Welcome to the fourth installment of our media resources series! This post features a collection of audio resources suitable to a variety of skill-levels in the languages supported at Reed.
Arabic
Radio Aswat
This Moroccan radio station broadcasts news, cultural programming and sports in Arabic. Programs are available to stream live or to listen to later. The website also includes Arabic-language news stories.
Radio Sawa
This American-funded radio service has radio programs on topics from across the Arabic-speaking world. Programming includes music and news stories. Many programs are available to listen to online at any time, or you can stream live radio.
Airing Pods
These podcasts are perfect for beginners looking to listen to more of the language. They are free and downloadable through iTunes. Try out Survival Phrases!
BBC Xtra
The BBC has a daily 2-hr posting of Arabic culture and trending events. They speak slowly enough that intermediate learners could follow along, but would also be suitable for advanced learners.
Chinese
Slow Chinese
Slow Chinese podcasts are stories and commentary by native Mandarin speakers read at a slower pace. Accompanying transcripts make these podcasts useful for intermediate to advanced students interested in working on comprehension and reading. Podcasts are available for download, or you can subscribe to Slow Chinese on iTunes.
French
RFI
The international voice of French radio, RFI offers streaming and archived programming that is interesting to French speakers and learners outside of France. In addition to regular programming, RFI also offers a variety of audio options for French teachers and learners under RFI Savoirs. The website may start streaming immediately when you access it.
Radio France
Listen to French news, cultural, or music programming live online. There are a wide range of programs to choose from, as well as print stories with accompanying audio and video.
German
Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Welle is an international German news source, with both broadcast and written stories. In addition to offering news from a German perspective in dozens of languages, including both German and English, Deutsche Welle also provides resources for German language learners. They offer several podcasts, including Deutsch im Fokus, which explores spoken German idioms and vocabulary, and Top-Thema, news stories in simplified German with accompanying transcripts.
Russian
Russian Podcast
This is a language learning podcast appropriate for beginners to advanced students who want to review. Paid subscriptions provide transcripts of episodes, but the podcasts are free to listen to, and they also include free PDFs with vocabulary and other information.
Spanish
Radio Ambulante
Radio Ambulante is an award-winning podcast of stories from Latin America. The high production value and interesting subject matter make these stories compelling. Radio Ambulante is a good resource for intermediate and upper level Spanish learners. Translations are also available for many episodes.
La Rosa de los Vientos
This is a classic Spanish podcast. It is about mysteries of all kinds.
La Parroquia
This is one of the best podcasts about comedy–it really gets Spanish humor!