Podcasts have surged onto the global media arena since their broad adoption (approximately in 2010). Today, audio dialogues are an important part of most people’s content consumption, with nearly a third of Canadians committing an hour a day to listening to their favourite podcast.
Newcomers to Canada are also embracing new media, with commercial studies indicating that permanent residents, international students, and workers are more likely to listen to podcasts than their Canadian-born counterparts.
As a result, CIC News has created the following guidance for newcomers interested in learning more about Canada through podcast media. Continue reading to find out how you can learn more about Canadian life and culture while watching a terrific new show.
Discover more about Canada.
Why not begin from the beginning? The following podcasts are centred on learning more about Canada—its culture, politics, and people. These broadcasts, with their blend of personal profiles, humorous stories, travel-show comments, and more, can help newcomers both inside and outside of Canada.
The podcast The Secret Life of Canada
The Secret Life of Canada, which features lesser-known stories from throughout the country, promises to bring the strange and underground stories of this country to the forefront. This podcast, hosted by Leah-Simone Bowen and Falen Johnson, includes subjects ranging from local community biographies and key, lesser-known personalities in Canadian history to historical overviews of towns and cultures. The Secret Life of Canada podcast includes around 60 episodes to date, with new episodes broadcast usually twice a month.
Learning French and English
Official language competence (French and English) is not only a need for immigration, but it is also a key predictor of immigrant success in the short and medium term. The podcasts listed below are intended to assist people improve their English and French skills.
Bob the Canadian can help you learn English.
Originally a YouTube channel with over 1.5 million viewers, “Learn English with Bob the Canadian” has transitioned to podcasting. This podcast tries to teach English to people from foreign cultures by covering all aspects of English learning, such as vocabulary, sentence form, common phrases, tenses, and more. Every month, six to nine episodes are uploaded, with episodes dating back to 2020. Listeners seeking further information can also visit Bob’s YouTube channel, with other supplemental materials available on his official website.
Podcast Coffee Break French
The Coffee Break French podcast is an excellent choice for newbies wishing to learn and improve their French skills. The show is hosted by Mark and Anna, a French learner, and is part of the larger Coffee Break series, which covers a variety of languages such as Spanish, English, German, Italian, Chinese, and others. The series’ primary principle is that listeners devote the same amount of time to each episode/lesson as they would to their coffee break (approximately 30 minutes). The podcast is free, but there is a paid companion course available for listeners to enroll in. There are almost five seasons of episodes at the time of writing, covering everything from vocabulary to sentence building and verb conjugation.
Mauril
Mauril, while not a podcast, is an application that provides an unusual service that may be useful to newcomers wishing to enhance their English and French. Mauril helps users improve their listening and comprehension abilities by delivering content relevant to their comprehension levels (set with the use of an initial placement exam) using audio and video content from CBC and Radio-Canada. Following this, users are asked follow-up questions to help them improve their comprehension and writing skills. The application provides a large range of training content (including kids shows, news and current affairs broadcasts, archival information, and more) that newcomers can use to improve their language abilities in a distinctly Canadian environment.
