Encontrando podcasts

February 20, 2011 1:07 PM

Spanish podcasts for intermediate/advanced speakers?

I'm trying to brush up on my Spanish, and am looking for some Spanish language podcasts, probably aimed at learners of Spanish, since things like BBC Mundo are too hard for me to keep up with. Something like that which discusses current events would be fantastic. I checked previous questions on this topic, but they were several years old and the most promising results were dead links. Anything out there that I'm missing out on?

posted by bluejayk to education (8 answers total)

I see nobody's answered yet, even though lots of people (including myself) want to see the answers to this question. So I'll give you what I found:

1. Rojas Spanish has some podcasts and some videos that I think are in a good intermediate range.

2. On the History International channel at either 6am or 7am central time (that's when I wake up my daughter who falls asleep with the TV on) there is a documentary program called Ancient Mysteries: New Investigations. The guide listing is NOT in spanish, and it doesn't say the show is in spanish, but it is, or maybe it's just the episodes that take place in spanish-speaking parts of the world. I see this week that they have the one about Ponce de Leon, and I have the one called Blood and Treasure in Peru on my tivo. I'll tape the episodes about the Borgias and one from Greece this week and see what language they are in.
Anyway - the narrative is nice and slow and the words are pretty distinct. And you can put on the subtitles to read the text along with the narrator if you want.
posted by CathyG at 3:16 PM on February 20, 2011

And here's a blog with a collection of resources, including some podcasts.

And here's the site for NotesInSpanish - they produce 3 podcasts (beginner, intermediate, advanced).

And here is NewsInSlowSpanish - you can listen for free, but they have supplementary materials for a fee; I've not used them, but I keep thinking I should get serious about this and do it.
posted by CathyG at 3:35 PM on February 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

Great, NewsInSlowSpanish sounds perfect. I had tried to add NotesInSpanish as a podcast earlier, but the rss feed wasn't active anymore.
posted by skewed at 4:53 PM on February 20, 2011

If you change the country in iTunes to Spain, or Mexico, or some
spanish speaking country, you'll get tons of spanish podcasts.
They are not generally produced to market spanish learners, but it's a great resource out there.
posted by theKik at 5:37 PM on February 20, 2011

In my experience, you really don't get up to functional speed in a language unless you are hearing it used at a normal speed on a regular basis. Yes, it is frustrating & you miss a lot. But your "ear" does get better with exposure, and you learn a *lot* of new words without really even noticing. If you are a medium/advanced level learner, I would strongly recommend getting in some regular at-speed programming.

If you go to www.justin.tv there are hundreds of broadcasts being offered for free in Spanish. Everything form familiar English-language movies dubbed into Spanish, to live sports events, to golden oldies Spanish-language programming . You will have to create an account to use, but it's free.
posted by Ys at 6:35 PM on February 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

NewsInSlowSpanish is great.

I also like Notes In Spanish: Intermediate. The same people also do versions for "inspired" beginners (i.e. advanced beginners, I think) and advanced students, so if you listen to the intermediate level and find it isn't right, you can move up or down from there. These podcasts also do a "free podcast, paid supplemental stuff" business model.

In line with Ys' advice about listening and exposure to Spanish spoken at normal speed - to practice listening for a recent trip to South America, I listened to Voices En Español a lot. The podcasts are typically either an interview with a native Spanish speaker (in Spanish, of course) or a story narrated by a native Spanish speaker. The website bills itself as a "bilingual blog and podcast", but the podcast is mainly in Spanish if I recall correctly. Speakers tend to be from all over the map, but generally Latin American. This is a nice change from a lot of the other Spanish podcasts out there which tend for whatever reason to cater toward Brits vacationing in Spain.
posted by Sara C. at 6:53 PM on February 20, 2011

I recommend show time spanish, it's really well done and for current events they also do a show called news time spanish. Difficulty ranges from lower intermediate to lower advanced.
posted by btkuhn at 1:06 PM on February 21, 2011

Just for the record - I looked at some of the Ancient Mysteries shows that I mentioned. Most of the shows are in English. But I know that ones about Peru and Ponce de Leon are in Spanish, and the speaker talks medium slow.
posted by CathyG at 8:32 AM on February 24, 2011