Radio Free Europe

This internet thing continues to be pretty cool for learning languages. I’ve started dialing in to foreign radio channels for some time to listen to whatever-it-is-they’re-talking-about-at-the-time. Trouble is, most radio stations play music, which would be fine except that they play English-language music. Even in countries that don’t speak English. But with a little searching I’ve come up with a few talk radio stations that aren’t too bad:

Deutsche Welle (who let you view their website in one of 30 languages, so you can figure out how to listen even if you don’t read German) and Deutschlandfunk. These are both pretty good NPR-style sites, balancing their airtime between classical music and Third World News.

I tuned in to Deutschlandfunk once and heard 20th-century white southern gospel music a la Buryl Red, obviously sung by Americans. Turns out they’d gotten hold of some recording of some youth cantata from some church in Tennessee. Not my most surreal moment ever*, but it was pretty cool.

But sometimes both of these sites are playing music, so I started looking for a couple of alternates. That’s when I found Pink Channel: a weekly gay talk show that originates in Hamburg. They usually keep about two months worth of back shows online; I’ve been right-clicking and saving them to listen to later. Their interview with Jimmy Sommerville (questions in German, answers in English) was a head-trip of the highest order.

In fact, I liked Pink Channel so much that I started looking for a similar show from France. Voila Homo Micro. And it’s available as a podcast. I tell ya, I’m so hip it scares me sometimes.

*That involved Weimaraners, antiques, and Ride of the Valkyries.