This is a short message from Radio Lingua to update you on developments and to send all of our listeners our warmest wishes for the festive season.

First of all, we’ve been extremely busy assembling the various parts of the Coffee Break German course. Coffee Break German will be aimed at complete beginners in the language and, following the well-loved relaxed but structured Coffee Break style, we’ll be teaching German in weekly episodes, starting on 23rd January 2013. The whole Coffee Break German team are very excited about the launch and Mark is looking forward to picking up German along with the listeners!

We’re coming to the end of the first season of the Coffee Break Spanish Magazine. The Magazine features interviews with native speakers, tips on idiomatic Spanish and a question and answer section and it has gone down extremely well with our listeners. In particular the video interviews have received great reviews and we’ll be planning to add more video content to our language courses in the future. We’re working hard on more Magazine content – not just for Spanish – and we’ll announce more news about this in the new year.

If you’re interested in the premium version of the Magazine which gives you access to these videos – or indeed the premium version of any of our language courses, then you may be interested to know that we’re currently in the middle of our Winter Sale. It ends at one minute to midnight UK time on the 31st December – or Hogmanay as we call it in Scotland – so don’t miss out on getting a head start on your language learning in 2013. There’s more information about the sale at http://radiolingua.com/sale including the coupon code that you need to use to get your discount.

Finally, if you’re still trying to think up a last-minute gift for you friends or family members, you may be interested in our new gift memberships: you can buy a friend a membership to many of our courses. It’s really straightforward – simply purchase a gift membership and we’ll send you a printable gift certificate which contains all the details to allow your language-loving friend to have free access to the course materials. Find out more at http://radiolingua.com/gift/.

The audio version of this news broadcast is provided below along with download links. In addition to the information, Mark has also included a special rendition of one of his favourite pieces of festive music. He’s performed this himself on the piano, so we hope you enjoy it!

Radio Lingua Founder and CEO introduces the Coffee Break Spanish Magazine, Coffee Break French and Spanish iBooks, our new On Location Languages blog series, changes and improvements to the website and a new Coffee Break language in this special launch video.

Welcome to this festive edition of Radio Lingua News. In this update we’ll be telling you about the fantastic milestone we reached this week, and explaining how you can save 25% on our premium memberships until the end of the year.

100 million downloads

Early on Friday morning we clocked up our 100 millionth download. Over the past five years learners from around the world have downloaded our free language lessons and we’re delighted to have reached this amazing milestone. We’d like to thank all our listeners for continuing to enjoy our language lessons, and a special thank you to all our members who help to support all of our developments.

Winter sale now on

To celebrate this milestone we’ve launched our winter sale, so you can now get 25% off our memberships and premium versions of the courses. In most cases these premium versions include lesson guides in pdf or ebook format and extra audio or video content. All the courses available on our website can be purchased at this special reduced rate by using the coupon code winter2011 at checkout. The sale will continue until midnight on New Year’s Eve – or Hogmanay as we say in Scotland, so you still have almost two weeks to take advantage of these special prices, and get a head start on your language learning for 2012.

Update on current shows

The reaction to our new show for Spanish learners, Q&A Spanish, has been fantastic. We’re delighted that lots of you are now emailing us with your questions, or leaving voicemails so that we can include your questions in the show. JP and Nahyeli are enjoying answering your questions – even the difficult ones! If you’re learning Spanish and you’ve not yet listened to Q&A Spanish, you can find out more about the show, download the episodes, and find out how to contact us to ask your question at qandaspanish.com. We’re also really pleased with On Location French, our new video blog produced by Sophie in Paris. Sophie records her regular videos with a small camera and microphone all on her own in Paris and although we had some teething problems with sound, things are settling down now. She’s been including some really interesting phrases – and this week’s expression is a fantastic construction to add to your vocabulary! You can access On Location French on iTunes, Blip.TV or of course at onlocationfrench.com. Turning to our other courses, although we’ve had a delay with our new One Minute Languages series, we’re getting back on track and there will be new episodes out this week of our Dutch, Flemish and Arabic courses. As far as Coffee Break French is concerned, we’re now into the final eight lessons of Season 3 and in these episodes we’ll be going back through the texts used in this season and picking out some of the most important grammar points, then helping learners practise these constructions with a series of translation and dictation exercises. There will be lots of extra members-only content, so with our winter sale currently on, perhaps now is the time to take advantage of our special pricing.

Happy holidays!

Finally, we’d like to wish you all a very happy holiday season and hope that you get the chance to relax, spend time with your friends and family, enjoying everything that the festive season brings, and get the chance to work on your language – or put it into practice if you happen to be travelling! Don’t forget that you can join us in our Festive Phrases video series each day of December until the 25th to learn a festive greeting in a different language. Use the link on the home page of the Radio Lingua site to open each day of our linguistic Advent Calendar. Until the next time, happy holidays from everyone here at Radio Lingua!

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.

French

We’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 Arabic

We’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 streets of Paris again and a second series of Walk, Talk and Learn French is in production. We’re also very excited about the January launch of our new children’s French video course, High Five French. We’ll be releasing more information about all of these projects over the next few months, so stay tuned!

And finally…

Finally, a personal note. Five years ago today, as I uploaded the first lesson of Coffee Break Spanish to the internet I had no idea how things would develop. At the time it was really just a personal project – something to keep me involved in Spanish as my “day job” had changed and I was no longer as closely involved in languages. Since then we’ve seen Radio Lingua grow into a successful company, delivering language lessons to millions of learners from all corners of the globe. I’d like to say a personal thank you to all of the brilliant people involved in the production of our courses, and to everyone involved in the day-to-day running of Radio Lingua. Most of all, I’d like to thank you, the listeners, who find our lessons on iTunes, or who come across our videos on YouTube, or who download our ebooks on your iPhones or iPads. Thank you for continuing to use our lessons, and a special thank you to all of our loyal members. Please continue to enjoy our lessons, and we hope you’re as excited as we are about the new shows we’re launching today.

We love doing what we’re doing and we look forward to the next five years, and hopefully many more!

Mark Pentleton
Director, Radio Lingua Ltd

It’s been a busy term for Radio Lingua: in the past three months we’ve published over 90 language lessons, we’ve introduced ebook versions of our courses in our premium memberships and on the iBookstore and we’ve had three of our podcasts listed in the iTunes Rewind best of 2010. We thought we’d take this opportunity to update you on a few important news items.

Festive greetings

Firstly, we’d like to take this opportunity to wish all our listeners a very happy festive season. We have listeners all around the world and wherever you are, whatever celebrations you’re having as we head towards 2011, we hope that you have a peaceful, restful and happy holiday. All through December we’ve been running our Festive Phrases podcast which has featured daily festive phrases from around the world with the hosts of our various shows. This series has been particularly aimed at schools and we’ve been delighted that so many young language learners around the world have used our daily podcasts to learn some festive greetings in 24 languages. Each day we’ve added the number of speakers of the language featured to a map and by the end of the series listeners were able to send festive greetings to over 2.6 billion people around the world. If you’re a teacher and you’ve been using Festive Phrases with your classes, please send us your feedback.

Coffee Break French Season 3 news

We introduced season 3 of Coffee Break French in October and this week we’ll release episode 10. Since we began season 3 we’ve offered a special introductory price for the premium version of the course which provided 3A (lessons 301-320) and 3B (lessons 321-340) together for a one-off payment of £47 GBP. As of 10th January 2011, season 3A and 3B will cost £37 each, or the complete season 3 will cost £64. This is therefore your last chance to purchase season 3 at the introductory price. Please note that all existing customers who have bought season 3 complete will receive the premium materials for the full season.

UK VAT charges

On 4th January 2011, the UK VAT rate increases from 17.5% to 20%. As a result our prices for EU customers will increase. For example, the current price of Coffee Break French Seasons 1 and 2 complete is £89 + VAT. This equates to £104.57. From 4th January 2011 the price will be £106.80 for EU customers. For Coffee Break Spanish Season 1 the current price is £47 + VAT. This equates to £55.23, but from 4th January the price will be £56.40 for EU customers. These changes do not affect the base prices of our products, so non-EU customers will not be affected. We’ve decided to extend our winter sale until 10th January to help make this transition. This means our sale will now end at midnight GMT on 10th January: continue to use coupon code WINTER2010 until 10th January.

Plans for 2011

We’re looking forward to a new year of language learning with Radio Lingua, and we hope you are too! We’ve been working on lots of new content and we’ll be adding to our range of materials in Spanish, French, German and Italian with new materials for learners. We’ll be extending our One Minute Languages series with Arabic, Dutch, Galician and Hungarian to name but a few, and we’ll be introducing more video content in the coming year. Make sure you visit our site regularly, that you’re a friend of Radio Lingua on Facebook, and that you follow us on Twitter to be the first to hear of all our new content. There’s some very exciting news coming in the next couple of months, so stay tuned!

Finally, we’d like to wish you once again a very happy holiday season, and best wishes for 2011.

So, you’ve been learning Spanish with Coffee Break Spanish, and perhaps you’ve been extending your knowledge with Show Time Spanish. Today we’re delighted to introduce a new show to help you build your vocabulary and develop your listening skills even further.

News Time Spanish is a new weekly show from the Radio Lingua Network aimed at intermediate to advanced learners of Spanish. Each week we’ll be bringing you stories from around the world in short reports, written especially for learners. We’ll be reporting on current affairs, sport, culture, technology and lots more, so News Time Spanish will be an excellent way to increase your Spanish vocabulary and build your range of expression.

The first season of News Time Spanish begins today, 17th May 2010 and you can listen to episode one on our site, or subscribe in iTunes, as usual. Each episode comes with a full transcript of the report, vocabulary and exercises, and there’s even a second version of the audio file which has been digitally slowed-down to help you understand the episode.

Find out more about News Time Spanish on the product page for the show.

The final episode in the series of Show Time Spanish includes episode eight of our soap Verano Español. Just what will Laura say to Ángel and Fiona after discovering them together? And will Ramón finally have the courage to tell Laura how he feels? Find out in the long-awaited final instalment of the telenovela.

Members | Purchase | RSS | iTunes link

2009 has been a fantastic year for Radio Lingua and we’d like to thank all our listeners for your support and enthusiasm over the past twelve months. To celebrate the end of 2009 and a new year of language-learning just around the corner, we’re delighted to announce our Holidays sale and give you some exciting advance notice of our plans for 2010. Read on!

No festive period is complete without a sale, and we’re offering you 25% off all our courses right through until 31 December, midnight GMT. If you’ve been thinking about taking your language-learning more seriously next year, perhaps now is the time to jump on board and purchase one of our Season Passes. We’re delighted to be able to offer free language-learning materials to hundreds of thousands of listeners around the world, but you can take your learning to a new level with our premium materials which include lesson guides, extra listening materials and exericses for each of our courses.

To receive your 25% discount, simply use the coupon code holidays09 (lower case) at checkout when you’re buying one of our courses. If you’ve not purchased an item from us before, you can view our full range of products here, or visit the appropriate store front for Coffee Break French, Coffee Break Spanish, Show Time Spanish, One Minute Languages, or School Run French. When you complete the form, make sure you enter holidays09 in the coupon code area at the bottom of the signup page.

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 then the 25% discount will be applied and then 17.5% VAT will be added to the total cost. It’s worth also pointing out that as of 1st January 2010, the VAT charges will have to increase to 17.5% in line with the Inland Revenue arrangements in the UK.

Please remember to use the coupon code as you’re purchasing: no refunds will be given on any materials purchased at full price if the coupon codes have not been used.

Would you like to purchase a gift membership? If so, please contact us at support@radiolingua.com and we’ll get things set up for you. Let us know what product you wish to buy and the email address of the recipient. We’ll process your payment and send the gift membership invitation in time for Christmas. Please note that the deadline for any Christmas gifts is 17 December.

New for 2010: the Radio Lingua Club. We’ve been listening to comments from our existing premium customers and one of the most common requests is for more help and advice for learning languages. We’ve decided therefore to create a ‘club’ around this. Membership to the club will last 12 months and during this time members will receive the following benefits:

1. Weekly podcasts in a brand new “how to learn a language” series featuring tips, tricks and advice on learning language. We’ll also be including interviews with language learners from all walks of life who will share their learning tips. The course will feature tips for beginners and for experienced learners and we’re sure that everyone will be able to benefit from this course, regardless of the language they are learning.
2. Reduced prices on all our content. Members will have access to a special discount rate for any purchases made within the membership period. At certain times we’ll also offer special discounts on certain products.
3. Refer-a-friend refunds. Members of the Radio Lingua club will be able to introduce a friend to Radio Lingua courses at a discounted rate, and receive an affiliate payment. So if you’re a Coffee Break Spanish Season Pass holder and you introduce your friend to the show and they purchase the show, you’ll receive a special payment from us to say thanks.

The Radio Lingua Club will involve a monthly payment of just £4.00 GBP. Alternatively you can purchase a twelve-month subscription for £36. The club will launch on January 1st 2010 with our first weekly language-learning tips podcast. We’re offering a special early-bird purchase offer where you can get 25% off the twelve-month subscription: for just £27 you will get access to a full year’s worth of podcasts, you’ll access the reduced prices throughout 2010, and you will be able to use the refer-a-friend refund too.

Please note that the Radio Lingua Club is no longer available, as of July 2011.

If 2009 has been a big year for Radio Lingua, we’re really excited about what’s coming in 2010! Our Coffee Break French listeners will be aware that we’re moving into lessons 71-80 of Coffee Break French, and we’re often asked about “what happens when Coffee Break French finishes?” Well, we’re busy planning new content for intermediate learners at the moment, and we’re sure that everyone will enjoy what will come after our existing course content.

This year we introduced our first experimental video show – Walk, Talk and Learn French. We were overwhelmed at the response to Walk, Talk and Learn, but as a small company we’ve been limited in terms of the time required to produce more shows. Fans of the show will be delighted to know that we’ve filmed a second series and are working on the content at the moment, ready for launch early in 2010.

We’re a couple of days away from releasing the last ever episode of Show Time Spanish, which has developed into one of our most popular shows. As we’ve explained to listeners, Show Time took an enormous amount of work to produce each episode and we feel that we can’t continue the show in its current format. However, we are sure that Show Time Spanish listeners won’t be disappointed with what we have planned for release in the new year. We’re working on new content which will continue to feature native-speaker conversations and in-depth study of the language. We can’t say too much now, but we’ll be making some announcements early in the New Year.

If you’re interested in languages other than French and Spanish then we’re very pleased to announce that 2010 will bring more content for Italian and German learners and that we’ll continue to increase our range of One Minute Languages.

Last, but by no means least, since September we’ve been working in conjunction with schools in the UK through Radio Lingua Schools, and we’ve been involved in several projects involving languages and creative technologies. In 2010 we’re going to be looking more at the resources side of Radio Lingua Schools and have started work on a major new course for children, due to be launched in August 2010.

Of course, as we’ve said many times, we’re still a small company and we’re doing our best to continue to produce high quality, engaging materials. We hope that 2010 will bring further opportunities for new projects, collaboration and new ideas!

Of course we have lots of ideas as to our new developments, but we’re really interested to hear about your ideas. To this end, we’re asking for 10 minutes of your time and we hope that you’ll be willing to share some of your thoughts about language-learning and your next steps as a learner.

We’ve devised a survey and would be very grateful if you would tell us a little about your language-learning and your experience using Radio Lingua materials. You can give as much or as little detail as you wish, but obviously it’s extremely useful to us if you can provide as much information as possible. There are different sections of the survey, depending on which language(s) you learn with Radio Lingua, and on whether you listen to the free content or use our premium materials. You’ll be guided through the survey and we’ll try to explain why we’re asking what we’re asking.

If you complete the survey you’ll be invited to enter a prize draw – there’s an iPod Touch up for grabs along with five platinum season passes to a language course of your choice!

To start taking the survey now, click here.

All that remains for us to do is to wish each and every one of our listeners and friends a very happy holiday season and a peaceful and prosperous 2010.

We’re delighted to be joined once more by Alba in this special episode of Show Time Spanish. It’s the last ‘normal’ episode in the series: next week we’ll have the eighth and final instalment of Verano Español, so lesson 39 is the final ‘normal’ episode in the series. We find out what Alba has been doing since before the summer and Mark takes the opportunity to test listeners on some of the phrases learned earlier in the series.

Members | Purchase | RSS | iTunes link

In this episode Mark is joined by Sofía from Argentina and Ana Isabel from Ecuador. Language points discussed include the difference between si no and sino, using hace with a time phrase, and voseo, the use of vos in Rioplatense Spanish.

Members | Purchase | RSS | iTunes link

This week Mark returns with Loreto for the second of our Chilean episodes of Show Time Spanish. In episode 37 we learn a  bit more about Chilean culture and Loreto teaches Mark some Chilean expressions.

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On 18th October 2006, episode one of a new language-learning podcast called Coffee Break Spanish was released to the world. This show was a bit different from the other Spanish learning shows out there: it was a gradual introduction to basic Spanish presented by teacher Mark, teaching student Kara. At this stage no-one really knew if the idea would work, but Coffee Break Spanish grew to become one of the most popular ways to learn Spanish online. The show quickly climbed the charts on iTunes UK and US, and began to feature in the top podcasts at Podcast Alley and on Libsyn.

Three years down the line and the Radio Lingua Network now produces twenty-seven language courses in eighteen languages and this week saw the sixty millionth download of our language lessons! That means – on average – around 55,000 downloads per day, every day for the last three years.

It’s time to celebrate!

To celebrate this milestone in our company’s development, we’re reducing everything to 60% of the normal prices, ie. 40% off, for one week only, from noon GMT on 18th October through to midnight GMT on 25th October. There has never been a better time to purchase our lesson guides, enhanced podcasts and extra listening materials. Simply use coupon code sixty when you sign up for any of our shows. You can choose between Coffee Break Spanish, Coffee Break French and Show Time Spanish, or indeed one of our shorter One Minute or TwitterLearn courses. By purchasing a membership you can access a range of materials including pdf lesson guides featuring the words and phrases included in each lesson, enhanced podcasts which are perfect for listening on the iPod Touch or iPhone where you can see the flashcards synchronised to the audio, and bonus listening materials to help you improve your language skills even more.

Please note that the coupon code can’t be used in conjunction with any other offer and is limited to one purchase per member. Please note too that in order to qualify for the discount, the coupon code must be used at checkout time. We can’t offer retrospective discounts if the coupon code was not used.

Announcing a new development

We’ve been reading your comments regarding discussion boards and building a community around our lessons. Our previous discussion boards were created before we developed our membership system, so were unfortunately not linked to the system. Today we’re launching our new Community area where listeners can interact with each other, share their language-learning experiences and benefit from collaborative learning with fellow listeners. Accessing the Community is free, but you’ll need to sign up for an account in our system, so we’ll hopefully avoid the spam problems we’ve had in the past.

If you’re already a member of our system then you’ll be able to access My Courses in the community, where we’ll lead activities and generate discussions in which you can practise what you’ve learned in each lesson. My Courses is restricted to our premium members, so if you’ve purchased a Season Pass to Coffee Break French Level 2, you’ll see this course in My Courses, allowing you to interact with your fellow learners in the activities and discussions there. And if you’re not yet a premium member, you can join this week at a hugely discounted price! We’re looking forward to interacting with all our learners in My Courses.

Any questions? Get in touch with us, or post your question in our Community area.

Here’s to many more years of language learning with Radio Lingua!

¡Estamos de vuelta! It’s been a few weeks since our last episode of Show Time Spanish, and this has been the result of major server problems. We’ve completed a migration of all our content to new servers today, and we’re delighted to be back with a new episode of Show Time Spanish in which Mark is joined by Loreto, from Chile. In this first of two episodes with Loreto, we learn about the geography and culture of Chile.

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In this week’s show we’re returning to our telenovela, Verano Español. It’s the morning after the night before when Ángel arrived drunk at Iona’s party. Needless to say Laura’s dad isn’t very impressed with Ángel! Laura’s friend Fiona arrives from Scotland and the love triangle threatens to become a square! As usual, in Act II, Mark will help listeners understand the story by working through a series of questions and answers about what happens in this episode.

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In lesson 32 we’re still concentrating on Colombian Spanish, and Mark and Carolina discuss the music and literature of Colombia, and typical Colombian expressions including the word paila. In the second act of this episode, Mark discusses impersonal verbs such as apetecer, gustar and faltar.

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It’s destination Colombia for lesson 31 as Mark is joined by Carolina from Bogotá. Carolina introduces Mark to the geography and traditions of Colombia, and Mark learns a few useful expresiones colombianas. In episodes 31-40 of Show Time Spanish, Mark will be joined by various speakers of Spanish from different parts of Latin America, providing learners with a range of experiences and a useful introduction to each country and its traditions and language.

Members | Purchase | RSS | iTunes link

It’s time to return to our telenovela, Verano Español. In this sixth instalment, we’ll find out the latest about what’s happening in the Laura – Ángel – Ramón love triangle, and we’ll also hear if things are still ok between Antonio and Iona after Antonio’s the plumber’s visit! In Act II, Mark will help listeners understand the story by working through a series of questions and answers about what happens in this episode.

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Welcome to Radio Lingua News – in this podcast we’ll be updating listeners on the latest developments from Radio Lingua. Coming up on today’s show:

• Learning languages 140 characters at a time with TwitterLearn
• Introducing our Community Managers
• New features for Radio Lingua premium members
• Announcing our Summer Sale
• Updates on the latest shows

TwitterLearn It seems that in the past few months the entire world has started twittering, helped by the huge number of celebrities using the microblogging service. Some write it off as another banal social media fad, but here at Radio Lingua we’ve been using Twitter for many months to update listeners on the latest podcast episodes and other news from Radio Lingua. This summer, we’ve decided to take our twittering a stage further and we’ve designed a course in French, Italian and Spanish for beginners, delivered in daily tweets of 140 characters, and podcasts of 1 minute 40 seconds. You can join Twitter at  http://twitter.com and follow @learnspanish, @learnfrench or @learnitalian to start your micro language-learning course.

Community Managers This summer we’re joined by three new members of the Radio Lingua team. Ellie, Katie and Marylou are going to be working over the summer on developing our learning communities on the website and they’re also working on the TwitterLearn courses. Initially they’ll be helping to develop the conversations on our Facebook pages. We really hope that Ellie, Katie and Marylou enjoy working with Radio Lingua over the summer months. If you’re a Facebook user, head over to the Facebook pages for Coffee Break Spanish, Coffee Break French, Show Time Spanish and Radio Lingua where the conversations are increasing daily. Make sure you become a ‘fan’ of the shows and tell your friends that you’re learning with us. We’re also looking at the longer term plans for the Discussion Forum on our website. Have your say about how this should develop and contribute to the discussion on our blog.

New developments for members Until now our premium members have been downloading the bonus materials from our members’ pages, but we’ve been working on developing premium feeds for all of our podcasts. You can now use our one-click method to download all of the premium materials through iTunes. Find out more on our members’ pages. Another new development has been the introduction of automatic upgrades. A number of members who have purchased premium memberships have requested upgrades. Until now this has been a manual process, but we’ve just introduced new automatic upgrades for Coffee Break Spanish and Coffee Break French. By simply paying the difference between, for example, the silver and gold memberships, members will be able to upgrade automatically to the higher level. Find out more here.

Summer Sale Until 16 August 2009 we’re offering a 20% discount on all of our premium materials. Now’s the time to purchase our bronze, silver, gold or platinum memberships for Coffee Break Spanish, Coffee Break French, Show Time Spanish or any of our other courses. Simply use coupon code SUMMER2009 at signup, or log into your Control Panel and add the relevant membership to your account.

Podcast update Let’s start with Coffee Break Spanish: episode 30 is due out in the next few days, and this episode concentrates of el fútbol. It was actually originally recorded on the streets of Glasgow on the occasion of the UEFA Cup Final a couple of years ago when hundreds of thousands of Spaniards arrived in the city for the match at Hampden Park. Listen in to hear interviews with fans of Español and Sevilla. Sticking with Spanish, we’ve just launched a special episode of Show Time Spanish recorded as Alba and I made a tortilla española, live in the kitchen. We explained to listeners exactly how to make the tortilla and we’re looking forward to seeing your photos of your tortillas. Episode 29 was Alba’s final episode with us as she’s returned to Barcelona. We’d like to wish her all the very best for the future. Show Time will continue, nonetheless and episode 30, due out in the middle of next week, will be the sixth instalment of our Spanish soap opera Verano Español. To French, now, and Coffee Break French. Episode 60 of our flagship French course will be published in the next couple of days and we’re just about to launch season 2B with episode 61. CBF subscribers should keep their eyes on the podcast feeds for all the information about the show. Our One Minute Languages courses have now finished, and we’re introducing the premium version of the courses gradually. One Minute French, Mandarin, Japanese and Greek are available already in the store, and we’ve just launched the premium version of One Minute Italian. The premium versions include a printable lesson guide, enhanced versions of the podcast with synchronised flashcards which work perfectly on iPods and iPhones, and bonus listening materials in the form of the quick quiz podcast and our popular Take-Off Time, a summary of all the language contained in the course presented in one fifteen to twenty minute show, perfect for packing onto your iPod as you head off on your summer vacation.

In this week’s episode, Alba and Mark are en la cocina, making a Spanish tortilla. The episode is slightly different from our usual episodes as the audio was recorded live in the kitchen rather than in the studio. There’s no “Act II” this week as the conversation follows the entire process of making the tortilla.

Have a look at the photos of our culinary exploits below, and why not try making a tortilla yourself and send us your photos to network [at] radiolingua.com.

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The topic for this week’s episode of Show Time Spanish is food, or tapas in particular. Alba has recently had a bad experience in a tapas restaurant in Scotland, compared with her normal experiences of tapas in Spain. Mark and Alba talk about different tapas and their experience of eating Spanish food in Spain and elsewhere. Language points covered include ojalá, the word cobrar and si clauses. In this week’s intermedio, José introduces a couple of phrases which help you disagree with people emphatically.

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This week’s topic is low-cost airlines and the advantages and disadvantages of low-cost travel. Mark and Alba discuss their experiences of flying with low-cost airlines (and indeed with other airlines!) and José introduces two phrases which you can use when you manage to find a real bargain! Language points covered include the use of quedarse, fijarse and no sólo … sino también. Premium members will find a bonus item in this week’s feed – a special bonus episode concentrating on quedar and its various uses. Let us know what you think!

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Episode 25 of Show Time Spanish features the fifth instalment of our ‘telenovela’, Verano Español. At the end of the previous episode, Laura discovered that the boy who has been chatting her up on a daily basis in the panadería is none other than Ángel, her next-door neighbour. In episode 5 of the soap, Estela – Ángel’s sister – warns her about Ángel and his aventuras de verano, and Antonio plans his surprise arrival in Spain for Iona’s birthday, only to discover things are not quite what he expected!

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Following our recent musical episodes, listeners have been asking us for some suggestions of Spanish-language singers and groups. In episode 24 we’ve provided some suggestions, talking about Spanish groups Amaral and Ojos de Brujo, and we’ve also mentioned Colombian Juanes and the renowned Panamanian salsa performer Ruben Blades. Language points include more subjunctive talk, the use of al + infinitive, and in addition to introducing some phrases meaning “to keep up to date”, José sings!

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This week Mark and Alba bring you a special musical episode: combining the Eurovision Song Contest with a performance from Mark of Tango by Spanish composer Albéniz. In the intermedio, José introduces the idea of ‘embarrassment’ – vergüenza - and gives listeners some examples of how to use this concept in interesting expressions. Language points covered include llevar + time in the negative to talk about what you haven’t done for a while, the imperative in the vosotros form, and what happens when the imperative is combined with object and reflexive pronouns.

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In this week’s lesson, Mark and Alba talk about music. Their discussion includes talk of playing musical instruments and how listening to music is changing because of technology. In the intermedio, José provides a couple of interesting phrases which can be used to say that you find something difficult. Language points covered include comparitives such as tan … como and tanto … como, avoiding the subjunctive and a particular use of verbs which differs from English, based on the phrase from the conversation, espero que no seas tú.

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Episode 20 features the fourth installment of our ‘telenovela’, Verano Español. Find out the latest about the life of Laura and her mother as they spend the summer in Spain en la casa de tía Julia. Will Laura find out a little more about the mystery customer in the panadería? Don’t miss this episode of Show Time Spanish!

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In this week’s episode, Mark and Alba discuss some useful techniques for learning languages and share their ideas and advice with listeners. In the intermedio Alba talks about the northern Spanish city of Bilbao, and José introduces a construction which involves lo + adjective. Grammar points covered include the construction siempre que and the use of the subjunctive after para que. 

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In episode 18 of Show Time Spanish, Mark and Alba talk about the advantages and disadvantages of buying things online, and share their experiences both positive and negative. In this week’s intermedio, Alba presents the city of Granada in the south of Spain, and José talks about ways to describe someone whose head is always in the clouds. Grammar points covered include the personal a, present subjunctive, double negatives, and the expression dar ganas a alguien.

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This episode is dedicated to all fans of the imperfect subjunctive… and to those of you who are terrified of it! After listening to Mark and Alba’s discussion about all things hypothetical, you’ll be 100% confident in using the Spanish imperfect subjunctive. In addition, Alba talks about her favourite parts of Madrid, and José introduces some ways to express surprise in the intermedio.

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Episode 16 features a conversation between Alba and Mark about what they’ve been doing since they last saw each other. Grammar points covered include possessive pronouns, and uses of the subjunctive. This week’s intermedio features a presentation of Barcelona from Alba, and José looks at some more interesting ways of talking about going out for a drink or for something to eat.

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Episode 15 features the third installment of our ‘telenovela’, Verano Español. Find out the latest about the life of Laura and her mother as they spend the summer in Spain en la casa de tía Julia. How will Laura cope on her first day in her new job at the panadería? Don’t miss this episode of Show Time Spanish!

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In episode 14, Mark and Alba are joined by David, el novio de Alba. Topics discussed include Galicia, the region of Spain where David is from, St Valentine’s day, romantic Spanish and the imperfect subjunctive. In this week’s intermedio, Alba talks about the film Diarios de Motocicleta, and José introduces some different ways to express disbelief.

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We’ve had an extremely busy week this week so we’ve not been able to put a full episode  of Show Time Spanish together. We’re recording next week so we hope to have episode 14 with you by Wednesday 11th February. In the meantime, this extra mini-episode of Show Time Spanish  is aimed at Facebook users and talks you through how to use Facebook in Spanish. You can also join our Show Time Spanish Facebook fan page. 

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In episode 13 of Show Time Spanish, Mark and Alba discuss social networks including Facebook and Twitter and their value for language-learning. In addition, in this week’s intermedio, José discusses effective ways to say you’ve had enough of something, and Alba talks about the film Habana Blues. Grammar points discussed inlude subjunctive after el hecho de que, preferir que and the imperative in the vosotros form.

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In episode 12 of Show Time Spanish, Mark and Alba get all poetic as they celebrate the 250th anniversary of el poeta nacional de Escocia, Robert Burns. Alba learns some Scots and in return she teaches Mark a poem by Spanish poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer. The intermedio includes a review of the film Secretos del Corazón, and José introduces some interesting ways to convey the concept of “to fancy doing something”. Language points covered include how to translate “to realise” and the construction estar a punto de + infinitive, meaning “to be about to do something”.

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In episode 11, the first episode of 2009, Mark and Alba talk about the holidays and about their New Year’s Resolutions. Alba presents a review of the film La Lengua de las Mariposas in the intermedio, and José’s topic of the week is paying compliments to people. Grammar points covered include the use of sí que for emphasis, and talking about how long you did things for in the past using both durante and a more simple preterite tense.

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It’s time for our second installment of the Show Time Spanish telenovela, Verano Español. Laura and her mother have just arrived in Spain to spend the summer in the house they’ve recently inherited from tía Julia. In this episode we’ll meet some of their new neighbours and Laura makes a new friend. 

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In this 10th episode of our intermediate-advanced Spanish course, Mark and Alba discuss Christmas traditions in Spain. José introduces a couple of phrases which you can tell someone not to take something the wrong way in this week’s intermedio. Grammar points covered include al + infinitive, por and para, volver a hacer algo, and expressions which are followed by the subjunctive including antes de que, sin que and para que. 

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In episode 8 of Show Time Spanish, Alba and Mark discuss smoking laws in different countries. Language points covered include the future perfect tense, eg. “I will have stopped smoking”, the use of soler, and the phrase pillar a alguien desprevenido. José’s intermedio covers two phrases which you can use to describe how well you speak Spanish.

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In this week’s episode, Mark and Alba talk about the different seasons of the year and about their own favourite times of year. This episode provides an opportunity for learners to learn to use the Spanish phrase o sea, and the combination of object pronouns is also covered. José’s intermedio introduces two ways to express surprise.

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In episode 6 of Show Time Spanish Mark and Alba discuss their recent visits to Edinburgh and will entertain you with some singing! José introduces two phrases to say that things are in a mess, and language points include the pluperfect tense and using double indirect pronouns, eg. a mi madre le gusta la música. 

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In episode 5 of Show Time Spanish we launch our very own Spanish soap opera, Verano Español, which tells the story of Spanish dad, Antonio, Scottish mum Iona, and bilingual daughter Laura and their adventures one summer in Spain. Each episode will provide you with listening practice, language study and information about the Spanish-speaking world.

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In this fourth episode of Show Time Spanish, Mark has just returned from a week in London and he discusses the advantages and disadvantages of living in a village, town or city with Alba. We also meet Laura from Verano Español, our forthcoming soap opera. In José’s intermedio he introduces two phrases which use the verb ponerse. Grammar points covered include the pluperfect tense, using the subjunctive and the use of the nosotros form of the present subjunctive to translate “let’s do something”.

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In lesson 3 of Show Time Spanish, Alba tells Mark about a Halloween party she attended. They discuss the traditions of Halloween. In the intermedio José provides two alternative ways to say that you’re tired. Grammar points include reflexive verbs in a different tenses, the subjunctive after quizás.  

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In our second episode of Show Time Spanish, Mark and Alba talk about languages and their own language skills. In the intermedio, José provides two phrases which can be used to tell someone that they are annoying you. Language points include progressive tenses using estar + gerund, and a particular use of the future tense.

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Welcome to the inaugural episode of Show Time Spanish. In the first episode you will meet presenters Mark and Alba and get to know them a bit better. You will also meet José who will help you take your Spanish to al siguiente nivel in the intermedio. Each episode will provide an opportuntiy for learners to practise their language skills, and to develop a deeper understanding of the Spanish language!

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Es hora de pasar al siguiente nivel, de los ensayos al espectáculo. Éste es tu momento: ¡que se abre el telón! This promo for Show Time Spanish introduces Alba, Mark’s cohost. Subscribe now for our free lessons.

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This promo provides some information about Show Time Spanish which launches on Saturday 18th October 2008 and will help you take your Spanish to the next stage. Subscribe for free to our weekly lessons. 

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