Here is a quick “lifehack” for you. You can now learn foreign languages and stay current on politics all at once. How so? By taking advantage of a smart podcast concept being used by French and German broadcasters. Radio France Internationale (RFI) issues a daily program called Le Journal en français facile (iTunes – feed – web site), which delivers the nightly international news in slow and easy-to-understand French. Along the same lines, the German media company Deutsche Welle (which puts out many great language and music programs) also has its own nightly news program — Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten (iTunes – feed – web site). It’s essentially the same concept: informative news presented in very simple German, and, in this case, it’s spoken very slowly.
Now, what’s very nice about these programs is that they also provide a written transcript of the spoken word. So you can read along as you listen and make sure that you’re really comprehending. (See transcripts in French and German). Even cooler, with the German version, if you have a video iPod, you can read the transcript on your little portable screen. (See directions).
Finally, check out this offbeat suggestion sent our way by a reader: Nuntii Latini (mp3 – web site) is “a weekly review of world news in Classical Latin, the only international broadcast of its kind in the world, produced by YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company.”
To learn more languages, please visit our complete collection Learn Languages for Free: Spanish, English, Chinese & Beyond.
Related Resource: See our article called “Coffee Break Spanish & The Threat to Traditional Media”
I think your advice is excellent. Learning a language is a continuous, everyday happening. You learn little-by-little. I firmly believe in reading target novels you have previsouly read in your own language. Good idea! However, I don’t know about you, but I don’t favour dual language books. This only leads to lazy reading.
This program offers
to everybody who would like to study different languages. It is very essential
thing to learn this matter because you would able benefit from it. You can use
it when traveling.
In learning a foreign language might takes time and eventually not easy. This will take enough time and indeed requires determination in learning.
In some other school institutions all over the world, they are including different
languages as their subject. Definitely it is hard for students to learn at
first. However as the time goes by, they can learn from it and surely they
would able to use it their future careers.