Podcasts: The Future of Learning

Imagine if you could add 10 hours of studying English every week without adding any extra time to your day.

With podcasts you can.

If you don’t know what a podcast is, check out the article What is a Podcast and Why You Should Care.

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These days, as business gets more and more competitive, you need to find ways to stay on top. You need to be learning constantly.

Podcasts are not only going to help you deepen your understanding about many parts of you life, but you’ll be improving your English at the same time! What more could you ask for?

Free E-book: 101 Words You Will Never Learn in School

Podcasts are a relatively new thing in the English speaking world, but they’ve been exploding in popularity. And for good reason, too.

Podcasts are free, they’re full of great information, they can be entertaining and funny, and you can listen to them while you’re doing stuff you normally do.

There’s no reason not to be listening to podcasts while you go about your daily life.

Your English will improve much faster, and you’ll be learning a lot more about yourself and the world.

Podcasts are one of the most amazing inventions of the 21st century

These days we spend so much time stuck in traffic, taking the bus, buying groceries, cooking, eating, cleaning, walking the dog, running errands and just standing in line for whatever.

If you add up all the time you spend doing these activities that you have to do to survive every week, if you’re like me, you would easily count over 10 hours.

What podcasts allow you to do is to be LEARNING while you do brainless activities like the ones mentioned above. (Find out more why podcasts are the Lazy Man’s Way to Learn English.)

Depending on what you have to do for work, you may find you can attentively listen to podcasts WHILE working.

Listening to podcasts accelerates your development.

Podcasts are the new way of learning

With podcasts, you can learn anytime, anywhere. You can even listen to them while  multi-tasking.

Imagine how much better your English would be if you were studying an extra 10 hours a week.

Even if you don’t understand everything that’s being said in the podcast, it doesn’t matter. You’re still going to be learning A LOT.

If you’re listening to native English speakers talking for 10+ hours a week, your comprehension ability is going to skyrocket [go up really fast].

Podcasts are the new thing in the English speaking world. Unfortunately they’re not very common in other languages yet.

However, you can still take advantage of the wonderful opportunity and start listening to the immense amount of podcasts.

Where to start? ESL Podcasts

First, start with the Real Life English ESL Podcasts. Every Sunday, Chad and I release a new podcast where we talk about five new expressions plus listener questions and a quick tip to help you improve your English.

These ESL podcasts are perfect for non-native speakers because we talk like we do in real life, this is not scripted like so many other ESL “podcasts.”

Chad and I talk like we normally would, and anytime we say a word or expression that we think our listeners might not know, we define it for you.

We also give you a list of words to know before you listen to the podcast so you’re better prepared to understand what we’re talking about.

Check out our latest podcast here (at the time of this post).

If you guys know of any other great ESL podcasts, please post them in the comments.

Lifestyle Podcasts

One of the great things about English is the immense amount of information out there.

You can learn just about anything in English from podcasts in English.

All you have to do is go to iTunes and search for whatever you’re interested in (click here for more information).

Whether it’s running, personal development, sports, business, travel, philosophy, or cats, you’ll be sure to find a podcast about whatever you’re passionate about.

If you have any great podcasts you think people would be interested in, please share them in the comments.

Don’t Understand Native Speakers?

If the people are talking too fast, you can download the podcast through iTunes to your iThing/mp3 player and play the podcast on ½ speed.

You can then listen to it once or twice on slow, then try to listen to it again on normal speed. (If you really want to test your English comprehension skills, try listening to a podcast on 2x speed. Good luck!)

Remember, you don’t need to understand everything that’s being said to be learning. Even if you understand nothing, your brain is going to be subconsciously learning the different sounds, tones, and the pronunciation of native English speakers.

However, if the podcast has a transcript, you can read along while listening to the podcast. Or, you can read the transcript first and understand it the best you can with the help of Google Translate. Then when you listen to the podcast in your car, you’ll have a much easier time understanding it.

How Podcasts Will Change Your Life

Imagine this.

You get off of work at 5pm and start the 30 minute drive home. If there wasn’t any traffic, you could be home in 10 minutes.

After doing your best not to get frustrated about driving so slowly, you stop at the market to get some food for dinner.

You gather some food and other items and approach the checkout only to find a big ass line.

You impatiently wait in line, getting angry at the cash register lady for not being as efficient as she could be.

As you get back in your car, you notice you wasted 20 minutes in the store.

You get home and your stomach is growling, so you start cooking dinner. After another 30 minutes of preparation, you finally sit down to eat.

After you’re done eating you clean up after yourself and get ready to take a hot shower.

As you get out of the shower, you look at the clock, 7:03. It’s been nearly two hours since you’ve gotten off work. And what do you have to show for it? A full stomach and a clean body.

Now imagine how much different your experience would’ve been if you were listening to podcasts that whole time.

Podcasts have this magical ability to make time go by much faster when doing boring stuff.

And because you’re being actively engaged by podcasts, you don’t get as upset whenever something inconveniences you.

Oh there’s traffic? No problem, I get to listen to another podcast then.

Oh there’s a line at the store? No worries, I’m learning while I wait.

I’m willing to bet that you could listen to at least 10 hours of podcasts or other audio content every week without adding any extra time to your day.

That means every week you could be listening to 10 college lectures. (Yes, you can find college lecture podcasts on just about anything on iTunes.)

How much smarter would you be if you listened to 10 hours of college lectures every week?

Podcasts come in all shapes and sizes. You’re sure to be able to find many that you’ll fall in love with, just like the rest of the world is starting to.

So what are you waiting for?

Subscribe to the Real Life English ESL Podcasts, find some non-ESL podcasts on subjects you’re interested in, and join the revolution, baby!