Recently I have discovered a new form of entertainment – podcasts. Most often I listen to them on the road, thanks to them travel time flies by. Of course, most of the podcasts in my personal collection are in Russian, but there are three in Czech. I decided to tell you about podcasts that I listen to myself, and about those that are worth the attention of all language learners. 

Learning Czech 

Listening (poslech) is an incredibly important component of language learning, but it is often underestimated. It is quite common for students to neglect listening to radio or television. One would think they are right: “Why listen if you still don’t understand anything. I’ll start when I have learned the language”. This is a wrong approach – even if you do not understand foreign speech, but force yourself again and again to listen to it, your brain automatically starts looking for patterns in the text. The brain, after all, cannot do anything else but to learn, it is learning, even when it seems to you that nothing is happening. Those who read in Czech and listen to Czech speech discover the fact that they are more and more likely to “guess” the correct ending or a pronoun form. They don’t really “guess” – it’s just that their brains have already recognized these patterns and turned them into an automatic skill. 

And yet, in order to be less disappointed by the fact that you don’t understand anything, I recommend you two podcasts created specifically for those who are still in the process of learning Czech. First of all, I am going to name the podcast of an ÚJOP teacher from the Podebrady study center.

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Zdeňkův český podcast. Zdeňek Lukaš teaches English at the ÚJOP study center in Podebrady (where students are prepared for admission to engineering-related specialties). As he says, he is a big fan of the podcast genre, so a few years ago he started recording his own podcasts in English. And in 2017, he began recording podcasts in Czech for students. He claims that his podcasts would be a good option for those who have reached the B1 level. In my opinion, for Russian-speaking students of ÚJOP, December is the time to start listening to these. As for now, there are 88 episodes on the list, and the newest one has been released just a few days ago. 

SlowCZECH. Eliška is a Czech language teacher. She records podcasts on a whole variety of topics. A special feature of her releases, as the name implies, is that she speaks rather slowly. In everyday speech, Czechs can speak so quickly that without proper preparation it might be impossible to grasp the meaning of what has been said. 

Learning More About Czech Politics 

I wouldn’t say that in three years I have gained a lot of experience in communication with Czech friends. However, what I managed to note during this period of time is that the foreigners, who not only speak the language, but are also interested in the political life of the country are respected in the Czech Republic. Well, in general, if you intend to live in the Czech Republic, and do not want to stay forever in your own information bubble, it is simply necessary to follow the political agenda. I would recommend three podcasts for this matter. 

Vinohradská 12. Public radio in the Czech Republic has many podcast channels, but publishing them here would be cheating – they are almost always just radio broadcasts simply uploaded to podcast platforms. A real podcast that has appeared recently is the Vinohradská 12 with Lenka Kabrgelová. Almost every day, the presenter chooses the most sensitive topic and discusses it with invited experts. These podcasts provide some sort of minimum of information necessary to understand what is happening in the country. 

Studio N and Týdeník Respekt are two different podcasts that are also based on mass media. The first one is a podcast of an online daily newspaper Deník N, and the second one is a podcast of a paper magazine Respekt. In both cases, the podcasts touch upon the topics mentioned on the pages of publications. Therefore, if you do not have time to read these media, you can listen to the most important things chosen by the editors of the podcast studio. 

Taking a Break From Serious Topics 

And yet, for me, podcasts are a way to kill time on the road or while cooking dinner. Therefore, I will tell about a few podcasts that are rather interesting than useful. 

I enjoy the Se ségrou podcast, in which two sisters, Nikol and Lucka, talk about their lives. They started blogging when they were 13-14 years old, and over time, their blog and YouTube channel have become their source of income. The fact that over the years their audience has reached thousands of people has allowed them to become influencers – people who have an influence on public opinion. I like their sense of humor, how they evaluate their online life and the pieces of advice they give. 

But the influencer that is, perhaps, the most popular with the Czech youth is a YouTuber Karel Kolář, aka Kovy. His main brainchild is, of course, a YouTube channel, but recently he has launched his LINKA podcast, in which he discusses all kinds of things with his friend Tereza Solt. They devoted their last release to the problem of bullying (šikana) and their own experiences related to it. 

David Vaníček: Slyšíme se? I really want to listen to this podcast – I’ve put it in the play queue. It is broadcast by former journalist and TV reporter David Vaniček, who shares his experience of raising twin daughters with his husband. He decided to record this podcast „to break the taboo about LGBTQ+ parents and families.“ 

Salad Bowl of Prague. As much as I understand, this is a project of the Integration Center in Prague. This center exists to help foreigners socialize in Czech society. This podcast is an interview with different foreigners who live in the Czech Republic and make it more mixed and diverse. I suppose that every foreigner is interested in listening to the stories of other foreigners – in them we recognize ourselves and the things that have or haven’t happened to us yet. 

Finally, I will name another product of the Czech public radio – this is Český rozhlas – Věda. Although this is not literary a podcast, but only a recording of a program, I still want to mention it here. Popular science is always good. 

If you’ve never listened to podcasts before, I recommend you to try it. All titles can be found in special podcast apps. Since I have an Android smartphone, I listen to them via Castbox. If you, just like me, do not use mobile data, I advise you to download the episodes to your phone when you are connected to Wi-Fi. 

I hope my selection will help you in studying Czech and Czech realities. Tell us in the comment section about the podcasts you listen to. 

Dani, graduate of ÚJOP 2018

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