10 Great Podcasts For Learning Languages
Learning a foreign language is one of the most valuable skills you can have- but it’s not always easy. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to help you start speaking whichever language you want, and what better way than a podcast? Whether you’re looking to learn a few phrases for navigating a holiday or wanting to learn a language fluently as a skill, these language podcasts will help you learn a lot- and impress your friends and family.
CoffeeBreak French and One Thing In A French Day
French is one of the most attractive and popular languages to learn, and there are plenty of podcasts out there to help. We’ve picked two: CoffeeBreak Languages is more than just a podcast — it is also a course and website. They offer many different languages for their French course. They have podcasts with 2 hosts who talk in French and English to explain French vocabulary and grammar. One Thing In A French day is aimed at slightly more intermediate speakers, with various daily events being described entirely in French by host Laetitia. She speaks at a normal speed, though clearly and precisely enough to learn a lot if you’ve got some basics under your belt.
Listen to Coffee Break Languages
Listen to One Thing In A French Day
Italian: 30 Minute Italian
No, this isn’t how to whip up a delicious, authentic Italian meal in half an hour — it’s a podcast dedicated to learning the language of Italy in manageable chunks. The show will help you boost your understanding of and confidence in Italian, in 30 minutes or less. It covers all kinds of topics like culture, travel, food and even “Sexy Phrases To Seduce Your Italian Lover.”
German: Easy German
Easy German is more than just a podcast — it’s a whole initiative and online resource helping you to learn the German language more easily. Still, the podcast is perhaps the most easily digestible. There’s plenty of information packed into each episode, discussing topics related to Germany and around the world, and explanations of words and expressions. Even better, if you sign up to become a member through Patreon, you can access transcripts and a vocabulary helper to improve your skills even more. You can still listen to the podcasts and watch the YouTube versions for free, but the paid version is for more dedicated learners.
Spanish: News In Slow
News In Slow covers several languages, but it’s most comprehensive for Spanish, with options for both Spanish (Spain) and Spanish (Latino). It’s definitely one of the best podcasts to help you learn a language to speak naturally and fluently. Also available in French, Italian and German, each show allows you to listen to programmes about the news and culture of whichever country you choose, helping you understand the language, pronounce words and expand your vocabulary. As you might guess from the title, the talking speed on each is designed to help newcomers and intermediate learners grow familiar with the language without getting too lost.
Japanese: LearnJapanesePod
One of the world’s most popular travel destinations and home to millions of people, Japan has an incredible and vibrant culture. Coming to grips with the language is needed to get the most out of the time spent there. LearnJapanesePod aims to help you learn Japanese, with a series of podcasts featuring conversations in Japanese about various topics in the country’s language and culture. There are simple phrases that you might use on holiday if you’re visiting, or more in-depth chats about hobbies and other topics for a deeper understanding, and episodes are later broken down in English to help run through what you’ve learnt.
Dutch: Een Beetje Nederlands
Een Beetje Nederlands (A Little Bit Of Dutch) is a podcast entirely in Dutch and helps brush up on your understanding of the language, as well as learning about the Netherlands and its culture. The episodes are designed to help newcomers to the language — the host speaks slowly and clearly, and there’s plenty of trivia nuggets in there about Dutch history across the years, as well as some of the country’s most famous figures.
Street Smart Languages
The man behind this multimedia language-learning content and courses is a polyglot named Xiaomanyc, and he has over 3 million TikTok followers and is famous for surprising native language speakers in their dialects with how quickly he learns and picks up languages. He offers videos in Spanish, French, Chinese, German and then 2, 7-day bootcamp lessons in Japanese and Russian. If you really want to impress your friends or even yourself, try all of them to really adopt that polyglot mindset.
Korean: Talk To Me In Korean
Talk To Me In Korean, much like EasyGerman, is a full online resource with plenty of material on learning Korean, as well as textbooks for further reading. It also hosts a few podcasts to guide you through the language, from quick lessons to gain an understanding of the grammar and phrases, to podcasts with conversations 100% in Korean, to improve your skills by listening to natural conversations in the language.
StoryLearning Podcast
StoryLearning was set up by polyglot Olly Richards as an initiative to make language learning easier. There’s a website with different language courses online, as well as the StoryLearning podcast, which covers a broad range of topics, with some focused on a particular language like French or Spanish, and some focused on more general subjects like whether you should read or listen more to learn new words.
