary. Additionally, it’s great for us travelers, as we get to know many parts of the country.
Languages Available With Coffee Break
At the moment, you can choose a podcast coffee flavor in the following languages:
- French
- Italian
- German
- Spanish
- English
- Swedish
- Chinese
2. LANGUAGE POP101 by Innovative Language
- The average length of an episode:
- Language level: beginner
to advanced - Transcript is available
- Total number of episodes: 1800 episodes
- Accents: all
LanguagePod101, created by Innovative Language platform, provides you with thousands of audio and video lessons with specific topics. They have 21 European languages in which you can listen to the podcast.
Together, they provide more than 40 languages, which is incredible. There is no other podcast with so many languages. That is why I love LanguagePod101.
Which languages can you learn with LanguagePod101 App?
Innovative Language offers currently the following European languages:
- Bulgarian
- Croatian
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- Finnish
- French
- German
- Greek
- Hungarian
- Italian
- Norwegian
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Romanian
- Russian
- Serbian
- Spanish
- Swedish
- Turkish
- Ukrainian
You can learn vocabulary within various topics with LanguagePod101 or keep improving it and understanding it in a context. Every audio and video lesson is accompanied by a detailed English explanation.
You can listen to these lessons wherever you are learning from their LanguagePod101 mobile app. Additionally, you’ll also get lesson notes with transcripts, descriptions, vocabulary, and phrases within the specific topic. You can choose a language level at which you would like to learn.
They offer 3 plans; basic plan, premium, or premium plus. You can sign up for a monthly subscription and enjoy everything they offer. LanguagePod101 is more than just a podcast, and you can learn your chosen language for less than 2 cups of coffee per month. It’s an amazing platform.
If you want to learn more about LanguagePod101 and its 3 plans, check out my article dedicated solely to LanguagePod101.
3. NEWS IN SLOWS
- Languages available: 5
- The average length of an episode: 15 min
- Language level: beginner to advanced
- Transcript is available
- Total number of episodes: 100+
- Accent: all
News in Slow is an excellent language learning podcast to get updates about current happenings in the world or in the countries where your foreign language is spoken. And the best part of it?
The podcasts are slow and use simple language. They have all language levels from beginner to intermediate and advance learners.
Listening to news is a great way to get the feeling how vocabulary and words are used in real conversations. You’ll also get the chance to learn new vocabulary in the topics that are happening in the world.
Which languages can you learn with News In Slow?
News In Slow offers currently the following European languages:
- Spanish
- Latin Spanish
- German
- French
- Italian
4. THE FLUENT SHOW
- Languages available: 1
- The average length of an episode: 15 min
- Language level: beginner to advanced
- Transcript is available
- Total number of episodes: 100+
The Fluent Show podcast is all about loving, living, and learning languages. Even though they don’t focus on teaching any language, I wanted to include this podcast for you here.
It’ll give you motivation once you need it. They talk about everything from learning languages in general to obstacles, joy, happiness, and feelings of how it is when you become fluent in a language.
They talk in a fun and encouraging way, and you’ll for sure have fun. You’ll listen to multiple languages at once, get to know how to find communities to learn a language, and how to overcome challenges on your language learning journey.
Which Language Learning Podcast Should You Choose?
These are the top language learning podcasts you can start using right now. As I explained above, podcasts are one of the best listening sources because they talk about things that interest us. This makes our language learning more enjoyable.
Eventually, we are here to learn a language for travel. It’ll give us extra motivation to listen to a podcast talking about travel. At the same time, we’ll be learning the language. Don’t forget to try my method to work with a transcript. You’ll see how much it’ll improve your language skills.
If you don’t know which podcast to choose, I would go for LanguagePod101 if you’re a beginner. I use this podcast myself. It offers everything you need for your language learning journey. After you listen to all episodes, you can switch to CoffeeBreak and their travel diaries.
Best Podcast to Learn Languages
More Inspiration For Language Learning
Go to my language blog and get more inspiration for language learning. Learn a language for travel with me using my method. Get practical tips for how to learn vocabulary fast. Check out the best platforms to practice language with native speakers and see how to overcome fear of speaking foreign languages.
For more resources, go to my language resources section. You’ll get some tips for the best language books, best foreign language magazines, and tips on how to improve your language skills.
If you’re a beginner and don’t know where to start on your language journey, check out what to learn in a new language. Then, follow the best language learning method for adults in 9 simple steps.
What To Learn In A New Language
More Listening Resources For You
If you love learning foreign languages through listening, check out also my list of the best audiobooks in different languages:
- 13 best German audiobooks for beginners
- 6 best French audiobooks for beginners
- 6 best Italian audiobooks for beginners
- 8 best Spanish audiobooks for beginners
- 6 best Russian audiobooks for beginners
Get My Language Notebook
I’ve designed a language notebook, where you can write down new vocabulary you want to learn and remember. Get the language notebook now for free by clicking on the image below. Download it, and it’ll help you keep track of your new vocabulary when listening to these podcasts.
If you are wondering about other resources you need to learn a language, check out my article about the most important skill of language learning. You’ll also get additional resources to build your language skills inside this article. So check it out.
I wish you happy learning!
