After months of hearing my son talk about podcasts, I have got into the habit of listening to podcasts too. He got into them from Asian comedians, like Uncle Roger and Evelyn Mok, because he can relate their stories to our family life, and also listens to various gamers.
Over time, I got influenced by him and started listening to podcasts that interest me. I have learnt so many things and I’ve also enjoyed the fact that the podcasts are in Mandarin. It helps me refresh/recap the use of Chinese languages. I love that I can pick up and listen/re-listen to the podcast recordings whenever I have a bit of free time.
Nevertheless, did you know that by 2023, 1 billion people will be listening to podcasts at least once a month? It has carved out an increasingly important space in our daily routine. Have you been hooked on them yet?
So what is a podcast? In fact, it is a loose combination of the words “iPod” and “broadcasting”. Listeners get to listen to a new episode when the podcasters broadcast it. The range of topics covered is very broad, including light topics like comedy and now edutainment (education + entertainment) podcasts are becoming more and more popular. That is why Babbel – the world’s first language-learning app – created the infographic “What can a Podcast Teach You?”, to explain this global phenomenon through lots of fun facts and data, while also offering a series of useful tips for learning languages by listening to podcasts.
As the infographic explains, in 2021, Brits listened to almost 60 million hours of podcasts every week. This is 50% more compared to 2019 and 17 times more than in 2015. In 2022, even more growth with a total of more than 2.9 million listeners are expected in the UK. From “Today in Focus”, a podcast by The Guardian that covers a crucial fact in 20 minutes, to “Eat Sleep Work Repeat” by Bruce Daisley (Vice President of Twitter), there are many podcasts loved by the British.
Babbel has also launched numerous podcasts to help language learning. There are many educational benefits to listening to Babbel’s podcasts: they present and introduce relevant cultural elements, they help improve pronunciation and conversation and they also explain new linguistic forms of speech. So why not check out their Podcasts and see how they could help you to learn new languages!
Disclosure: This is a featured post.