Join teacher Hanna and leaner Mark in the latest episode of Coffee Break Swedish for beginners. Last time we spoke about getting around the town, and in this lesson we’re continuing with the theme of transport as we’re learning more about travelling by tåg (train). By the end of the lesson you’ll know all of the words and phrases to use when it comes to purchasing train tickets, finding your platform, and reaching your final destination in a Swedish-speaking area. All aboard the train!
Live Lessons Update – and celebrating our 14th birthday
Coffee Break Spanish was launched on 18th October 2006 so we’re celebrating our 14th birthday today, and we’ve marked the day with a live broadcast updating the Coffee Break Community with our latest podcasts, video courses and live lessons.
We’ve published the schedule for our live lessons from October until December 2020. Click on the image to download the schedule. We’ll be sharing the YouTube link for our live lessons in our Catch-Up Newsletter every Monday. If you’re not already subscribed to our Newsletter, please click here.
In the live video, Mark also provided updates on our podcast episodes including our Travel Diaries series, and our Coffee Break To Go courses. Make sure you’re subscribed to our podcasts and our YouTube channel to get all our latest episodes.
Ein regnerischer Waldspaziergang – Coffee Break German Travel Diaries Episode 8
In Episode 8 of the Coffee Break German Travel Diaries, Karin and the family enjoy a lazy start to the day after the excitement of the Zugspitze. We join them for a damp, but calm walk in the lush, green forest under the Baumkronen. As always, Coffee Break German hosts Mark and Andrea will be breaking down the language used in Karin’s travel diary entry for our intermediate learners of German. Los geht’s!
Travel Diaries will be published in one season of ten episodes weekly from 28th August. 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 German we provide content for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners, along with regular mini lessons on social media. Visit coffeebreakgerman.com for all the information you need to build your confidence in German, whatever your level.
CBI To Go 2.02 | Com’è la tua giornata tipica? – What is your daily routine?
In this episode of Coffee Break Italian To Go, Francesca asks the question, com’è la tua giornata tipica? (What is your daily routine?). You can use the answers of our interviewees to help you answer this question in Italian.
Access the podcast version below in which Mark is back in the studio helping you understand all the responses.
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 Italian 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 Italian To Go, Francesca is in Stresa on the shores of Lake Maggiore, 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 Italian and build your vocabulary.
Coffee Break Italian To Go will be published every two weeks here on YouTube, and each Season will be filmed in a different part of the Italian-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 Italian To Go is based on the popular podcast series and online course Coffee Break Italian. For access to the free podcasts, please click here.
To purchase our full online courses on the Coffee Break Academy, click here.
Cambio de planes – Coffee Break Spanish Travel Diaries Episode 8
Join us for the latest episode of the Coffee Break Spanish Travel Diaries podcast in which our protagonists, Victoria and Abel, set off for the city of Lugo, via the beautiful parish of Covadonga. All is going well until disaster strikes for the couple after their car gets a puncture and they are left stranded at the roadside. Will they be rescued by any kind-hearted locals passing by? Listen to the episode to find out and pay close attention to the discussions between Mark and Anabel as they study the language used in Victoria’s diary entry, and delve into the use of the verb olvidar. ¡Vamos!
Travel Diaries will be published in one season of ten episodes weekly from 27th August. 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 Spanish we provide content for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners, along with regular mini lessons on social media. Visit coffeebreakspanish.com for all the information you need to build your confidence in Spanish, whatever your level.
CBF To Go 2.02 | C’est quoi une journée typique pour toi ? What is a typical day for you?
In this episode of Coffee Break French To Go, Pierre-Benoît asks the question, c’est quoi une journée typique pour toi ? (What is a typical day for you?). You can use the answers of our interviewees to help you answer this question in French.
Access the podcast version below in which Mark is back in the studio helping you understand all the responses.
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 French 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 French To Go, Pierre-Benoît is in the city of Nantes in France, and in each episode he’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 French and build your vocabulary.
Coffee Break French To Go will be published every two weeks here on YouTube, and each Season will be filmed in a different part of the French-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 French To Go is based on the popular podcast series and online course Coffee Break French. For access to the free podcasts, please click here.
To purchase our full online courses on the Coffee Break Academy, click here.
CBI To Go 2.01 | Per te è importante viaggiare? – Is travelling important to you?
In this episode of Coffee Break Italian To Go, Francesca asks the question, per te è importante viaggiare? (Is travelling important to you?). You can use the answers of our interviewees to help you answer this question in Italian.
Access the podcast version below in which Mark is back in the studio helping you understand all the responses.
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 Italian 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 Italian To Go, Francesca is in Stresa on the shores of Lake Maggiore, 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 Italian and build your vocabulary.
Coffee Break Italian To Go will be published every two weeks here on YouTube, and each Season will be filmed in a different part of the Italian-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 Italian To Go is based on the popular podcast series and online course Coffee Break Italian. For access to the free podcasts, please click here.
To purchase our full online courses on the Coffee Break Academy, click here.
Auf der Spitze der Zugspitze – Coffee Break German Travel Diaries Episode 7
The adventures of Karin and her family continue! In Episode 7 of our Coffee Break German Travel Diaries series we hear about Karin and her family’s wonderful day up the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany at 2962m above sea level. As always, Mark and Andrea discuss the interesting language used in Karin’s travel diary entry. We hear some familiar vocabulary and some new adjectives as everything was schlichtweg atemberaubend (simply breath-taking) in this part of the family’s journey.
Travel Diaries will be published in one season of ten episodes weekly from 28th August. 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 German we provide content for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners, along with regular mini lessons on social media. Visit coffeebreakgerman.com for all the information you need to build your confidence in German, whatever your level.
CBF To Go 2.01 | Pour toi, est-il important de voyager ? – Is travel important to you?
In this episode of Coffee Break French To Go, Pierre-Benoît asks the question, pour toi, est-il important de voyager ? Is travel important to you? You can use the answers of our interviewees to help you answer this question in French.
Access the podcast version below in which Mark is back in the studio helping you understand all the responses.
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 French at the top of the screen. You can choose to turn on subtitles in English using the Subtitles/CC button. Please note all interviews were filmed before lockdown.
In this second series of Coffee Break French To Go, Pierre-Benoît is in the city of Nantes in France, and in each episode he’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 French and build your vocabulary.
Coffee Break French To Go will be published every two weeks here on YouTube, and each Season will be filmed in a different part of the French-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 French To Go is based on the popular podcast series and online course Coffee Break French. For access to the free podcasts, please click here.
To purchase our full online courses on the Coffee Break Academy, click here.
De Gijón a Avilés – Coffee Break Spanish Travel Diaries Episode 7
In this week’s episode of the Coffee Break Spanish Travel Diaries, Victoria and Able leave the village of Lastres as they head to the Asturian cities of Gijón and Áviles where they visit the football stadium. As they explore their new surroundings, Mark and Anabel discuss many different aspects of the language used in Victoria’s latest diary entry, including the a por grammatical structure used in Spain. We also hear an explanation of some useful vocabulary including the words gustar and ser de.
Travel Diaries will be published in one season of ten episodes weekly from 27th August. 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 Spanish we provide content for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners, along with regular mini lessons on social media. Visit coffeebreakspanish.com for all the information you need to build your confidence in Spanish, whatever your level.
CBSw 1.17 | Jag vill hyra en cykel
In this week’s episode of Coffee Break Swedish we’re learning how to get about the town. Teacher Hanna explains the different ways to get around in Stockholm and teaches us how to buy a ticket. We’ll also be learning some new greetings so that we can say ‘hello’ in Swedish in different ways.
Chapitre 10 – James clique sur l’icône de la vidéo…
In the latest instalment of La Vérité éclate toujours, we hear another dialogue between James and Yvette before they decide to look at the contents of the USB stick and James clique sur l’icône de la vidéo. What will they discover? There’s only one way to find out! We hear a variety of colloquial structures and vocabulary in this chapter such as les flics (cops) and colloquial question forms including commant ça ? (how come?) and où ça ? (where’s that?).
Welcome to our new podcast for advanced French learners. In each episode of the story, published fortnightly, we’ll be following a chapter of La Vérité éclate toujours, specially written to help you build your knowledge of French and extend your range of expression. In the episodes, teacher Mark and narrator Pierre-Benoît will discuss the story, helping you to improve your listening skills.
There’s also an online course version of La Vérité éclate toujours which provides access to a range of additional materials including the text of each chapter, annotated notes, language study podcasts, vocabulary lists, video versions of each episode and our atelier linguistique which helps you to take the language you’ve covered in each chapter further. This course is available on the Coffee Break Academy.
Ein Sommertag in Garmisch – Coffee Break German Travel Diaries Episode 6
Join Karin and her family in Episode 6 of the Coffee Break German Travel Diaries as they spend a picturesque day in Garmisch-Partenkirchenm, one of the most popular German skiing areas. Although skiing isn’t on the cards for the family, they still have a fantastic, fun-filled day and even make some new friends. As Mark and Andrea discuss Karin’s travel diary entry, we hear examples of the pluperfect tense as well as some interesting expressions and vocabulary including the word hetzen and the demonstrative pronoun diejenige.
Travel Diaries will be published in one season of ten episodes weekly from 28th August. 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 German we provide content for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners, along with regular mini lessons on social media. Visit coffeebreakgerman.com for all the information you need to build your confidence in German, whatever your level.
La costa norte – Coffee Break Spanish Travel Diaries Episode 6
Join Victoria and Abel in Episode 6 of The Coffee Break Spanish Travel Diaries as they embark on the next leg of their trip around the north of Spain. This time, they head off from San Vicente de la Barquera in Cantabria as they make their way to the village of Lastres in Asturias and visit the Bufones de Arenillas geysers and the Playa de Gulpiyuri – an inland beach. Mark and Anabel talk about these places being de ensueño (dreamlike) and discuss the use of the verb madrugar (to get up early) among many other interesting expressions and phrases.
Travel Diaries will be published in one season of ten episodes weekly from 27th August. 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 Spanish we provide content for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners, along with regular mini lessons on social media. Visit coffeebreakspanish.com for all the information you need to build your confidence in Spanish, whatever your level.
A special thank you to Coffee Break podcast listeners on International Podcast Day
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 was running an education project at the time called Partners in Excellence or “PiE”. This saw the start of his interest in and involement with podcasting, 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!
Wetter gut, alles gut – Coffee Break German Travel Diaries Episode 5
We’re halfway through our journey along the Deutsche Alpenstraße and this week, we’re joining Karin and her family as they climb to the top of the mountain, Der Herzogstand and enjoy the cable car on the way back down before lunch. As hosts Mark and Andrea discuss Karin’s travel diary entry, they identify and review a number of verbs, including separable verbs, reflexive verbs and modal verbs.
Travel Diaries will be published in one season of ten episodes weekly from 28th August. 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 German we provide content for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners, along with regular mini lessons on social media. Visit coffeebreakgerman.com for all the information you need to build your confidence in German, whatever your level.
Santander y Santillana del Mar – Coffee Break Spanish Travel Diaries Episode 5
We’ve reached the halfway point of our trip around the north of Spain with Victoria and Abel. In Episode 5 we’re making the most of our final day in Santander before heading to our next stop in the Cantabria region of northern Spain. It’s known for its medieval towers, Renaissance palaces, and the Romanesque Santa Juliana Collegiate Church. Can you guess where we’re going? We’re visiting Santillana del Mar, often considered as one of the most beautiful towns in Spain. Join hosts Mark and Anabel as they discuss the language used in Victoria’s travel diary entry, focusing on interesting vocabulary such as the adverb bien and the phrase en rumbo.
Travel Diaries will be published in one season of ten episodes weekly from 27th August. 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 Spanish we provide content for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners, along with regular mini lessons on social media. Visit coffeebreakspanish.com for all the information you need to build your confidence in Spanish, whatever your level.
CBSw 1.16 | Har ni dalahästar
In the latest episode of Coffee Break Swedish we’re going shopping! We’ll develop a range of new structures which will help us increase our confidence and mastery of Swedish. We’ll also learn how to use the language in a variety of situations where we need to buy things while in a Swedish-speaking area.
Chapitre 9 – Le moment propice était arrivé
It’s time for Chapter 9 of La Vérité éclate toujours and this week, we hear how James reacts when he discovers the identity of Yvette and the reason behind her visit. Will he reveal the secret he’s been keeping to himself? Listen to the episode to find out and pay attention to further examples of the past historic and present subjunctive, as well as the use of the present participle in structures such as tout en + present participle and rien qu’en + present participle. C’est parti !
Welcome to our new podcast for advanced French learners. In each episode of the story, published fortnightly, we’ll be following a chapter of La Vérité éclate toujours, specially written to help you build your knowledge of French and extend your range of expression. In the episodes, teacher Mark and narrator Pierre-Benoît will discuss the story, helping you to improve your listening skills.
There’s also an online course version of La Vérité éclate toujours which provides access to a range of additional materials including the text of each chapter, annotated notes, language study podcasts, vocabulary lists, video versions of each episode and our atelier linguistique which helps you to take the language you’ve covered in each chapter further. This course is available on the Coffee Break Academy.
Der Weg ist das Ziel – Coffee Break German Travel Diaries Episode 4
In this week’s episode of the Coffee Break German Travel Diaries, Karin and her family approach the Austrian border. They explore the new area and take in the nature around them before having some family fun on the Sommerrodelnbahn (summer toboggan on metal tracks). Listen out for an example of the pluperfect tense as well as the preposition bei. Los geht’s!
Travel Diaries will be published in one season of ten episodes weekly from 28th August. 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 German we provide content for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners, along with regular mini lessons on social media. Visit coffeebreakgerman.com for all the information you need to build your confidence in German, whatever your level.
