I found the best YouTube channel for practicing my Euskera. I have been studying Basque (Euskera in the Basque language) seriously since 2020, but my progress has been slow, which has been very frustrating.
While I think I’m making normal progress on grammar and reading and writing, the aspect of language learning that I am most interested in is being able to understand and follow a conversation when people are talking. And most of the time, when Basque speakers (Euskaldunak) talk, it’s way too fast for my brain to figure out what they are saying.
I’ve tried a lot of different things, and I suspect most have helped me in one way or another. But then I ran across a post in Reddit (/basque), where someone suggested the YouTube channel Ikasuztaritze. So of course, I checked it out.
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What makes the videos on this channel so good is that there is no translation into another language. It is complete immersion, but the videos are made with simple conversations which allow a new speaker to understand a lot. There is usually a second version of each video, in which the scenes are repeated, but with written phrases added, supporting understanding and giving you a chance to look up words in the dictionary or google translate.
The videos are produced in the French Basque country, and I noticed several differences in the dialect from the unified Batua that I am learning, but not enough to impede my learning.
For example, “beranta da” is berandu da. For verbs, the forms change a bit, like “zira” for “zara.”
The website behind the Ikasustaritze channel, euskarazbizi.ikas.org, does not appear to exist any more. It’s a shame, because these are the best videos I have found so far. The videos were posted over 10 years ago.
The videos are also divided into levels – 1, 2, 3. I have been focused on level 1 for the past six months. I listen to the videos over and over again, and because they are organized into playlists, I can simply listen to the videos non-stop. I understand about 100 percent of the first level videos and am planning to move to level 2 soon. The playlist for the four levels are included below. You simply click on the videos below, which should play the playlist.
Playlist for Level 1
Playlist for Level 2
Playlist for Level 3
