Podcasts

I've recently rediscovered the joys of podcasts and how they can be instrumental in the beginnings of learning a new language, and indeed whilst your still developing your vocab. and proficiency in the language podcasts are still very useful and shouldn't be neglected. I'm posting about this, because as you know I'm starting to learn Chinese and I've found the newbie lessons from Chinesepod.com very useful indeed. I think what makes these particular podcasts perhaps more interesting and perhaps easier to digest is that you get to hear the conversations 3 times, then there's an explanation of what the dialogue means, the context is used in and perhaps on what other instances/occasions you can use particular words/phrases, and then you get to hear the conversation another 3 times - this time having a better understanding of what's going on. The onus of these podcasts, as well, are not so much on the individual words/sentences, but rather the patterns that go on in chinese. By the radio presenters not over analyzing the words, context etc. it's not too overwhelming for a beginner. I just wished I had discovered  podcasts and used them when I was learning Thai, maybe it would have helped.