My latest blog post for Rosetta Stone came out today, Listen to Reinforce Your Comprehension so please check it out — and please pop me a comment over there:

I’ve learned that the only way to really learn a language is to soak yourself in it. I try to maximize my exposure to everything German as often as possible.  One of my favorite ways to do this is to catch as much native content as possible.

The Deutsche Welle (DW), slowly spoken news report offers straight news, reported in German but at a much slower pace. It’s the same news that’s reported to Germans by DW, Germany’s international broadcaster. It is a great resource because it offers language learners a better chance to comprehend what’s going on.

When I am working during the day or when I’m getting ready for bed, I have started tuning in to German radio stations as ambient noise in the background, something I can focus in on or ignore based on what I am doing. Luckily, I am near my PC during the day, so I can stream German radio all day long.  I have a few favorites, and they’re all newsy: Deutschland Radio (news and culture from Berlin), Deutschlandfunk (News from Köln), and Info Radio (24-hour news from Berlin).  You can find everything else including pop, rock, hip-hop, and of course what Germany may be best known for, techno and electronic, online via useful radio directories such as Live-Radio.net and Listenlive.eu.

Since I am so devoted to learning German, I have taken this whole immersion thing one step further when it comes to listening to German on the “radio.”  A couple months ago I picked up a Squeezebox Radio from Logitech. The Squeezebox can stream Internet radio from around the world, including by German city, through a series of built-in directories.  So, I have all the aforementioned stations programmed in as well as my favorite Berlin music station, MotorFM, making listening to Berlin radio as simple as punching one button on a funny, red clock radio.

I recommend spending some time listening to news or other German radio, be it slow or not, as often as possible, even if you can’t comprehend most of it.  Focus on what you can understand — on words or phrases.  Let yourself melt into what German sounds like.  The more time you spend learning German with Rosetta Stone, the more you will comprehend when listening to the German news or watching TV, or, hopefully, interacting with German speakers.

In my next several posts, I will continue to talk about my language learning experience and adventures in Berlin. Please let me know in the comments what you would like to know more about, where you would like me to go on this blog, and what you think.

I am studying German and have been told that it helps if you listen to German radio so I ordered the Logitech Squeezebox Radio on the recommendation of my friend Scott. I find the Squeezebox Radio to be perfect for the night stand, where I will be listening to the radio before I got to bed.

I set the presets with Berlin radio stations and linked via Wi-Fi and it sounds great in both spoken word and also music.

PRO: The set up was so easy and it even made the WPA/WEP key entry for my Verizon FIOS Internet.

I was also able to easily find all the stations I listened to in Berlin when I lived there and I was also able to find local stations and I could easily “install” BBC and CBC and even a Facebook and a Flickr applet. I am very pleased. I got a red one.

The date and time is awesome because it is updated via Internet so I didn’t even need to set the date or time — so I also have myself an atomic clock, I guess.

There are multiple alarms and also a line in so I can run my iPod and my iPod shuffle through the device, too, which is great for my German homework (a CD I burnt to MP3).

CON: A little expensive but you get a lot more than just a radio. It doesn’t come with a rechargeable battery pack or the remote — an additional $50.

BOTTOM-LINE: Small and deceptively powerful — it is basically a little Linux box in a small boom box/Internet clock radio — and it is the most modern of the Squeezebox line so you can do very cool stuff with the device. Easy to set up and to start using.

It can work as simply as a clock radio with presets or you can get all geeky and install apps and podcasts and you can connect to SIRIUS and all those other paid streaming services. I love it. It is my new favorite thing.