In this special episode, Mark provides an update on all things Coffee Break French including the return of the Coffee Break French Magazine in late April 2022; the launch of the Coffee Break books, available from June in your local bookshop and from online retailers; and the Coffee Break French Club, where you can get your daily dose of French activities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every 30th September, the podcasting world comes together to celebrate podcasting on International Podcast Day. We're celebrating today by saying thank you to the Coffee Break community in this special podcast episode. International Podcast Day aims to raise awareness about podcasts and gives podcast creators and listeners a chance to celebrate the medium and the podcast industry.But podcasting has been around for a lot longer than that! Back in 2004, broadcaster Adam Curry asked developer Dave Winer to develop an audioblogging system and without going into the technical side of things, or indeed who specifically “invented” podcasting, it was Curry and Winer who got the ball rolling. The word “podcast” however, was first mentioned in a newspaper article in the Guardian by technology reporter Ben Hammersley. It was declared Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary in 2005. Of course, at this stage Coffee Break hadn't yet launched, but Coffee Break host Mark did start podcasting for an education project he was running at the time called Partners in Excellence or “PiE”, and The PiEcast was used to bring a community of learners together and help them develop their language skills. Mark quickly realised that podcasting was the perfect medium for publishing language lessons, and for sharing his passion for languages with a wider audience. Coffee Break Spanish was launched in October 2006. As the very first Spanish podcast for beginners on iTunes, it quickly gathered an audience and learners around the world started learning with us. Since then we’ve gone on to produce Coffee Break French, German, Italian, Chinese, Swedish and English and we have plans to develop more Coffee Break languages in the future. We’ve also created shorter podcast series called One Minute Languages covering over 30 languages from Arabic to Zulu. We’ve published well over 1,000 episodes across the different languages and our podcasts have been downloaded over 290 million times, and we currently deliver over 2 million free language lessons every month to a community of Coffee Break learners. So that’s why today, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you, our podcast listeners, our Coffee Break community. Without you there wouldn’t be any Coffee Break! Thank you for choosing to listen to our shows, to learn with us and to share your 15 or 20 minute coffee break with me and my cohosts on each episode of the show.Now just before we finish, a couple of important points: if you’d like to hear about the latest episodes and series from Coffee Break, make sure you join Mark on Sunday 4th October at 4pm UK time / 11am Eastern / 8am Pacific for a live broadcast on YouTube and our Facebook pages. You can go straight to our YT channel - Coffee Break Languages - and click the “Set Reminder” button.And, if you’d like to help us celebrate International Podcast Day, why not simply tell a language-loving friend about what you’ve learned with our podcasts and help us grow the Coffee Break community even further?Merci beaucoup - vielen, vielen Dank, muchísimas gracias, grazie molte, xiè xie nimen, tack så jättemycket and thank you! There’s lots more coming from Coffee Break and we hope you continue to enjoy learning with us. Happy International Podcast Day! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nine years ago today we published the first episode of Coffee Break Spanish. Since then we’ve gone on to publish courses in 27 languages, and we’ve delivered over 160 million language lessons to learners around the world.Some of the team have spent this weekend in London at the Language Show where we’ve been meeting thousands of language lovers, among them many members of the Coffee Break learning community. To celebrate our 9th birthday we’ve put together a special show featuring interviews with some of our listeners which we’ve recorded here at the Language Show.Listen to the episode If you’d like to tell us your story and potentially be featured in a future episode of one of our courses, click here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s five years since we launched the first lesson of Coffee Break Spanish, and since then we’ve served up millions of language lessons to learners around the world through our podcasts, our enhanced lessons and our ebooks. We’re delighted today to announce five new courses, and we’ll also be letting you know about a few exciting projects which are due to be launched early in 2012.Spanish¡Empecemos con el español! On the 18th October 2006 we began with Spanish, and we’re doing the same today. Today we’re delighted to launch a brand new Spanish show. When you’re learning a language on your own, or if you don’t have access to a teacher or a native speaker, it’s difficult to get the answers you need to help you make progress. We receive questions almost every day from learners through posts on the website, emails, voicemails, tweets and Facebook, and we decided that the best way to deal with all of these questions would be to launch Q&A Spanish: you ask the questions and we provide the answers. Q&A Spanish will be hosted by teacher and languages expert JP Villanueva and native Spanish speaker Nahyeli Mendivil, so you have the best of both worlds! Each week they’ll help you develop your confidence in Spanish further by providing tips and examples of Spanish vocabulary, usage and grammar. Q&A Spanish starts today, so you can already subscribe to the podcast. Click here to find out more about how you can take part in the show.FrenchWe’re also delighted to be announcing a brand new French video show. In On Location French you can join Sophie who is a UK student currently studying in Paris. She’s there for a year and she’s agreed to be our “correspondent”, bringing us weekly reports on interesting expressions she learns as she interacts with native speakers every day. Sophie will also be providing some cultural input as she gets to know the city, and we’re really looking forward to finding out more about her experiences in Paris in her weekly videoblog. Find out more and watch the episodes at the On Location French page.Dutch, Flemish and ArabicWe’re delighted to be launching three new courses in our ever-popular One Minute Languages series. One of the most requested languages over the past few years has been Dutch, and we’ve decided to produce a Dutch and Flemish version of the course. Both languages are very similar – Flemish is the variety of Dutch spoken in Belgium, and of course Dutch is spoken in the Netherlands and in other countries around the world such as Suriname and Aruba. One Minute Dutch launches on Thursday 20th October and One Minute Flemish will be published on Fridays from 21st October. We’ve also been asked many times to produce an Arabic version of our One Minute Languages course. One Minute Arabic will run for ten weeks from tomorrow, Wednesday 19th October. We’re concentrating on Modern Standard Arabic which will ensure that as a learner you’ll be understood across the Arab world, from Casablanca to Kuwait. With these latest additions to the One Minute Languages series, we now cover 26 languages, from Arabic to Zulu making Radio Lingua your first stop for language-learning on the go, literally from A to Z!What’s coming down the line?There may be some of you who are looking forward to a third season of Coffee Break Spanish. We’re working on this at the moment and by the time the reruns of Show Time Spanish end in January we should be ready to go with Coffee Break Spanish Season 3. French learners will be very pleased to know that Pierre-Benoît has been wandering about in the... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s time for another lesson of Coffee Break French and this week we join Alf in his final text. He has been writing a diary over eight weeks while he has been renovating his new house in the south of France and attending daily French lessons with Veronica and Katie, the two other protagonists of our series. In this week’s text he tells us about the party he organised for his classmates. Please note that lesson 30 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 330 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners.This season of Coffee Break French features a total of 40 lessons, all of which will be included in the podcast feed. Just stay subscribed to the podcast to enjoy each episode. If you’d like to benefit from video versions, lesson notes and bonus audio materials, you can access the premium version of Coffee Break French in the Coffee Break Academy.Don’t forget to follow Coffee Break French on Facebook where we post language activities, cultural points and review materials to help you practise your French. Remember - a few minutes a day can help you build your confidence in the language. Access the Coffee Break French Facebook page here.If you’d like to find out what goes on behind the scenes here at Coffee Break Languages, follow @coffeebreaklanguages on Instagram.You can also check out our Coffee Break French Twitter page and the Coffee Break Languages YouTube channel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this latest lesson of Coffee Break French we’ll be joining Veronica and listening to her final text. She has been learning French in Nice along with Katie and Alf and in this final text she updates us on what she has been doing and tells us of some important decisions she has taken. Please note that lesson 29 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 329 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners.This season of Coffee Break French features a total of 40 lessons, all of which will be included in the podcast feed. Just stay subscribed to the podcast to enjoy each episode. If you’d like to benefit from video versions, lesson notes and bonus audio materials, you can access the premium version of Coffee Break French in the Coffee Break Academy.Don’t forget to follow Coffee Break French on Facebook where we post language activities, cultural points and review materials to help you practise your French. Remember - a few minutes a day can help you build your confidence in the language. Access the Coffee Break French Facebook page here.If you’d like to find out what goes on behind the scenes here at Coffee Break Languages, follow @coffeebreaklanguages on Instagram.You can also check out our Coffee Break French Twitter page and the Coffee Break Languages YouTube channel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coming up in this lesson:In this week’s show, we are continuing our series of dialogues recorded in Pornic and Sainte-Marie. We have 2 conversations recorded on shopping trips in France – one with Mark and one with Anna and her friend.Accessing the Premium Version The premium version of Coffee Break French Season 1 provides additional materials which will help you move forward more effectively with your French studies. The premium version includes the following elements:Synchronised flashcards: the audio episode with synchronised flashcards – works in most Podcast applications, on iTunes and in QuickTime Player;Lesson notes: detailed explanations of the vocabulary and any grammar points covered in each lesson;Bonus audio lesson: providing further practice of the language covered in a variety of waysThe members’ version can be accessed through our membership system. You can purchase the course using the links below.Season 1 Complete: Lessons 101-140£89.00 GBP inc VAT / approx £109 USD ex VAT for non-EU customers)Season 1A: Lessons 101-120£57.00 GBP inc VAT / approx $67 USD ex VAT for non-EU customers)Season 1B: Lessons 121-140£57.00 GBP inc VAT / approx $67 USD ex VAT for non-EU customers) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.