Understanding Authentic Podcasts In A Foreign Language | A Listening Comprehension Journey 

Such a crazy coincidence that I just got your channel recommended by my friend Jeremy 3 days ago for your notion tutorial and today you are talking about our podcast. So happy that it helps you advance your German. 😃Keep up your awesome work! Liebe Grüße aus Berlin! Cari :)

You and Matt vs Japan are the most insightful language learners on RU-vid. You have an amazing way of breaking down language learning struggles and then describing perfect solutions.

In case someone is learning japanese like me and looking for easy podcasts, I recommend you my favorite ones: - Nihongo con Tepei: he has two podcasts (I think 🤔). One is for begginers, very short but really useful. The other is one is longer and the level is higher but still understandable. - Konnichiwa podcast: three friends who talk about many topics both in english and japanese. 20-30 mins approximately. Really fun too. I hope this info is useful for someone 😊 I looove your videos Robin. They all motivate me to keep going 💪

I understand too of excitement of spending quality time on interesting content in foreign language. This is my best anti-stress technique so far.

I remember when i listened to my first Spanish podcast. After the first episode, i was a bit frustrated 😂 but then i could pick out more than i thought i would so I went on. That feeling of comprehension as you go on listening is like having an eargasm

Podcasts are so, so incredible - they've really revolutionized how people can learn languages. In a language, if I can find a beginner podcast that teaches the basics and grammar and an intermediate that is narration-based where the host purposefully talks clearly and not super fast, and there are transcripts available, it's like having a guide for the entire path to being an advanced learner. You gotta complement them with other resources, of course, but you can get a lot of mileage out of podcasts

My German is quite terrible but I've been listening AND enjoying Easy German podcast, too, and for exactly the reasons you've mentioned, it's just so exciting to be able to follow an authentic conversation :)

I love podcasts so much, I think listening to podcasts and videos helped me the most with my Spanish. I've been trying to understand the podcast "Entiende tu mente" for the last 2 months, and this week when I tried again, I was blown away when I could understand what they're saying around 85%. It's such a rewarding experience!!! But as you said, it's very hard to understand 2 native speakers in real life or to understand TV shows, on the other hand I'm happy I can understand podcasts. Also congrats on your channel growing so much, a few days ago you had 28k!

What're your thoughts on people who are passive/receptive bilinguals, where they grew up comprehending a second language, but never really developed the ability to speak it?

I am starting to get more into podcast myself! I am glad to hear that struggling through podcasts is a part of the Journey! Can you( or anyone) recommend any podcasts in Japanese with the transcripts?

Just found your channel recently and I’m in love with the content

such an amazing experience!

I cant do all that right now, but my German is slowly improving. Last year I was only at the beginner stage. But this year my listening is better. Yesterday I listened to a film. I didn't understand it all, but I could pick out the individual words and understand more.

I love the Easy German Podcast! It's been my main listening source for the past 10 months or so for whenever I can't sit down and watch something in German. My podcast stats tell me I've listened to 3 days and 17hrs worth of episodes from them so far, wow. The thing I love about it is it's authentic feel, a genuine conversation that I find myself laughing to very often. I think I had a similar experience to you about 1.5 years ago when I watched a tv show I'd never seen before in German (had previously only rewatched things) and was astonished by how much of the story I understood even though I missed so many words. I think people VASTLY over estimate the level of language needed to enjoy and follow media, it's really not as high as you'd think and it's a fantastic way to measure you're progress each time you notice something new.

I really appreciate how you always hit the right spot when it comes to the struggles of learning a new language, it's like you're reading my mind! I swear, like every time... 😑

I loved this video 😍

I only understand about 30 percent but it's enough to enjoy januz's comments.

Robin, I only just recently discovered your page! I gain new perspectives on language learning every time I watch your videos. Looking forward to more of your content! :)

The struggle is real and I take great comfort in that! Your eureka moment is what I live for! ❤

always the best language teacher on the net. loved this whole greater than sum of parts as far as podcasts. the aha moment with listening to an entire pocast while missing many words.

Thank you! I can remember my journey with English. It's so good when you realise your progress. This video gave me more motivation to continue my journey with English and other languages. Thank you! :)

This is so awesome. Just started French and you give really good instruction on how to learn a new language. Look forward to all your you tube broadcast. Thanks so much.

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zu diesem tollen Erfolg! Und vielen Dank, dass du mit einer so großen Begeisterung über die deutsche Sprache sprichst. Man vergisst so leicht, wie schwer die eigene Muttersprache für Lernende sein kann. Ich wünsche dir noch ganz viel Spaß und Erfolg auf deinem Weg!!!

this helped me reorient my priorities. I am learning a second language for the first time and I've been much more concerned with speaking well, but you make a convincing case for not being so worried about that part at first. I have been listening to podcasts for beginners and missing a lot of it but just letting it wash over me as well - maybe I will go back and dig deeper into them as my comprehension grows!

Thank you Robin! Struggling with listening comprehension has discouraged me from pushing my language learning to another level in the past. Your video is enlightening! I admire you very much, you are so talented and knowledgeable. Happy you’ve reached over 31k subscribers. Soon you’ll be over 100k, no doubt.

I know exactly what you mean!!. I follow a couple of Podcast weekly and been able to follow the conversation and understand the jokes is really a wonderful experience. This morning I was listening to one podcast and was laughing out loud at one of the jokes, it felt amazing when I realized that I'm not longer studying the language but enjoying it.

I can subscribe to every word about the Easy German podcast! Those are really amazing, lively, stimulating conversations about a variety of exciting topics, with lots of interesting information and facts but at the same time full of humor, warmth and positivity. Their videos are also great, but the podcasts are a further step up!

Makes sense. The longer you stay with the podcast the more layers of context accumulate in your brain which further into the podcast gives you a framework to interpret what's going. Same with a novel. The first 20-30 pages introduce the setting, characters, theme (also, many authors have their own idiosyncratic vocabulary) . It can be bewildering at first, but then it gets easier.

So im new to your channel. Enjoying it so far!

They moment when you realize you understand almost everything without struggle is magical! Happened to me in Italian and I'm working on it in German. Great video!

That’s kind if what my reading is like. I read se tence after sence. struggle with cointless unknown words but at the and of the chapter i somehow know what is going on. Weird but pleasant feeling

As a person who has been fumbling my way to trying to learn Italian for about a decade, having started in my fifties, I can agree with your comments on using podcasts. These days I can understand almost all of some fairly advanced podcasts and really enjoy listening to them during my daily 2 hour walks or other dead time. I recently discovered you vlogs and I have been devouring them and have also introduced my language-learning buddies. I love the style and content of your videos. I am very interested in not only the 'what' but the details on the 'how' of your systems. Keep up the great work.

I've never had that experience with another language, but I do know that when I watch something like a Shakespeare play, the first ten minutes or so take a lot of concentration until I get my ear "tuned" to the language they're using, and then after that it's cake. Oh! And in one of your videos I was watching last night, you mentioned how German says "on" the weekend, and you wondered that it wasn't "at" the weekend. I can't speak for everyone, but here where I live in the eastern USA, we do things "On" a weekend, not "at." Your videos are great!

happy tuesday! i was not possible to see this video before ...Es muy importante entender que debemos fortalecer nuestra capacidad de escuchar, es muy diferente cuando escuchas podcast.... me encantan! yo utilizo podcast para francés, portugués, italiano y alemán . Este apenas lo estoy aprendiendo por super easy german ( 6 minutes máximo). En lo particular me encantan! creo que estos canales de easy languages son muy interesantes.....

Sehr gut gemacht! Ich lerne gerade Deutsch und deine Videos finde ich sehr interessant und hilfsbereit... Außerdem hab ich deinen Kanal abboniert. ☺️

I love Easy German. On one had I get that they're making content for learners so I could maybe attack true native content but their content is just so interesting! And still in German. It sounds like the podcasts are a step up from the RU-vid videos which I really like. Guessing words from context worked really well with me and German. I got to thinking this would be true for all languages but it wasn't at all true for me and Japanese unfortunately. With Japanese I have to study it on my own first, then hear it spoken and fail to understanding it, and then figure out that I should have understood it, and then it's finally mine. I mention this from time to time and I've already commented on a lot of your videos but I did have an interesting experience (for me) regarding Japanese and listening skills. I basically did 2 years of college grammar courses for Japanese with a wonderful teacher who taught us grammar in a way that stuck. But he didn't really speak Japanese to us or if he did he would repeat it in English after. So my listening was really hit and miss because if someone is just going to repeat themselves in English your brain relaxes and lets them do just that. After these classes I took small group classes online with native Japanese teachers and they -never- spoke English in class. They would copy and paste English into the chat some but never spoke it. When I started these classes I had to keep up with the group and it was super hard and I had to ask the teacher to repeat herself etc. But after a month or two that went away and my listening had caught up to the others. I've never seen such a rapid improvement in my listening before and it was definitely the pressure to not look stupid and keep up that helped me. However, I never really duplicated that perfect environment again. Probably if I got a Japanese girlfriend or a job in Japan that would put more pressure on me.

I’ve been learning Spanish and watching a lot of Spanish language RU-vid with the ‘Language Learning with RU-vid’ chrome plugin. I slow the video to .75 speed to help with comprehension and just pause it completely and go through the translation if I get overwhelmed. It is pretty awesome to be able to learn a language while watching interesting content.

Great video, and I can agree that the Easy German podcast is amazing

I love the easy German podcast

Just signed up for Journaly! Can’t wait to use it!

I am very much thankful to you coz I understood the reason why I lose interest after a few days of committing to build fluency in the language. I got the opportunity to learn many things to keep listening to you multiple times. Again thank you. overall I like the way you have coffee. love you, Robin.

I am also a podcast listener the way I found the most useful to improve my listening skils..The problem is to find something that is both enjoyable and fairly easy to understand!

Similar thing happened to me with Hebrew. I wanted to improve my reading skills. I noticed reading was more comfortable after doing some listening. I was at the awkward late beginner stage, so I didn't really do all that much listening practice. There wasn't really any content out there that was comprehensible enough to me. I decided to start listening to some podcasts just to make reading more comfortable. I only really had native level podcasts as an option. At first I didn't understand much even though I could recognize a lot of words. It was very awkward to listen to. When I first started I wondered whether podcasts were a waste of time at my level. It was pretty exhausting to listen to podcasts in Hebrew, so I listened to them before I went to bed. They really helped me fall asleep. After a month or two of listening to them every night I started getting comfortable with native level podcasts. They stopped helping me fall asleep, so I started listening to them while commuting instead. Now I've gotten comfortable watching several RU-vidrs. I'm more comfortable with vlogs and haul videos. I'm less comfortable with storytimes or skits. I think now I'll start listening to InnerFrench podcasts before going to bed. I can understand the general idea of them. I grew up speaking Spanish and I had one year of French immersion. I don't remember much, but since I live in Canada I've had some passive exposure to French. All of these factors make me have an upper beginner or lower intermediate level in French. At least for reading and listening. It also seems like my listening comprehension in French has improved since I started learning Hebrew.

Hey Robin, I'm Italian, I started studying English since 2014. I've the same sensation of you, in fact, I understand very well teachers and monologues but I struggle with dialogue from two o plus native speakers and even if I love watching TV series like Friends, This is Us and many others I can watch it only with subtitles. I've read a lot of books also, like the Chronicle of Narnia, the first book of Harry Potter and many others but now I'm reading "The casual vacation" from J.K. Rowling. She's the same author of Harry Potter but this book it's so difficult for me. I'm a Christian and I listen to many preaching podcasts from different pastors around the world and I understand them very well. So even if I'm struggling yet with my speaking skills, but I'm sure that if I need I can speak basic English, I enjoy podcasts and I'm so happy that I can do something that in the past I can't do. Now I can improve my knowledge, that's simply wonderful. Thank you for your work for us.

Another amazing video! How is your swedish right now?? Any resource you would recommend?

I've just subscribed to your channel. I love this video about podcasts. I've been studying English for 8 years and listened to podcasts helped me a lot when I was in B1 level, now I'm in C1. Last month I started to study Dutch, I'm totally a beginner and for now I'm studying by my own, basically watching videos on the internet and Duolingo. My question is: Do you recommend listen to podcasts in this level or better when I reach B1 level? Thank you in advance!

This is such good information. I’m totally sufficient in one on one conversation, but it becomes extremely difficult when listening to native speakers speaking to each other or more in depth native content. I always wonder when or if I will be able to overcome this.

I just started listening to a german podcast, this is the perfect timing. Very helpful, thank you! ☺️

Si sueñas con lograr fluidez en español te recomiendo Español Autematico. Ademas videoblog Alan por el mundo o Viajando con Mirko especialmente en temporada de confinamiento.

It seems unfair that a person can be so fluent in so many languages, especially for someone as young as you. I do benefit from your presentations and always learn alot!

I am watching this video at 2x speed and yet able to understand. It took me 20 years to get to this point. About 10 years back I remember not being able to understand English dialogues in a movie. Now, I have stopped learning English since I left school 15 years back. Yet because of the internet it seems like English language never left me. Now I'm also studying Japanese. I can't understand Japanese, I can speak enough that the other person can understand. I've actively started listening to Japanese podcasts and TV shows. The progress is very slow. I don't like to read the subtitles. I want to learn with input only as I did with English.

Very interesting. Do you have any tips on getting better at German word order please?

Hallo Robin, Hope to find you well. I left germany around 2010, and even I learnt german during my school education for the moment I don't practice it at all. Therefore, i just want to implement your method to improve my german!!! Besides easy german, which I normally follow and love them, do you recommend another podcast to listen? Danke sehr für deine Zeit ☺️

Hi Robin, it's a great way to learn, but - understanding too much can be a curse 😉. What I mean by that is that I was also listening to the podcast of the Easy German team - from the very beginning. I was lucky enough to understand something like 98%. So where is the problem? The problem is, that too often they are trying to talk about things about which they know nothing. So at some point I was frustrated and stopped listening to this podcast. But I'm listening to another podcast which I really recommend you - NDR Info - Redezeit. This one is excellent, because it's done by professional journalists, so they are doing they best to keep decent quality. And, except discussions in the studio, there are also phonecalls from the listeners. In general, NDR has tones of excellent podcasts.

Hi All! Do any of you have suggestions for french podcasts about either productivity or minimalism? (Or both)

Hey Robin, do you already have Chinese Podcast you would like to listen to? Struggling to find good ones as well. I really liked popupchinese

Just asked Easy Turkish if they have podcasts. If not, the transcripts of their videos will work for me for now. 👍

Hey Robin! Can you please suggest a podcast for Chinese? I know you are learning it now and I feel that we have similar level so your opinion is important for me.

Would you say it's possible to go from 0 to c1 in 6-8 months doing about 4-5 hrs a day? I'm gonna go for it either way haha but would be interesting to hear your thoughts :D

How do you feel about the other languages like French, Japanese, Portugese? Do you occasionally listen to podcasts to maintain them?

Hi, anyone have a recommendations for Swedish podcasts? I have just started learning Swedish so would love some to listen to while I am running

Where is your coffee😥😥 But great video thanks🙂

Please give me advice about Egyptian arabic podcasts!😃😊 I have subscription on Arabic Pod 101 but unfortunately they have only short conversation podcasts..

Any suggestion of podcast to learn English dear friends? Thanks 🇧🇷

Should I find just one kind of podcast or listen to all podcasts I find.

Anyone know any nice beginner Dutch podcasts?

Third!!

I do try to listen to podcasts, but sometimes i really dont know what they are talking about, so now i am limited to listen to podcasts only have transcripts - any recommendation for advanced English podcast ? thanks x

anyone got any recommendations for Spanish podcasts (other than duolingo/language learning focussed ones)? :))

Ufff I was almost the first this time! ;-)

you mention that you get transcripts from patreon .that's true for google podcasts too?

What podcast resources do you actually use or you can defintely recommend in learning german language? Thanks

Can you recommend a french podcast for intermediate level learner

second

The interesting question here is, if you make a mistake, I surly understand what you want say, at least to a certain degree. But if I (the native German speaker) made a mistake, wouldn't it be the same thing for you? You would, to a certain degree of mistake (and here I tend to say the degree is not so far away from mine), too, understand what I say, even if I made a mistake, because you would not even realize it was one. Think about it.

HOW DARE YOU? WHY DID YOU SKIP THE "OPENING" AND COFFEE STUFF? HOW DARE YOU, ROBIN... =(