French Podcasts for Beginners
27 Dec 2022📢 Disclaimer: Not affiliated with any of the podcasts listed below, recommendations are based on my personal interest and my current level of proficiency in French as of this year (lower intermediate / around A2).
Some Background
My first exposure to French happened in January 2020, when I took a 10-day introductory cram course for total beginners. (😬though I only attended for the first three days, then had to drop the rest of the course because I caught a real terrible flu 🤧 which rendered me a high fever for five days and too weak to leave my dorm)
I resumed learning after arriving in Montreal (though still sort of on and off😅 because it is indeed not easy to squeeze a consistent learning routine into my already quite hectic schedule). I have been taking the part-time French course offered by the Quebec government and using Duolingo.
Two other ways I found particularly helpful for my English learning are watching TV series and listening to podcasts, both in the target language - so I figured this experience could perhaps be transfered to assist French learning. Personally I find it is not always possible each day to find large chunks of time necessary for watching an episode of a series; on the other hand, it’s much easier to just put on an episode of podcast on my cellphone and just have them play as background while I am either walking to the office, going for grocery shopping / running errands, or doing my work - this also seems like a quite effective way to achieve the immersion without having to pay much attention (well… 😅 mostly because I couldn’t understand the episodes 100% in any ways given that my current level is really just in between elementary and intermediate)
So I would just like to share some podcasts I have been listening to recently.
Beginner-friendly ones
These are the ones that, either I feel I can basically understand the contents while listening (hence the title), or explain the grammar/expressions of French.
1. Duolingo French Podcast
2. ehoui!
3. Little Talk in Slow French
4. Learn French with Frenchy Stories
5. Vive l’apprentissage du français
6. Français Authentique
Just for the sake of immersion
Those who are at an advanced level can probably understand the contents pretty easily, as for me, not yet (and far from it). So I usually just play them as background and go about my usual schedule/activities of the day.
1. FRENCHIES autour du monde
2. French Expat
3. Choses à Savoir
4. Moi Impat, paroles d’ex-expats
5. Quoi de Meuf
6. Un podcast à soi
Bedtime Podcasts that Might (or Might Not) Help Achieve Immersion
Could maybe help fall asleep ?🌃 (it doesn’t work as well as ASMR though)