The Magical World of Podcasts

     

                   Have you gone through all the coursebooks and watched all the video lessons that you can possibly handle? Are you stuck in what seems to be the perpetual stage of the Intermediate level?

                   This is a very common mentality of the intermediate learner. We all feel like this at some point. We just want to get to that wonderful advanced level where we have enough vocabulary to fully enjoy the language. If we want to take our language to the next level we have to take our learning to the next level.

                    So how do we do this?  Basically, we just need to find the right kind of content to improve our listening comprehension and increase our vocabulary. This differs from person to person.

Fortunately, because of the wealth of available pod casts, we can find pod casts that fit these six features:

• Interesting Content- Search around until you find something that interests you and/or entertains you.  
• Frequency- Try to find a few pod casts that create new episodes often. This will keep you from getting bored with the current pod casts.
• Voice- You can also search for pod casts until you find one with a voice/voices that you enjoy listening to and do not find obnoxious or annoying.
• Dialect- My favorite part about pod casts is that you can find pod casts from certain regions in order to study a certain accent or dialect. For example, I listen to an FM Osaka radio podcast because I love the Osaka accent. 
• Level- You can also listen to pod casts at a rate of speech and difficulty level that suits you. For instance, I have noticed that weather reports are much easier to understand than political discussions. 

                        If you explore the Magical World of Pod casts, you won't regret it. You can look around on the iTunes stores of other countries or look at this list here:  http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=24101&PN=1         

5 Benefits of Multilingualism

        English is the lingua franca of today. There is no question about that. But I find it troubling that many English speakers think this eliminates the need for a second language. It is rather selfish to expect others to learn your own language, when you could just as easily learn their language. This brings me to the five main reasons that English speakers should study languages.

1. It opens your mind.
            Those who believe the don't need another language are probably the most in need of an open mind. But everyone, including the open-minded, has at least some reservations to other cultures and ways of life. Learning a new language and meeting speakers of that language will help you learn about things that you once may have been nervous about.

2.Meeting new people
      This is pretty self-explanatory. Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other's gold...

3. Travel
      The world holds an endless supply of adventure and new experiences, and it is just a richer experience if you understand the language and the culture of the country you are in.

4. Pop Culture
     Movies, music, tv... the trifecta of entertainment. If you know another language you will be twice as entertained!

5. Fun!
     When you study the right way (more posts on that coming soon) you will be amazed how exciting and satisfying language learning can be. The key to learning is making it memorable. and the good memories are much stickier to our minds than the boring ones.

                                   Thanks for reading. Please comment!          
                                                                                                             -Ashley