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.