Podcasts are a fantastic educational tool. Not only can I learn new things about my faith and pickup useful cooking tips, I can even pickup a couple of new languages at my own pace.

JapanesePod101.com provides a platform to make learning the Japanese easy and fun, while incorporating and current issues into their lessons. Subscribe to their free feeds (audio, video or both) and start learning Japanese. Better yet, sign up as a member and subscribe to their member-only feeds to get pdf transcripts of each lesson. If you sign up as a premium member, you’ll even be able to make use of the learning centre to further enhance your language skills.

KoreanClass101.com is a sister site of JapanesePod101.com. It provides the same ease and fun in learning the Korean language. There’s even a video available on how to read and write Hangul (the Korean writing system). Similar to JapanesePod101.com, you’ll have to sign us as a member to be able to download the extras, though you can always subscribe to the free feed for the audio and video content.

If you just want to pick up some basic phrases to survive in a foreign country, or just to communicate with a new friend, SurvivalPhrases.com has the answers. Evident from the similar layout lesson structure, SurvivalPhrases.com is another sister site of JapanesePod101.com and KoreanClass101.com. While the latter 2 includes more intermediate and advanced contents, SurvivalPhrases.com presents just the basics needed for “survival”. Currently, they offer lessons for 5 different languages, namely Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Spanish.

The revival of the traditional Latin mass, now known as the extraordinary rite of the mass, has brought on a sudden interest in the Latin language. LatinCast.org provides an online resource for learning and discussing the Latin language. Sadly, the site has not been updated since May. Perhaps it’s because there has been too many looney people spamming their guestbook with inappropriate material. Urgh!

If the world of nature and science is your cup of tea, you’ll definitely enjoy the various high-quality audio and video podcasts from National Geographic. My personal favorites are the Wild Chronicles and Video Shorts video podcasts.

That’s all for now. Time for me to pack up and prepare for a busy night of editing and formatting my degree assignment.

Tags: education, languages, Podcasts, Reviews