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.

Get the future of podcasts.