Thalita Alves
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Authentic Brazilian Portuguese Listening in 8 Podcasts
There are loads of podcast options available for those honing their Brazilian Portuguese skills, from audio-based lessons to programs that will make the entire experience more culturally authentic.
In this post, we’ll look at a list of eight different podcasts spanning material for any level of Brazilian Portuguese learner.
Contents
- The Learning Benefits of Podcasts
- How to Get the Most Out of Learning with Brazilian Podcasts
- Podcasts for Brazilian Portuguese Learners of All Levels
- For the Advanced Learners: Podcasts About Daily Brazilian Life
- Bonus: Brazilian Music Podcasts for Keen Audiophiles
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
The Learning Benefits of Podcasts
Podcasts are a fantastic supplementary tool to go along with all those other study tricks you already have up your sleeve. They complement immersion programs very well. You can pair a learning podcast with FluentU, for example, and see the concepts that you learned in a podcast episode in one of the learning program’s authentic Portuguese videos.
Whether you’re looking for some listening practice to put the vocab you’ve gained from your textbooks and flashcards into a real-life context, or wondering how to apply the material from the course you’re taking, podcasts always provide great learning opportunities.
But you’re probably wondering how your average Brazilian Portuguese learner can keep up, right?
For one thing, unlike certain audio resources like online radio or live music streams, podcasts can be paused, rewound and—most importantly—slowed down while you’re getting the hang of what’s being said. That’s going to be extremely helpful as you’re still becoming versed in the native Brazilian accent and colloquialisms.
Sometimes, you might also manage to kill two linguistic essentials with one practice run by adding a bit of reading into the mix. How to do this? Look for podcast series that make audio transcripts available—it really is that simple!
How to Get the Most Out of Learning with Brazilian Podcasts
Now you’re probably wondering how to best leverage these benefits. Besides the list of recommendations that’s to follow, here are a couple of quickfire tips that will help you make the most of Brazilian Portuguese podcast content:
- There are different ways you can find Brazilian Portuguese podcasts to listen to. If you’re confident enough about your language level and use iTunes, try changing your iTunes country of origin and take a look at what podcasts are currently trending.
An alternative is to enter search terms like “podcast Brasil” or simply “Brasil” on popular streaming sites like SoundCloud and PlayerFM to see what kind of results come up.
- If you’re using the Apple Podcasts app, there’s a little icon next to the “play” button that allows you to control the playback speed as you see fit.
SoundCloud doesn’t have a feature like that, but there’s a playback speed app for SoundCloud that tries to make up for it.
With all that said, here are some of our top picks to kick-start your podcast learning.
Podcasts for Brazilian Portuguese Learners of All Levels
Your choices for Portuguese podcasts are ample, and this is especially true when it comes to materials designed to help learners nail the Brazilian accent and colloquial speech. Check out some of the best options for the South American language variety we all love.
Carioca Connection (iTunes, SoundCloud, PlayerFM)
Carioca Connection is a series focused on teaching Brazilian Portuguese through the power of conversation. For those who don’t know, “carioca” refers to someone from Rio de Janeiro—many of this podcast’s episodes focus on daily life in this particular city.
Each installment introduces listeners to a new aspect of Brazilian culture, from cultural quirks to the weekend markets that people visit to buy their produce. Transcripts are available for purchase on the official website.
Brazilian PodClass (iTunes, PlayerFM)
Brazilian PodClass is all about bringing an authentic context to language learning.
This free podcast series features interviews, stories and thematic programs about the Brazilian way of life that will engage listeners as they brush up on their conversation essentials, pronunciation, grammar and verb structures.
Brazilian Portuguese Podcast (iTunes)
This program from ReallyLearnPortuguese.com combines blog posts and podcasts to inform and entertain all Portuguese learners.
It covers a myriad of topics like Brazilian history, slang, common expressions and even assorted pastimes like tree planting and yoga. These are best suited to intermediate-advanced learners, and audio transcripts are available for registered users.
PortuguesePod101 (iTunes)
PortuguesePod101 teaches Brazilian Portuguese through a combination of podcasts, detailed lesson notes and flashcards that will help you test your newly acquired vocabulary.
Some episodes set out to introduce beginners to the language, others are geared towards the intermediate-advanced crowd and a few are focused entirely on vocabulary building—and all of them are presented in a concise format that can be digested at your own pace.
For the Advanced Learners: Podcasts About Daily Brazilian Life
If the options above appear a bit too easy, you could always opt for some podcasts made for Brazilians, by Brazilians. Here are some popular options that should definitely be added to your queue.
NerdCast (iTunes)
NerdCast is a leading podcast series in Brazil, boasting a rate of one million downloads per episode. In its 10+ years of broadcasting, the program has delved into just about every subject you can imagine, including pop culture, history, science, cinema, technology and literature, to name just a few.
If you want to go beyond the audio streams, the Jovem Nerd site also has official apps for Android and iOS that provide access to all published content, NerdCast episodes included.
Papo Acessível (iTunes, Spreaker)
In Papo Acessível (i.e., “accessible chat”), host Fernando Scalabrini brings trivia knowledge, culture and insight into an accessible audio format that everyone can enjoy.
Recent episodes have given listeners a run-through of how to configure their iPhones, provided listeners with curious facts about coffee, and one even spent all of its time explaining to listeners what a podcast is. It’s fair to say this is a must-listen for the insatiably curious minds among us.
Bonus: Brazilian Music Podcasts for Keen Audiophiles
If you love your Brazilian tunes and want to amplify your playlist, we found a couple of podcast series that are going to be right up your musical alley.
Novedos (iTunes)
San Francisco Bay DJ Forty Fivan made a special podcast series that showcases rare Brazilian tunes that even some natives might not know about. Every installment focuses on a different genre, from Música Popular Brasileira (popular Brazilian music, or MPB) to samba and bossa nova.
Brazilian Beatz Podcast (iTunes)
Here’s a short-lived series that will introduce listeners to a variety of Brazilian music styles, from modern hip-hop to samba jazz and the traditional tunes you might hear in Rio’s famous Carnival parades. This one only consists of 10 episodes but the selection of tunes still manages to be quite broad-ranging.
Well, that’s more than enough ideas to get you buzzing.
We hope you’ve been able to find something that resonates with your Brazilian Portuguese language goals as you listen your way to fluency.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
