What is your opinion on podcasts?

My favorite language learning site/community just launched a podcast, and I am hooked!

I always like to talk about positives when I am excited about stuff. The cool thing about listening to a podcast dedicated to language learning is that I get to learn a lot about the country and culture. For example, this week they talked about how Berlin's bicycle-dedicated infrastructure should be renewed. They even talked about how people die in bicycle accidents. As someone that lives in a very chaotic city (Mexico City), the fact that people die in Berlin product of bicycle accidents sounds like a really, really weird statement (and also as something that should be resolved of course).

Back to the podcast discussion: I also wonder about many possible difficulties for people trying to learn from them. The most obvious is that it can be hard to understand what is going on at all if you don't have enough knowledge of the language.

Does anyone here have experience in learning with podcasts? How is it turning out for you? Do you find it more rewarding as a beginner, intermediate, or advanced learner?

Have you learned interesting stuff as well as me? 

Or maybe you don't listen to podcasts at all and prefer other media?

Grüsse!

I love podcasts. I wouldn't characterize my language learning as "learning by podcast" or anything like that; they are merely a supplement for me. But I find them to be a really convenient way to get a handle on listening, especially in the beginning. Of course there are good and bad podcasts, just like any other kind of resource, but I find that if I look around a bit I can often find acceptable ones.

I'm a huge fan of podcasts and listen to a ton of them, mostly in English, but I also listen to some Danish podcasts when I have the time and enough brainpower to process the horribly incomprehensible language that Danes speak casually with other Danes haha. They have a huge list of basically every Danish podcast ever recorded on podcastindex.dk, so I'll never run out of material.

The thing with podcasts though is that they're differently rewarding to learners of different levels. For the beginners and pre-intermediate students I believe it is great to be able to hear what the language sounds like when it's spoken naturally by people just chatting to each other, instead of just listening to a teacher talking in an adapted way to their students. The student gets used to listening to the language, telling words apart even if they don't understand every word, listening to the intonation and discerning questions from statements and similar stuff.

For intermediate level to advanced students I think podcast have another great value, which is to teach new words and phrases which are usually understandable in context. A lot of people will listen to podcasts about fields that interest them, and new words or phrases about their hobbies might turn up and be very useful in their daily life.

And yeah, it's pretty strange to me as well that cyclists die in accidents in Berlin, one of the most well-organized cities I've ever been to, and probably the best suited city for cycling I've ever seen. :)

I didn't have the chance to get close to podcasts when I was a beginner and I didn't suspect they would be useful when starting, but finding out they are good tools is a nice surprise! Language intonation is something I often foresee because I am already used to it in german, but I am sure it plays a huge role in processing information. 

I am glad everyone has the opportunity to learn from them, especially because they are so accessible, and cover a huge variety of topics. I am still having a great time with the one I am listening, I hope you guys too :)