Les parfums du Sud – Coffee Break French Travel Diaries Episode 3

Welcome back to another episode of the Coffee Break French Travel Diaries! While it’s not so easy to travel right now, why not do some virtual travelling with us? Join Lara and her boyfriend Noah as they leave Bordeaux and make their way to Aix-en-Provence for some new adventures.

The Travel Diaries is published in one season of ten episodes on a weekly basis. If you’d like to access lesson notes and a video version which features pauses after each sentence to allow you to practise your pronunciation, check out the full course on the Coffee Break Academy.

At Coffee Break French we provide content for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners, along with regular mini lessons on social media. Visit coffeebreakfrench.com for all the information you need to build your confidence in French, whatever your level.

CBS To Go 2.03 | ¿Cuáles son tus planes para hoy? – What are your plans for today?

In this episode of Coffee Break Spanish To Go, Marina asks the question, ¿Cuáles son tus planes para hoy? (informal) or ¿Cuáles son sus planes para hoy? (formal). You can use the answers of our interviewees to help you answer this question in Spanish. In the first part of the video, watch the interviews without subtitles and try to understand.

In the second part of the video, we’ve provided subtitles in Spanish at the top of the screen. You can choose to turn on subtitles in English using the Subtitles/CC button.

In this second series of Coffee Break Spanish To Go, Marina is in the city of Salamanca in Spain, and in each episode she’ll ask passers-by one question. Of course, that one question will result in many answers, and it’s through these answers that you can practise your Spanish and build your vocabulary.

Coffee Break Spanish To Go will be published every two weeks here on YouTube, and each Season will be filmed in a different part of the Spanish-speaking world.

If you’d prefer not to wait for all 10 lessons of Season 2 to be published, you can access downloadable versions of the videos along with audio versions and lesson notes / transcripts in the Coffee Break Academy. 

Coffee Break Spanish To Go is based on the popular podcast series and online course Coffee Break Spanish. For access to the free podcasts, please click here.

To purchase our full online courses on the Coffee Break Academy, click here.

Meet the team: Hanna

Hej! My name is Hanna and I joined Coffee Break in 2019. I am doing the Coffee Break Swedish podcast with Mark. I’ve been teaching adults and children Swedish for the last 10 years, since I moved to Scotland. I teach Swedish at the Centre for Open Studies at Glasgow University.

What experience have you had speaking and learning other languages?

I haven’t always been interested in languages, but as a teenager I visited Britain and I loved it. All of a sudden, English became a tool to understand a culture and communicate with friends and not just a subject you had to do in school. Nowadays, I enjoy learning other languages as well, and in the last few years I have done classes in Spanish, German and French.

What are your favourite memories of working with Coffee Break?

As I am quite new to the team, I don’t have so many memories yet, but I have really enjoyed making the podcast, as it’s very different from teaching in a classroom full of students. I have also enjoyed Mark’s love of ABBA – it’s great when somebody appreciates the highest form of Swedish culture 😉

Where would your ideal coffee break be and with whom?

Because I live abroad, I would choose to have a coffee break with my family or best friends, as I don’t see them enough. In Sweden, coffee breaks are an important part of our culture, so I would have a very traditional Swedish fika, with Swedish coffee and kanelbulle or prinsesstårta. If none of my family or friends had time with me, and if she was still alive, I would love to have a fika with Tove Jansson. 

Quick-fire round

Favourite language: This may sound strange coming from a Swede, but I really like Danish.
Favourite word/phrase in the language: I just learnt the Danish word kvajebajer.
Favourite film: Gräns – a quite odd Swedish film about trolls
Favourite TV show: I loved the Danish show Borgen
Favourite book: Gift by Tove Ditlevsen
Favourite singer:  The Swedish singer Annika Norlin and her band Säkert
Favourite destination: I love the sea, so Cornwall, the Hebrides or the Swedish archipelago are places I love. 

Do you have a message for the Coffee Break Community?

I always tell my students that it’s about immersing yourself in a language. Read and listen to things you are interested in. Have the courage to speak to people and do not to worry too much about making mistakes, because it’s by making mistakes that we learn. It’s more important that you dare to speak than to say it perfectly from the start.