Salut tout le monde! This is a long overdue update on our Coffee Break French programming. As you will know, Radio Lingua is a small company and over the summer our personal and business travel commitments changed unexpectedly, slowing down the CBF production process. We’re now back “at our desks” and we’re catching up with all of our commitments over the next few days. Coffee Break French episode 327 will be available by the end of the week and subsequent episodes will follow regularly thereafter. We’re looking forward to hearing how Alf, Veronica and Katie spend their remaining weeks in Nice in the forthcoming episodes of Coffee Break French, and hope you are too!
To coincide with our launch of Coffee Break Spanish on the Kindle, we’re giving away a Kindle to one of our Facebook friends. If you’re not already a fan of Coffee Break Spanish on the Kindle, make sure you head over to our Facebook page and “like” us. To enter the competition, all you need to do is post a photo of you enjoying your Coffee Break Spanish lessons – maybe even enjoying a coffee! – on the wall of our Facebook page. Don’t forget to tag yourself, and make sure you tag Coffee Break Spanish too! Just click somewhere on the photo and tag @Coffee Break Spanish – if you’ve already liked CBS on Facebook then you’ll be able to tag the photo.
From the names of everyone who takes part in the competition we’ll pick one random CBS fan as the winner of an Amazon Kindle ebook reader, along with the Coffee Break Spanish ebooks too! Good luck! Find out more about Coffee Break Spanish on the Kindle here.
Following many, many requests from our listeners we’ve been working on making our most popular language courses available on the Amazon Kindle ebook reader. In the coming weeks and months we’ll be making available our most popular courses on the Kindle, starting with Coffee Break Spanish and Coffee Break French.
Coffee Break Spanish and French will be serialised in groups of five lessons, so Coffee Break Spanish Part 1 will include the comprehensive lesson guides for lessons 1-5. Part 2 will feature lessons 6-10, and so on.
Please visit Radio Lingua at amazon.com, amazon.co.uk or amazon.de to find out more about our Kindle editions of our most popular courses. The ebooks are being added gradually, so you may find that not all lessons are available immediately. Part 1 is available at a special introductory price: check the UK / US or German store for local pricing.
This video review of Coffee Break Spanish is a really good introduction to what the course offers. The only issue we have with it is that, despite what they claim on the video, Radio Lingua is NOT owned by one of the major television networks!! As we’ve said many times before, Radio Lingua is a small company based in the West of Scotland with two full-time employees and a few very important part-time people who work on specific aspects of our production and support work. Find out more about the Radio Lingua story by clicking here.
We’re delighted to announce that our One Minute French course is now available on the iBookstore. iBooks can be viewed on all iOS devices including iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. You need to have the iBooks app on your device, and the title is purchased directly through iTunes.
This iBook provides all ten lessons of the course in video format, along with notes and further explanations, and includes the same content covered in the traditional “podcasts + pdf lesson guide” version of the course. You can purchase this iBook directly from the iBookstore in the iBooks application.
The pricing of One Minute French is standardised across the iBookstores currently active as detailed below:
We’re delighted to announce that our One Minute Turkish course is now available on the iBookstore. iBooks can be viewed on all iOS devices including iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. You need to have the iBooks app on your device, and the title is purchased directly through iTunes.
This iBook provides all ten lessons of the course in video format, along with notes and further explanations, and includes the same content covered in the traditional “podcasts + pdf lesson guide” version of the course. You can purchase this iBook directly from the iBookstore in the iBooks application.
The pricing of One Minute Turkish is standardised across the iBookstores currently active as detailed below:
We’re delighted to announce that our One Minute Swedish course is now available on the iBookstore. iBooks can be viewed on all iOS devices including iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. You need to have the iBooks app on your device, and the title is purchased directly through iTunes.
This iBook provides all ten lessons of the course in video format, along with notes and further explanations, and includes the same content covered in the traditional “podcasts + pdf lesson guide” version of the course. You can purchase this iBook directly from the iBookstore in the iBooks application.
The pricing of One Minute Swedish is standardised across the iBookstores currently active as detailed below:
The days are getting longer and warmer and, at least here in the UK, the sun is shining for the Easter weekend. Now is the time to think about getting ready for your summer vacation and learning a language to make your trip more enjoyable! To give you a little more motivation, we’re offering a 25% reduction on all the products in our store over this weekend. Until midnight* Monday 25th April you can buy any one of our courses, including Coffee Break Spanish, Coffee Break French, News Time Spanish or Show Time Spanish at a hugely reduced cost. Please use coupon code easter2011 (lower case) on the signup form.
If you’ve previously purchased a membership or product from us, log into your Control Panel and add the relevant product from the drop down menu. Enter easter2011 in the “coupon code” box.
Please note that the 25% reduction will be applied at checkout.
EU customers should be aware that the prices quoted on our signup pages do not include VAT. If you use the coupon code easter then the 25% discount will be applied and then 20% VAT will be added to the total cost.
Please note that no refunds will be given on any materials purchased at full price during this time if the coupon codes have not been used.
*Our server is based in the UK, so “midnight” means midnight GMT. Just to be absolutely clear, our sale ends at:
25th April 2011 – 16:00 / 4:00pm in San Francisco
25th April 2011 - 17:00 / 5:00pm in Denver
25th April 2011 - 18:00 / 6:00pm in Chicago
25th April 2011 - 19:00 / 7:00pm in New York
25th April 2011 - 21:00 / 9:00pm in Buenos Aires
26th April 2011 - 00:00 / 12:00 in Glasgow
26th April 2011 - 01:00 / 1:00am in Paris
26th April 2011 - 02:00 / 2:00am in Cape Town
26th April 2011 - 03:00 / 3:00am in Moscow
26th April 2011 - 07:00 / 7:00am in Bangkok
26th April 2011 - 08:00 / 8:00am in Beijing
26th April 2011 - 09:00 / 9:00am in Tokyo
26th April 2011 - 10:00 / 10:00am in Sydney
From time to time we partner with carefully selected companies which compliment our range of language courses. One of these partnerships is with audible.com, the internet’s leading provider of spoken audio entertainment. Listeners in the US and Canada may hear a special message on many of our podcasts offering a free audiobook. Audible.com provide tens of thousands of titles to choose from, including many audiobooks which are perfect for language learners. You can browse the languages category at audible.com to see what’s on offer, but to get your free audiobook, please sign up through our special partnership page at www.audiblepodcast.com/rln. You can find out more by visiting the partnership page. Please note that the special messages will only be heard on the public versions of the episodes, and they will not be included on any premium content including the enhanced version of the podcast. We hope you take advantage of this special offer.
Today marks the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Italian Republic, and it’s also St Patrick’s day, so we’ve decided to give away our One Minute Irish and One Minute Italian courses until midnight tomorrow night. To take advantage of this special offer, go straight to our purchase pages listed below and use the coupon code 17MAR2011 to get free access. Existing users should log into their control panel.
Please note that when you click on the links above you will be taken to a purchase page. The products will be listed with their normal price and you should press the button for credit card payment. However, if you enter the coupon code in the final box on the page, along with your contact details in order to become a member within our system, you will skip the payment page and get immediate access to the product.
This offer ends at 23:59 GMT on Friday 18th March 2011. The coupon coded can only be applied to the One Minute Italian and One Minute Irish courses.
We’re delighted to announce that the first part of Coffee Break French Season 3 (episodes 1-5) is now available in the iBookstore as an enhanced ebook featuring audio clips and the full recordings of the exclusive extended version of each lesson. Getting the formatting for the iBookstore exactly right has taken a bit of time, but we’re delighted that we’ve finalised this first part of CBF Season 3. We’ll soon have lessons 6-10 available, and in the next couple of weeks we’ll add 11-15.
This is an alternative way to access our learning materials: if you’re already a member of Coffee Break French Season 3 then you will already have access to ePub versions through our members’ system. We’ve created this iBook version of the course as an alternative route for iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad owners who would like to access our content in a very handy way and purchase the title through the iBookstore using their iTunes account. Please note that due to licensing restrictions we cannot offer our existing members a crossgrade to this product in the iBookstore.
We’re really excited about our first Coffee Break French title in the iBookstore – and there’s lots more to come! If you’d like to find out more about this title, click on the appropriate link below for your region. You can download a free sample through iBooks. If you don’t already have iBooks, click here.
Purchase Coffee Break French Season 3: lessons 1-5 in the iBookstore:
We know that many of you are looking forward to accessing our content on your Kindle. At the moment the multimedia options for the Kindle are fairly limited in comparison with iOS and since much of our content depends on that multimedia content we’ve not yet released Kindle versions of our courses. We are, however, working on this and hope to have at least text versions of some of our courses available for Kindle in the near future.
I wouldn’t normally do this on the Radio Lingua site, but this morning students from the University of Glasgow will take part in a demonstration aimed at saving Modern Languages at the university. Funding cuts are threatening the languages departments of the university, and the Univeristy Court meets later today.
I studied French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese in the university from 1989-1995 and hugely value the teaching I received there. Since then I’ve had the honour of working with hundreds of students in Scottish secondary schools who have gone on to study languages at Glasgow University.
I firmly believe that a greater understanding of other languages and cultures is a key to a peaceful and prosperous world and the opportunities for the study of languages in the west of Scotland are diminishing following changes at the university of Strathclyde.
I would ask that anyone who has benefitted from our Radio Lingua language courses considers signing the official petition to help save the languages departments at Glasgow University.
Thank you to all our listeners for considering this.
We’re pleased to announce that our course in German idioms aimed at intermediate learners of German has been updated and is now available in our store. The course features ten lessons and is introduced by teacher and native speaker Julia. Julia is joined by Radio Lingua director Mark, who in A Flavour of German takes on the role of the learner in an attempt to improve his own German. Topics covered include idioms for talking about the weather, eg. es regnet in Strömen (equivalent of “it’s raining cats and dogs”); idioms for talking about being angry, eg. die Wände hochgehen (equivalent of “to climb the walls” or “to be driven up the wall”); and on this romantic St Valentine’s day, idioms about love including bis über beide Ohren verliebt sein, literally meaning “to be in love to above both ears”!
The premium version of A Flavour of German features all ten enhanced audio lessons reworked into videos which can be played on all iOS devices (iPod, iPhone, iPad) and on iTunes or QuickTime. The lesson guide is available in pdf format and lists all phrases contained in the lessons as well as further examples of the phrases in context. In addition, the iBook version of the course has been submitted to the iBookstore and will be available soon.
You may be interested to know that we have pages for both Coffee Break French and Coffee Break Spanish where you can interact with other fans from around the world. We try to answer any questions posted on the Facebook pages, offer conversation topics to help you practise your language skills, and even offer exclusive discounts from time to time. If you’re already on Facebook, make sure you “like” Coffee Break French and/or Coffee Break Spanish today!
This New Year, why not make learning a language one of your New Year’s Resolutions? Being able to speak another language can make travel more interesting, allowing you to make more friends and get more out of your visit. Language skills can increase business opportunities and make that good impression when you need to most. It is also well-known that learning a language can help to keep your mind active and it has even been proven that speaking two languages helps to delay the onset of dementia.
Here at Radio Lingua we provide language learning materials which allow you to learn a language in your own time, at your own pace, in a way which best suits your lifestyle. Perhaps you’re a busy professional with very little free time on your hands. Our courses are mostly audio-based, so you can download our lessons and listen on your iPod while you commute, or catch up on your language-learning during your coffee break. If you have more time on your hands, then you can download our lessons and listen as you walk the dog, or when you’re at the gym. Then when you get home you can spend some time working through our lesson notes. Or, perhaps you’re like many of our listeners: students who would like to build on what they’re learning in class, or simply pick up a new skill to make them more interesting to prospective employers. Our lessons are built around a mobile lifestyle so you can take your Spanish classes while you’re on the train, or you can even pick up some Chinese while you’re getting ready for a night out!
Many of our courses include free audio lessons which are available in mp3 format. All these courses are available through iTunes as podcasts so you can download them straight to your iPod, iPhone or iPad and use them on the go. The lessons can also be downloaded straight from our site and can be played on any mp3 player or computer and even burned to CD.
Choose your language
We now offer a range of 24 different languages, from Catalan to Zulu and Polish to Portuguese. We’re adding languages to our range all the time. In some languages we have a variety of levels and types of course. In other languages we have our basic One Minute Languages course which introduces the absolute basics of the language. Choose your language from the information below.
Spanish
If you’re interested in Spanish then we have a huge range of content available for you at a variety of levels. Our flagship course is Coffee Break Spanish (website | iTunes link) which offers 80 lessons beginning at the absolute basics of the language, and increasing to an intermediate level. By following the full Coffee Break Spanish course you will develop a thorough understanding of the Spanish language and be able to cope in a variety of situations.
If you already have some experience of Spanish then our Show Time Spanish (website | iTunes link) course provides a structured course in which you can build your knowledge of the Spanish language and develop confidence in a range of expressions and grammatical constructions. For further practice of your listening skills within the context of current affairs, try our News Time Spanish (website | iTunes link) series which features weekly episodes of news from around the world aimed at Spanish learners. News Time Spanish is published in seasons of 10 lessons. Our most recent season ended at the end of December, but full archive is still available.
For learners who would like to pick up the absolute basics of Spanish just to get by in a travel or business situation we offer One Minute Spanish (website | iTunes link) and One Minute Spanish for Latin America (website | iTunes link). For more information about our One Minute Languages courses, see below. Finally, we offer TwitterLearn Spanish (website) which provides forty micro language lessons covering the basics of the language in an innovative format based on the Twitter social networking platform.
French
For learners who are interested in French we offer a range of series. Like Coffee Break Spanish, Coffee Break French (website | iTunes link) introduces the basics of French in 15-20 minute lessons. Over seasons 1 and 2 there are 80 lessons of Coffee Break French, providing a very thorough grounding in French for beginners to intermediate learners. We have recently introduced a third season of Coffee Break French aimed at intermediate to advanced learners which introduces more complex grammatical concepts and will help you increase your range of expression.
Walk, Talk and Learn French (website | iTunes link) is a ground-breaking video series which introduces French grammar concepts in an exciting way with teacher Pierre-Benoît, live in the streets of Paris. Walk, Talk and Learn French covers a variety of grammar points in an interesting way and currently is available in one season. We’ll soon have a second season released.
For beginners in French who want to pick up the absolute basics of the language we offer both One Minute French and Twitter Learn French. One Minute French (website | iTunes link) provides ten lessons which cover the basics of communication in French. TwitterLearn French (website) offers micro language lessons based on the social network platform Twitter: in 40 episodes of just 1 minute 40 seconds you’ll pick up enough French to get by on a trip to a French-speaking location.
Finally, for younger learners we have School Run French (website | iTunes link) which offers basic French lessons aimed at 6-11 year-old learners. We currently have two packs available for School Run French: purchase here.
Italian
We have three courses aimed at beginners in Italian: My Daily Phrase Italian (website | iTunes link) offers one hundred 4-minute lessons introducing the language in daily episodes. One Minute Italian (website | iTunes link) provides ten lessons of the absolute basics of the language. TwitterLearn Italian (website) offers forty lessons of just 1 minute 40 seconds, allowing the learner to pick up a range of phrases which will help you cope with most situations encountered while travelling in an Italian-speaking area.
German
At the moment we have two courses available in German: One Minute German (website | iTunes link), which like our other One Minute Languages courses provides ten lessons of basic German, just enough to get by in a variety of situations. For more experienced learners of German we offer A Flavour of German (website | iTunes link) which helps you to increase your range of expression by providing ten lessons of idiomatic German expressions.
English
At the moment we offer one series aimed at learners of English: Write Back Soon (website | iTunes link) focuses on one particular aspect of the English language which learners find particularly difficult. Through eight lessons, learners follow a “love story” between Duncan and Lisa who are carrying on a long-distance relationship while Lisa studies in Canada and Duncan is back home in Scotland. It just so happens that both Duncan and Lisa use lots of phrasal verbs in their texts, so learners can practise their phrasal verbs through these episodes.
Other languages
In addition to Spanish, French, Italian and German, our One Minute Languages courses are available in sixteen other languages. Each course is made up of ten lessons, introducing the absolute basics of the language. Topics covered include greetings, introductions, dealing with language difficulties, numbers, asking people how they are and responding, and other useful phrases eg. “Happy birthday”, “Happy Christmas” and “I love you”.
Most of our audio courses are free, so you can try them out and find out if you enjoy our style of teaching and if it fits your lifestyle. However, we offer a range of additional materials in the form of premium memberships to each of our courses. All memberships involve one-off payments, providing access to the additional materials for a specific group of lessons, eg. Coffee Break French Level 1 Platinum provides access to all the bonus materials for lessons 1-40 for £57.00 GBP (+VAT for EU customers), and One Minute Japanese provides access to enhanced audio and lesson notes for the ten-lesson series for £10.00 GBP (+VAT for EU customers).
Don’t just take our word for it!
Our podcasts have consistently been in the top 10 educational podcasts in iTunes UK and US and as we enter 2011, we have the #1 or #2 educational podcast in iTunes UK, US, Australia, Canada, Egypt, Finland, Jamaica, Lithuania, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa and Sweden! Coffee Break Spanish won the European Award for Languages in 2008 and was voted the European Professional Podcast of the year in 2009. Coffee Break Spanish, Coffee Break French and Show Time Spanish were in the top 5 professional podcasts in the UK in 2010.
What do our listeners think of our courses? The reviews below are taken from Podcast Alley and iTunes UK and US:
Thanks so much! Coffee Break Spanish is a wonderful resource! It really has helped to enhance my travel experiences in Mexico… now I am brushing up for Spain! – iteamarmstrong (Podcast Alley)
Better than a winning lottery ticket! Seriously – a winning lottery ticket may never be able to help me learn Spanish as much as Mark and Kara are. Their enthusiasm has been invigorating and rewarding. I’m loving learning Spanish with them and feel that in my own right I have indeed won the lottery! – “m” (Podcast Alley)
I’ve learned more Spanish in the last two days with Coffee Break Spanish than in hours with the Rosetta Stone. – sgs0226 (Podcast Alley)
I am loving Coffee Break French. I’m re-learning so much that I already knew but had forgotten and it’s also teaching me lots of new words in a way that makes it all so easy to understand and absorb. I play the podcasts whenever and wherever I can. J’aime CB French! – sue.jenks1 (Podcast Alley)
This is by far the best podcast that I’ve ever found! I had learned some French in High School, and a bit in College, and this has been an excellent way to brush up on what I once knew. This is great for both beginners, and those looking to refresh some rusty French as well. – Kremkema (Podcast Alley)
Many thanks Mark and Kara, a brilliant way for us as a family to sit down and learn together. Our 9 and 12 year old really enjoy the songs. We are currently working through the podcasts and urge anyone to give it a go, it really is suitable for all and runs at a sensible pace. As a family from ages 9 to 41 we are having great fun learning Spanish. ¡Gracias! – balearicblues (iTunes UK)
Top class podcast – ¡magnífico! This is a superb series. I have loved every minute of it and I have now become a premium member so I can get all the bonus material. Have been using the series in the car to work so I can get through 2-3 episodes on the way in and then I listen again on the way home to see how much I have retained. The slow pace is helpful, one of the best free podcasts around, but definitely worth spending the money to get all the additional podcasts and written material. Muchas gracias. – Garry Hoare (iTunes UK)
Great podcast!!!!! Like its sister Coffee Break Spanish, this French version proves to be another hit for Radio Lingua and rightfully so!! The enhanced podcast are really helpful and all the extra bonus materials: bonus audio lessons, video podcast, the pdf guides really reinforce and enhance the learning experience. Mark paces his lessons well; audio quality of the podcast is excellent: he keeps things clear and simply and his voice is lovely and quite soothing, which always helps and I find myself enjoying and learning from the lessons and looking forward to the next podcast. All in all a very well rounded podcast. I get to learn French in the comfort of my own home at my own pace and gain some confidence before attending courses or on holiday in a French-speaking country. – deaddisco (iTunes UK)
As I wanted to re-pick up my high school French, I went looking for a French podcast when I bought my new iPhone. I came across Coffee Break French after trying a few others and cannot put it down! Mark and Anna are fabulous and they make learning French very, very easy. Since I had been listening to multiple lessons a day, I went through the archive pretty quickly and decided that I would try and supplement with another podcast as well to learn more than I was learning. Big mistake! After trying once again to go through the multiple podcasts to find another French lesson to learn with, I found myself extremely and quickly confused and having a difficult time learning from them. Or, I just couldn’t relate to the teacher. I will never stray from the Coffee Break or Radio Lingua podcasts again and truly enjoy my language learning with this great group of folks! – S M (iTunes US)
I have paid the big $$ for different Italian language materials and My Daily Phrase Italian has done a better job in 2 weeks of day-by-day, phrase-by-phrase work than all of those combined. I actually find myself thinking the Italian answers in my head during daily conversation. You can’t beat the price (free). The premium subscription is also well worth the $$. I’m going to Italy on my honeymoon next year, and I have finally found the tools to help me get by confidently while I’m there. – Stephen Gillian (iTunes US)
RT @wispywinds: @emmamwoolley I like the podcast coffee break french. You can listen to it over time and individual episodes aren't supe ... 2012/04/04
For Spanish learners there's a new Q&A Spanish out now. http://t.co/3VpOS6G4 Subjunctive and llevar + time phrases :) 2012/04/03
@harlemlibrarian Hadn't realised that this was a problem. The feeds are now on http://t.co/NKhTnGQB instead - use http://t.co/Z6XXIJhv 2012/04/03
To coincide with our launch of Coffee Break Spanish on the Kindle, we’re giving away a Kindle to one of our Facebook friends. If you’re not already a fan of Coffee Break Spanish on the Kindle, make sure you head over to our 
We’re delighted to announce that our One Minute French course is now available on the iBookstore. iBooks can be viewed on all iOS devices including iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. You need to have the 
We’re delighted to announce that our One Minute Turkish course is now available on the iBookstore. iBooks can be viewed on all iOS devices including iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. You need to have the 
We’re delighted to announce that our One Minute Swedish course is now available on the iBookstore. iBooks can be viewed on all iOS devices including iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. You need to have the 
We’re delighted to announce that the first part of Coffee Break French Season 3 (episodes 1-5) is now available in the iBookstore as an enhanced ebook featuring audio clips and the full recordings of the exclusive extended version of each lesson. Getting the formatting for the iBookstore exactly right has taken a bit of time, but we’re delighted that we’ve finalised this first part of CBF Season 3. We’ll soon have lessons 6-10 available, and in the next couple of weeks we’ll add 11-15.
We’re pleased to announce that our course in German idioms aimed at intermediate learners of German has been updated and is now available in our store. The course features ten lessons and is introduced by teacher and native speaker Julia. Julia is joined by Radio Lingua director Mark, who in A Flavour of German takes on the role of the learner in an attempt to improve his own German. Topics covered include idioms for talking about the weather, eg. es regnet in Strömen (equivalent of “it’s raining cats and dogs”); idioms for talking about being angry, eg. die Wände hochgehen (equivalent of “to climb the walls” or “to be driven up the wall”); and on this romantic St Valentine’s day, idioms about love including bis über beide Ohren verliebt sein, literally meaning “to be in love to above both ears”!
