Radio Lingua was the brainchild of languages teacher Mark Pentleton. Mark had taught for several years in secondary education in the west of Scotland and was running a successful languages and technology project, working with teachers and learners in the secondary schools of three local authorities. In 2005 he designed and produced the well-known Verbcast, a podcast which taught French verbs using relaxation techniques, and he saw an opportunity to provide more of this kind of innovative language-learning materials through structured podcasts.

In October 2006 Mark launched Coffee Break Spanish which was arguably the first progressive course in Castillian Spanish delivered entirely by podcast. Coffee Break Spanish quickly caught the attention of learners around the world and was catapulted to the top of the iTunes Education chart in the UK and in the US. Seeing the potential for similar courses in other languages, Mark formally set up the Radio Lingua Network as an umbrella company hosting Coffee Break Spanish, My Daily Phrase Italian and My Daily Phrase German. Coffee Break French was launched in September 2007, closely followed by the first of the One Minute Languages series, One Minute Polish, proving that it is indeed possible to learn enough of a language to get by in a matter of minutes!

Throughout this period Mark was still working full-time at his day job supporting the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence in the schools of East Ayrshire Council and developing the podcasts in his own time. Summer 2008 saw him “giving up the day job” and concentrating full-time on Radio Lingua.

Radio Lingua podcasts have proven immensely popular. Consistently at the top of the iTunes charts in the Education category (and keeping a certain Oprah Winfrey off the top spot in the overall rankings in the US at one point) the podcasts have received a number of awards including the TMN Online Excellence Award, the European Award for Languages 2007, and Coffee Break Spanish has recently won European Professional Podcast of the Year.

At the present time the company remains small: working in conjunction with native speakers and teachers, the three employees produce 28 shows in 20 languages. The team also does all web development and customer support in-house.

See also Our Presenters for more information about the extended Radio Lingua team.