It’s no secret that here at Coffee Break Languages we’re all ABBA fans, so when we were planning our special event which included the announcement of Coffee Break Swedish, we felt it was only appropriate to include a few references to ABBA. Some of these were fairly obvious, taken from the most popular ABBA songs, but there were a few
Listening to songs in the language you’re learning is an effective and enjoyable way to practise your language skills. It can help improve your listening comprehension and your pronunciation and, on top of this, music is catchy! This means that the new words, phrases and structures that you hear within a song may be easier to remember and reuse in
Every year, France plays host to the largest annual sporting event in the world: Le Tour de France. For 23 days, competitors cycle 2000 miles through 21 different stages, covering mountain ranges and coastal villages. With all of its twists, turns, rapid sprints and gruelling ascents, we couldn’t help but compare the event to the process of learning a language.
Tell us who you are, where you live, your nationality and how long you’ve been learning a language with us. I am Liz from Taiwan and live in Germany. I have been learning Spanish with Coffee Break Spanish for 3 months. What experience have you had speaking and learning other languages? I was born in Taiwan and my native languages
Tell us who you are, where you live, your nationality and how long you’ve been learning a language with us. My name is Freya, I am British and I live in the East of England. I have been learning with Coffee Break for two months. Which language or languages are you learning with Coffee Break? German What experience have you
You’ll be familiar with Coffee Break French, Coffee Break Spanish and indeed our other Coffee Break German, Italian and Chinese editions, but what about Coffee Break Emoji? With millions of “fluent” users around the world, Emoji is here to stay, and what better day to write about this interesting language of pictures than on 17th July, World Emoji Day? Before
Tell us who you are, where you live, your nationality and how long you’ve been learning a language with us. I am Gail, originally from Glasgow in Scotland but living in Switzerland for the last 7 years. I have been learning with CB courses for about 6 years. Which language or languages are you learning with Coffee Break? French and
Every July in the province of Quebec, Canada, the largest international comedy festival in the world, ‘Juste Pour Rire’, fills the vibrant city of Montreal with laughter. Juste Pour Rire, or ‘Just for laughs’, began as a two-day French-speaking comedy event in 1983 and is now a huge platform for both francophone and other comedians from all over the world.
Tell us who you are, where you live, your nationality and how long you’ve been learning a language with us. I’m Liane from Australia . I’ve been following Coffee Break Spanish for about 3 years. Which language or languages are you learning with Coffee Break? Spanish What experience have you had speaking and learning other languages? At the moment I
Do you enjoy listening to music? It’s something you can do which doesn’t have to take any time out of your day – you can listen while you’re walking to work or washing the dishes. Wouldn’t it be great, then, if you could use your enjoyment of listening to music to help you with your language skills? If you’ve already
The tennis season is well underway with the French Open – les Championnats Internationaux de France de Tennis – currently taking place at the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris. Since this is the only one of the four most prestigious tournaments in tennis which is held in a country where English is not the official language, we thought we’d take a
Canada has one province whose sole official language is French: Quebec. Although many Quebecers, or Québécois, are bilingual in English and French (or speak another language as their mother tongue), about 85% still speak French as their first language. While Quebec City (la Ville de Québec) is the province’s capital, Montreal (Montréal) is its largest city. Behind Paris, Kinshasa (Republic
Each year, the 17th May marks a very important date in the Norwegian calendar. With marvellous parades and celebrations, Norwegian Constitution Day, known as Nasjonaldagen (National Day), Grunnlovsdagen (Constitution Day) or simply Syttende Mai (17th May), is celebrated in good spirit, and in style. So, here at Coffee Break Languages we thought that there was no better time than today
Tell us who you are, where you live, your nationality and how long you’ve been learning a language with us. Hello I’m Yvonne, an American living in the beautiful state of Vermont. I started using Coffee Break Italian at the end of January 2018, prompted by an upcoming trip to Italy in May. I travelled to a small town where
We all know the feeling… Just when you think you’re starting to get the hang of Spanish, you discover that there are lots of different varieties spoken all around the world. Cue a brief sense of despair at the thought of having to learn every different form of Spanish, followed by the relief when you realise that this only makes
It has been said that to be fluent in a second language, one should start learning by the age of 10. What do you think? To us here at Coffee Break Languages this presents 2 questions: How do you define “fluent”? And, is all learning started after this age pointless? Clearly, the answer to the 2nd question is no. And
If you’ve done as the title says and got your ducks in a row, then you will be more than prepared for the rest of this article! The English language is filled with innumerable intriguing idioms. Sometimes the only way to properly describe the weather is to say that it’s raining cats and dogs, and sometimes the only way to punish
Working for a multinational software company in Colombia, Daniel is required to speak a number of languages on a regular basis. His language learning journey started at a young age: “When I was younger I went to a bilingual school here in Colombia and afterwards my father moved to Brazil so then I learned Portuguese over there, then I noticed that
Tell us who you are, where you live, your nationality and how long you’ve been learning a language with us. I’m a Medical Historian, I’m British and I live in Dorset, and I’ve been learning Spanish with Coffee Break for a year. I back up my Coffee Break lessons with a weekly Spanish class in Bournemouth. Which language or languages
Originally from Australia, Amanda now lives in New York where she moved to work as a lawyer. However, she is now focusing on pursuing a career as a writer. Having Lebanese parents, Amanda can speak Arabic and has also studied Japanese. Amanda started learning Italian for a partner. However, even after the end of that relationship, she continued studying, having fallen
