So, it's just one more week until we leave for Germany, and for the last couple of months I've been trying to brush up on my German. It's been quite a while since I last spoke any German, and it wasn't all that good when I did speak it. Being the computer geek that I am, the first thing I thought to do was to find some podcasts to help me out.
I love listening to podcasts - I have a good handful that I listen to on a regular basis. There are so many great ones out there. I was sure that there must be some podcasts out there for learning languages. My podcatching application of choice is iTunes, which maintains a pretty good listing of podcasts right in the iTunes online store, so I decided to check that out. I found a bunch, and have listened to at least some episodes from all of them. As you might guess, not all of these podcasts are created equally - some are much better than others. So, I present to you my
Review of Podcasts for Learning German.
Clip2go English - German
This podcast was a real disappointment. Looking at the website, it looks like this may actually be a "teaser" sample podcast, intended to get you interested in the services of the website. It doesn't look like a bad product, but the podcast stinks.
Basically, what you get in each episode is a single word in English, followed by the word in German. The words chosen are really random, and do not at all comprise what I would call a useful vocabulary. You get some good ones, like "glauben", and then you get some weird ones, like "Selbstmord". Seriously, how often does "suicide" come up in basic conversation, especially when you're just learning the language? Additionally, no effort is made to tell you about conjugation of the verbs, plural versions of the nouns, or any other information beyond just the word itself.
The last nail in the coffin (and this is what makes me think this must be a sample "teaser" podcast) is that this podcast is no longer updated. You can download all of the "episodes" that already exist (there are about 50 of them), but there are never any new ones.
Final judgment: 1/5
Best for: Increasing an existing vocabulary
Link: http://www.cliptip.de/rss/ipod_en_de.xml
Das Treffende Wort
I rather like this podcast, produced by the Language department at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. It's set up as a fake radio show, with two hosts, Käthe and Manfred. They discuss various things, and play off of each other - all completely scripted, however. The "radio show" is completely in German (though it is fairly basic German), and is usually followed by a short overview in English, discussing the language or cultural point made in the show. Because it's almost completely in German, this is probably best for someone who already has some familiarity with the language, and wants to brush up.
The one downside to this podcast is that they only produced 5 episodes, and it is no longer updated. I suspect, based on some of the content, that this was done as a college project of some kind. It's really too bad that it hasn't been continued, because I really liked the format. In my opinion, the 5 available episodes are worth downloading anyway. The same site has another podcast, called "Perspektiven", with a similar format, and geared toward beginning German speakers, but this is also not updated, and only has 3 total episodes. I won't list it separately, but you might also get something out of that one.
Final judgment: 3/5 (would be higher if there were more episodes)
Best for: Brushing up on existing basic German skills
Link: http://german.lss.wisc.edu/podcast/feed.xml
Deutsch - Warum Nicht? Series 1 - 4
In iTunes, "Deutsch - Warum Nicht" shows up as 4 separate podcasts, one for each "series" (or "season", as we would say in American English). This show was put together by Radio Deutsche Welle, and though it is rather old (it sounds like it was produced as a radio program in the mid 90s) it's quite good.
The program follows several characters through a continuing story, entirely in German, with occasional interjections from the English speaking narrator, who helps explain what is going on, and points out particularly difficult new words. When the current portion of the story is complete, the narrator takes over and explains a major grammar or vocabulary point brought up in the lesson, as well as occasionally a cultural or historical discussion. After this, the entire scene is played out again, this time with minimal interruption from the narrator, giving you a chance to review what you've learned.
The course moves from basic to more advanced language concepts as you move from season 1 to season 4, but I still think this podcast is most useful to someone with some existing minimal experience in German.
Again, this is a podcast that is not continually updated - the 4 seasons are all that exists. However, each season contains between 20 and 25 episodes, each one nearly 15 minutes long. It's definitely worth downloading.
Final judgment: 4/5 (just misses 5/5 because it is not continually updated)
Best for: Advancing existing basic German skills
Link: http://rss.dw-world.de/xml/DKpodcast_dwn1_en (Season 1)
http://rss.dw-world.de/xml/DKpodcast_dwn2_en (Season 2)
http://rss.dw-world.de/xml/DKpodcast_dwn3_en (Season 3)
http://rss.dw-world.de/xml/DKpodcast_dwn4_en (Season 4)
German GrammarPod
Wow. This one was really tough to decide on a rating for. This podcast is just what it's name suggests - a podcast about German grammar. Each episode, our host, Laura, does a monologue/lesson about some specific part of German grammar.
The information is great, and useful, but MAN is it dry. I would find this podcast more useful if she gave more examples of actual usage, and spoke more German. As it is, she mostly talks ABOUT German. I do find that understanding how the grammar of a language works can help me when learning it, but this tends to get really monotonous. On the plus side, while she doesn't put out episodes very frequently, it is still "live", being updated on a fairly regular basis.
Final judgment: 3/5
Best for: German learners of all levels
Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/germangrammarpod
Learn German - GermanPod101.com
I should save my rating for the end, where I post my "Final judgment", but I have to rave about this one right up front. This podcast from from Innovative Language Learning is fantastic. No question - this is simply my favorite German Learning podcast I have listed here.
Our hosts are Judith and Chuck - she's a native German, and he's an American - and together they do a fantastic job of teaching German to listeners of multiple skill levels. The only problem I have with the podcast at all actually just has to do with a little annoyance I have with Chuck - the guy has SUCH an American accent when speaking German. I cringe whenever I hear him say "Ish" instead of "Ich". He just can't get those German "ch" sounds out right. Ah, well. Judith makes up for it with impeccable pronunciation and excellent enunciation.
In order to accommodate different skill levels, different episodes are set up differently. First, there are the episodes labeled "Newbie", "Absolute Beginner", "Beginner", and "Intermediate". Each of these follows the same pattern: Chuck and Judith do a dialog in German, then they repeat the dialog more slowly, then repeat it again, this time translating after each line. Next, they discuss the vocabulary and grammar points of the dialog, along with occasional commentary on German culture. Finally, the original dialog is repeated.
Next, there are episodes labeled "Audio Blog - Sarahs Welt". These feature a monologue by another of the GermanPod101 team, Sarah. Each monologue is on a different subject regarding life in Germany, and is completely in German. As such, this is intended for the advanced German learner. These monologues are followed by a brief vocabulary review, in which several key words from the monologue are translated.
Finally, there are episodes labeled "Video". These feature video clips accompanied by text and a voice describing them in German. After a handful of clips, the viewer is quizzed on them, repeating the clips with the phrase delayed 5 seconds, to see if you can remember them.
Best of all, this podcast updates regularly and frequently - usually as often as 5 new episodes per week! In summary, I HIGHLY recommend GermanPod101 for anyone learning German.
Final judgment: 5/5
Best for: German learners of all levels
Link: http://www.germanpod101.com/wp-feed-audio-video.php
German - SurvivalPhrases
Another podcast from Innovative Language Learning, this is useful for someone unfamiliar with German who needs to learn a handful of critical phrases before going to a German speaking country. Judith from GermanPod101 tutors the listener in a handful of basic German phrases - greetings, counting, etc. However, this one is not nearly as good as GermanPod101, because it is really just a "teaser" sample podcast. You get the first 15 episodes of a 60 episode course, and they encourage you to go online and pay for the whole thing. So, it goes without saying that this is another one that is not ever updated.
I'd say this is useful, if only to solidify some of the most important phrases you will need, but if you really want to learn German, pass on this one and go for one of the meatier podcasts I have listed.
Final judgment: 3/5
Best for: Newbies to German who just want to memorize a few phrases
Link: http://survivalphrases.com/german/feed/
Learn German for Free with German-Podcast.de
Stephan does this podcast roughly once a month. It consists of a monologue in which Stephan goes over a lesson in German. Early episodes feature simpler grammar, and later episodes have Stephan just talking about various topics in German.
In general, the concept is good - it can be very useful when learning a language just to have a chance to hear it spoken, and this fits that bill. However, Stephan tends to speak quickly and quietly, he doesn't enunciate very crisply, and his recording equipment sounds like it's a bit on the cheap end, making this a little hard to follow for a novice German learner. Additionally, he tends to switch between German and English a little hap-hazardly, and his (German) accent is rather heavy, making even his English a little hard to catch at times.
Ultimately, a good concept that fails a little in execution. Still, unlike some other podcasts listed here, at least he updates pretty regularly.
Final judgment: 3/5
Best for: German learners of all levels
Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/German-podcast
Learn German Vocabulary
I wasn't much impressed with this podcast from LanguageAddicts.com. Basically, this podcast presents a vocabulary list once a month following some unified theme. They put out three episodes simultaneously, called "Familiarise", "Recognise", and "Memorise" (note the "s" in each word instead of a "z" - I never could understand British spelling).
The Familiarise episode goes through the word list, saying each word in English, then in German, then slowly in German, German again, and then English again. Recognise goes through exactly the same list, saying the German word first, then the English word. Memorise goes through the same list once more, first in English, then German.
The idea, I suppose, is that you should use the podcast to quiz yourself, but honestly, all this repetition of the same material seems like a big waste of bandwidth to me. A user could easily do all this repetition themselves using their audio player. Add to this that all you get is out-of-context vocabulary lists, with no grammar training, or examples of how to actually use the terms in a sentence, and I really was left wanting. Still, at least it seems to be updated regularly (once per month).
Final judgment: 2/5
Best for: German learners of all levels
Link: http://www.languageaddicts.com/podcasts/german/german.rss
Learn German with GermanLingQ
This podcast, which seems to be pushing another online language learning site, it nevertheless more useful than some previous "teaser" podcasts I've listed. However, I should warn you ahead of time that though they have episodes in a couple of different learning levels, you should probably be somewhat comfortable with German before trying this one.
Most episodes consist of a group discussion by native German speakers on some subject or other, completely in German with no translation hints. This is great for having the experience of hearing naturally spoken German, which can be invaluable in advancing existing skills, but can be intimidating or even incomprehensible for the beginner.
Finally, while it seems that this podcast was updated frequently up to the summer of 2009, updates have been much longer in coming more recently. The second-to-last update was in July of '09, and after that there was a gap until this February. no new episodes have been released since then, so this may be a dead podcast. Still, if you would like to try it and have the existing language skills to make it useful, there are 11 episodes still available.
Final judgment: 3/5
Best for: German advanced German learners
Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Germanlingq
Mission Europe - Mission Berlin
Blah. This is another podcast from Radio Deutsche Welle, who produced the "Warum Nicht?" series that I enjoyed so much. This one, however, falls quite a bit short of that earlier effort.
The concept seems really interesting - the story is set up as a "virtual reality" adventure, in which the main character is a secret agent trying to save Berlin from time-traveling terrorists. She speaks almost no German, and so part of her struggle to save the day is simply to understand everyone talking to her. Some secret agent, who can't even speak the language. Well, she wakes up with amnesia, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Anyway, as I said, it's an interesting concept - it certainly makes for more interesting dialogs than most of my German textbooks ever had. (I still remember "Kennst du Ingo? Ingo ist mein Freund." That's Chapter 1 from my 9th grade German textbook.) However, it really didn't work for me. It got really annoying listening to this character stumbling around saying "what? I don't understand! Ich bin nicht von hier," all the time. Suddenly, she'll have some kind of miracle flash of inspiration and realize what some phrase means, as though having someone yell it at you enough times will cause your brain to magically translate it for you. And other words, which have obvious common roots to English words, she struggles with just as much.
Anyway, try it if it sounds interesting to you - it didn't work for me. Like the other podcast from Deutsche Welle, this isn't updated at all, it's a discreet course of 26 episodes.
Final judgment: 2/5
Best for: New German learners
Link: http://rss.dw-world.de/xml/DKpodcast_missionberlin_en
My Daily Phrase German
In general, I've been pretty critical of the "memorize some key phrases" style podcasts here, but this one is actually rather good, considering. To be sure, this really isn't "learning German", as when you finish listening, you will really just have a small arsenal of critical phrases at your disposal, but this podcast actually quite a good job at that goal.
This is a 100 lesson series, so it is no longer updated. However, you can download the entire course and listen to it at your own pace. I like podcasts that are continually updated, so this loses some points there, but otherwise it's really pretty good at what it tries to do.
Ignoring these two complaints (which really have to do with the goal of the podcast, not with the execution), the only criticism I can level at it is the host. She's really great, and speaks clearly and everything, but she's very Scottish, which I found somewhat distracting. Her accent is quite strong when speaking English, and of course she also speaks German with a Scottish accent, which is interesting to hear. Still, it didn't actually form a barrier to understanding, so once I got used to her voice it wasn't a problem. So, if you're looking for a "learn some critical phrases" podcast, I would recommend this one.
Final judgment: 3/5 (would get 4/5 if it were continuously updated)
Best for: Newbies to German who just want to memorize a few phrases
Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/mydailyphrasegerman
One Minute German
This is another "learn some critical phrases" podcast, put out by the same people who did "My Daily Phrase German". I'll keep this short, because there isn't much to say about this one. The only improvement made here is that the host is a native German speaker. Aside from that, "My Daily Phrase German" beats this one in all aspects. Like that other podcast, "One Minute German" is not an updating podcast, but a set series of lessons - except where are "Daily Phrase" had 100, this one only has 10. I guess if you want a quickie rundown of the most basic German phrases you might want to use, this works, but in almost every way, "Daily Phrase" is a better choice.
Final judgment: 2/5
Best for: Newbies to German who just want to memorize a few phrases
Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/oneminutegerman
Rundblick - Beginners' German
This is really trying to teach beginners German - it really is. Unfortunately, it seems to be missing something. It seems like it may actually be the audio companion to a more traditional textbook course in German - which would explain that feeling that you're missing something.
There are some good dialogs here, and pronunciation examples, but they don't actually translate much or explain any grammar, making all of the content feel out of context, somehow.
Also, this is yet another podcast that is no longer updated. Download it for some additional basic German to listen to, but that's about it.
Final judgment: 2/5
Best for: Early German learners who want to hear some extra dialogues
Link: http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Feed/itunes.open.ac.uk.1619910234.01619910239
Slow German
You may remember that I said that German-Podcast.de was a good concept that just wasn't executed well? Well here's "Slow German" to show you how to do it right!
This is really a fantastic podcast. Unlike most of the other podcasts here, Slow German does not attempt to be a German language course of any kind - rather, the whole point is to provide a regular exposure to spoken German so that those with existing experience can improve their skills.
Each episode, our host Annik does a 5 to 10 minute monologue about some subject, followed by a review of emails she has received from listeners. A simple idea, very much like German-Podcast.de, but executed so much better. Annik speaks clearly, slowly (but not too slowly), is careful to enunciate, and always has well planned and scripted material. You may have to stop and look up words, but you should have no problem missing something because you couldn't make out what she was saying.
If you already know some German, and want to improve by listening to a native speaker speaking naturally but clearly, this is the podcast for you. About the only criticism I can give is that she is a bit inconsistent about producing episodes - the last one came out in January. Hopefully, this isn't a dead podcast.
Final judgment: 4/5
Best for: Intermediate German learners
Link: http://feeds.schlaflosinmuenchen.com/slowsim.xml
Wieso Nicht - Learning German
A third offering from Deutsche Welle, "Wieso Nicht" follows the pattern they have set for fixed lesson podcasts - so this doesn't update. The podcast is entirely in German, and plays out different scenes in everyday situations (with some occasional interjection by an onlooker who sort of serves as your host, also all in German).
As far as a podcast that is all in German, and is really geared for speakers with existing skills to improve by listening to more spoken German, I would recommend "Slow German" over this offering.
Final judgment: 3/5
Best for: Intermediate German learners
Link: http://rss.dw-world.de/xml/DKpodcast_wiesonicht_en
