French Podcast recommendations?

BillieBob

Hi,

My French is a bit rusty but I spent a year there back in college. I'm looking at ways to get it back into my daily life and thought of getting some podcasts to listen to going into work. Does anyone have recommendations of podcasts from France Inter or RTL that are good listening? (e.g. like 'Morning Ireland' on RTE 1 or a weekly roundup show of world current affairs etc).

Cheers

gaf1983

I was subscribing to a current affairs one called Géopolitique by France Inter:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=115156820

However, while I found I was able to understand the jist of each one, I don't think my French was improving. Also sometimes I genuinely wasn't interested in some of the topics - sometimes it was quite a theoretical analysis of recent world events, other times focusing on events particular to France. All the podcasts are about 3 minutes long.

I was subscribing before to a general news podcast whose name escapes me, that was quite good cos it covered more general news and sport too, can't remember the provider though.

To be honest I've started dipping in and out of the Coffee Break French series, it's very thorough - some of the early podcasts might be a bit basic for some learners, but I find it a good series for explaining the structures of the language - each episode has a conversation and then the phrases used by the speakers are explained in English. Episodes tend to be about half an hour in length.

Aard

One that I found useful when I was derusting my French was dailyfrenchpod.com

They're about 10 minutes each, and are great for vocabulary.

plein de force

a very good podcast i found is " le journal en francais facile" provided by radio france internationale, you can find it on itunes for free of course.
it's good if you like current affairs, it's a 10 minute round-up of the news in easy french. you can find the transcription on their website too if needs be

another one is "one thing in a french day", it's better for everyday french as she talks about bits of her everyday life. if you're listening on an iphone/ipod touch you can see the transcript again if you want on the podcast itself or website

Micamaca

Hi, was just looking for new podcasts in French too and saw the post re RFI. Yes, they do give 10 minute podcasts but I downloaded a few of them recently and they seemed to cover very little news in France and was more about African countries, so I lost interest. I would prefer a mixture of French, European or world news but it seemed to be mostly African news.

Can anyone else recommend either podcasts or episodes of a French TV series to download, I have my husband's PSP thingy and an hour long commute in a bus, so watching something in French or listening to something would be great.

Cheers, mica

plein de force

Micamaca wrote: »

Hi, was just looking for new podcasts in French too and saw the post re RFI. Yes, they do give 10 minute podcasts but I downloaded a few of them recently and they seemed to cover very little news in France and was more about African countries, so I lost interest. I would prefer a mixture of French, European or world news but it seemed to be mostly African news.

Can anyone else recommend either podcasts or episodes of a French TV series to download, I have my husband's PSP thingy and an hour long commute in a bus, so watching something in French or listening to something would be great.

Cheers, mica

there are some good podcasts on france 24 on itunes too. they do international news. the main reason i used to avoid it is because there was too much visual stimulus through the video but i suppose you could just look away :P

Micamaca

plein de force wrote: »

there are some good podcasts on france 24 on itunes too. they do international news. the main reason i used to avoid it is because there was too much visual stimulus through the video but i suppose you could just look away :P

Cheers for that.
I have actually found the perfect compromise. I just ordered a little dictaphone for work and I tried recording the audio from a reportage on France24 and listened to it this evening on the way home and it works fine
I like France24, but it is better just to listen and easier on my tired eyes too. But they do seem to cover some interesting topics.

Happy days!!

Einhard

Micamaca wrote: »

Hi, was just looking for new podcasts in French too and saw the post re RFI. Yes, they do give 10 minute podcasts but I downloaded a few of them recently and they seemed to cover very little news in France and was more about African countries, so I lost interest. I would prefer a mixture of French, European or world news but it seemed to be mostly African news.

Can anyone else recommend either podcasts or episodes of a French TV series to download, I have my husband's PSP thingy and an hour long commute in a bus, so watching something in French or listening to something would be great.

Cheers, mica

Hey,

Just to let you know that RFI do two seperate podcasts, one dealing with world issues in general, and one dealing exclusively with African issues. I'd say you downloaded the latter rather than the former. The general one is called Journal en Francias facile.

Micamaca

Einhard wrote: »

Hey,

Just to let you know that RFI do two seperate podcasts, one dealing with world issues in general, and one dealing exclusively with African issues. I'd say you downloaded the latter rather than the former. The general one is called Journal en Francias facile.

That would explain it :D Oh dear...sometimes I feel Murphy's Law was written with me in mind

Thanks for that, will go back for another looksie.

Apanachi

I used Coffee Break Spanish to learn Spanish a while back, I found the method of teaching very good, it's great especially if you don't really have a lot of spare time on your hands, there is also a podcast Coffee Break French from the same people (Radio Lingua - if I remember correctly) so if this is anything like the Spanish lessons, then I would say it's highly recommendable

ValerieR

You can also stream from the www.francetelevisions.fr website which regroups all the national French channels. They don't seem to have a region restriction (yet?).

Hope this helps.
Bonne Chance

V