Coffee Break Languages Review: Progresses You to Advanced Stages, but Costly

Audio-based courses are currently popular in the language learning world due to their flexibility—you can use them while driving, at home, during exercise, and so on. However, I've typically been reluctant to rely on one as my primary tool because I believe I absorb information more effectively when I can sit down and take notes.

After repeatedly encountering recommendations for Coffee Break Languages online, I eventually chose to test it out. This account details my journey starting Italian from zero with a complimentary trial of Coffee Break Italian's premium program, and learning Portuguese using only their free podcast available on Spotify.

What is Coffee Break Languages?

Coffee Break Languages was created by Teach Yourself, a major company in language education famous for its textbooks. Coffee Break is primarily recognized for its podcasts, but they also provide workbooks and a video service called Coffee Break TV.

They currently provide courses in 10 languages: French, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, German, Spanish, English, Swedish, Gaelic, Portuguese and Japanese. (For a detailed analysis of the Coffee Break Spanish course, you can find our specific review here.)

The podcasts can be accessed for free on their website and on streaming services like Spotify. A membership to the Coffee Break Academy provides additional resources like PDF lesson notes, full lesson transcripts, quizzes, and other materials.

Features of the Coffee Break Languages Courses

Progressive audio and video lessons

The Coffee Break courses are structured around podcast-style audio lessons, typically comprising about 40 episodes per season. Most courses have three or four seasons in total. These seasons correspond to proficiency levels, with season one for beginners and season three or four for advanced learners.

There are typically two native-speaker hosts and one learner. The primary host teaches vocabulary and grammar to the learner, and they engage in practice conversations using the new content. The intention is for the lessons to feel like a casual chat with a friend who is teaching you their native tongue.

I used the free Coffee Break Portuguese podcast on Spotify, and it covered a similar quantity of material as the paid Italian course in its core lessons. However, it was entirely audio-based since I did not have the lesson notes or transcripts—a different approach for me, but I still gained significant knowledge.

In both the Italian and Portuguese courses, I learned basic greetings and how to ask "how are you" in the initial lessons. I also appreciated learning multiple ways to answer questions or different expressions for the same idea. For instance, in the Italian course, I learned I could say sto bene (I'm good) or sto benissimo (I'm very good). The host clarified that adding -issimo intensifies the adjective.

The lessons connect with each other effectively—they include brief reviews within the lessons, and I found myself using vocabulary from the first lesson to form more complex sentences in subsequent ones.

With a paid Coffee Break Language course, you also receive video versions of the same lessons. For Italian, I personally used the video lessons more than the audio. However, the main difference was that the videos displayed the new Italian word on screen as it was being taught. As a visual learner, I appreciated this, though the videos themselves were not particularly dynamic. They mostly feature a plain background with new words and conversation scripts appearing.

Accompanying PDF lesson notes

The paid courses include downloadable lesson notes that summarize each new word and grammar topic covered. They also contain the cultural notes from the lesson, and the explanations of new concepts are concise and very clear.

They are designed for easy reading—the layout is clean with ample white space, preventing them from feeling cluttered. All the dialogue is also included, making the notes function as a full lesson transcript.

Lesson quizzes

Another feature I appreciated in the lesson notes was the translation exercises located at the end. These follow the "Review" section and require you to translate English phrases into Italian.

However, I would have preferred more interactive quizzes on the website itself—such as multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank exercises with instant feedback. Some quizzes only contain five questions, and the answer key is not sufficiently separated, making it easy to see the answers unintentionally.

Bonus audio

Every lesson in the paid courses includes a bonus audio segment. This serves as both additional learning material and a recap of the lesson's content.

The hosts invite you to participate in a conversation using the vocabulary from the main lesson. They pose a question, and you are given a moment to formulate a response. Afterwards, they discuss possible correct answers.

During these interactive conversations, the hosts introduce a few new words that were not in the main lesson. After the conversation, they highlight and explain these new terms.

I believe the bonus audios are very effective. They provided adequate time to consider my responses and pushed me to use the learned vocabulary in new, unscripted contexts. My only criticism is that the vocabulary from these bonus segments is not included in the lesson notes, making it more difficult to remember. Since the lesson notes are a paid feature, I see no reason to exclude this content.

Other Coffee Break Language Products

Coffee Break Books

These workbooks are called "50 [Language] Coffee Breaks" and function as a compilation of practice exercises for your target language. They are currently offered for English, Swedish, Spanish, German, Italian and French.

The book is organized into five-minute, 10-minute, and 15-minute coffee breaks, allowing you to select an exercise that fits your available time. Each category contains roughly 10-20 exercises.

The exercises include a mix of short grammar tasks, vocabulary builders, guided translations, picture-based prompts, translation challenges, and more. Answer keys are located at the end of each section—for example, all solutions for the five-minute exercises are together before the 10-minute ones begin. The 15-minute exercises even include reading and writing tasks.

Finally, the books are very reasonably priced—approximately $11 for the paperback and around $3 for the Kindle edition.

Coffee Break TV

Coffee Break TV is offered for four languages: French, German, Italian and Spanish. It is an extensive video library designed to immerse you in the target language. You can filter the videos by level and select between a traditional lesson format or videos focused on conversation.

I sampled the Spanish videos and observed that a significant portion are straightforward lessons. Examples include "Three subjunctive triggers," "The present subjunctive," and "Pronouns in perífrasis verbales." However, many are themed, such as "If you had to recommend a food from your country, what would it be?"

All four languages only have video content up to the upper-intermediate level, which they classify as B1-B2. I watched several videos at this level as a fluent (but self-taught) speaker, and my initial impression was that the material seemed too simple for this stage. One video used a considerable amount of English, which should not be necessary for an upper-intermediate learner.

Despite this, Coffee Break TV serves as a good supplementary resource to the podcast courses. It's an excellent method for gaining extra immersion and learning topics that may not be covered in the main course.

The cost is $19.99 per month for access to all four languages, which I consider good value. I would primarily recommend it for beginner and intermediate learners, as there is no truly advanced content.

How Much Does Coffee Break Languages Cost?

The Coffee Break podcasts are free on streaming services, but purchasing a full season with all the supplementary study materials ranges from $120 to $145 per season.

Pros of Coffee Break Languages

You learn a good amount of new words each lesson

A primary concern I had about Coffee Break Languages—and audio courses in general—was that I wouldn't learn (or retain) much vocabulary since I am a visual learner who prefers writing things down.

With the paid courses, you certainly can take notes. The words appear on screen and you can download the notes, but with the free version, you depend solely on listening. For a beginner, correctly spelling the words without seeing them might be challenging.

However, I actually acquired around 15 new words per lesson and had no trouble remembering them—even with the audio-only Portuguese course.

Culture lessons are incorporated into each lesson

A wealth of cultural information is integrated into the lessons. In the Italian course, every lesson features a "Caffè Culturale" segment where Francesca shares an insight about Italian culture. The cultural note relates to the lesson's topic, aiding memory.

I also like that the notes include a summary of the culture segment. In the Italian course, it was distinguished by a light red box to set it apart from the rest of the notes.

Teaches neutral accents

Something I appreciated about the free Portuguese course on Spotify was its focus on a neutral accent. The main host is from São Paulo, Brazil, but the second host is from Portugal and contributes throughout the lessons.

They highlight pronunciation differences between the two dialects. For example, in the first lesson, I learned that como esta is pronounced with a standard "s" in Brazil, but in Portugal, it sounds more like an "sh."

Accessible on multiple platforms

When you buy a Coffee Break Languages course, you access it through the Coffee Break Academy on their official website. For the free podcasts, you can find them on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.

Perfect lesson length

Coffee Break's main objective is to create lessons that feel like a short "coffee break," so each one lasts approximately 15-25 minutes. This length is ideal for fitting into any break in your schedule, and since it's audio-based, you can do the lesson anywhere.

Because the episodes are conversational, you are not required to repeat phrases—you simply listen. While saying the words aloud can be helpful, I found it wasn't essential for retention. This allows you to complete lessons anywhere without disturbing others or feeling self-conscious about speaking to yourself.

Content for all levels in most languages

Most of the popular language courses are fully developed with three or four seasons. For some, like the French and Spanish courses, the third season is upper-intermediate and the fourth is advanced.

However, for others—including Italian—there is no upper-intermediate level, so the third season is the advanced one.

As of June 2024, the newer courses with only one season are Chinese, Swedish, Portuguese and Gaelic.

Cons of Coffee Break Languages

The Premium versions are pricey

The most significant downside for me is the cost of the courses. Each season is priced between $120 and $145, depending on the language—a season for Italian costs $145. With three seasons in the complete course, the total cost would be approximately $435.

In my view, this is simply too expensive when all episodes are available for free on streaming platforms. Essentially, you are paying for the lesson notes, bonus audio, and some supplementary materials like the quizzes (which are part of the lesson notes).

Grammar isn’t deeply explained until later in the season

The depth of grammar explanation does not meet my personal preference. For instance, the difference between stou and sono in the Italian course was never clarified, even after three lessons. Because of my Spanish background, I could make an educated guess—but that's all it was. Someone without prior Romance language experience would likely struggle.

I examined the Season 1 curriculum to confirm when and how much grammar is taught. I discovered that formal Italian grammar isn't introduced until lesson 8. Furthermore, of the three primary Italian verb endings, only one (-are verbs) is conjugated in the present tense across all 40 lessons.

The final lesson—Lesson 40—introduces one of the past tenses.

If you are not particularly focused on grammar, this might be an advantage for you. But for my learning style, it is insufficient—especially after an investment of $145 and nearly 20 hours of study.

Some of the podcasts haven’t been updated in years

After completing the advanced level of a language course, Coffee Stop ceases to release new episodes. This is similar to the conclusion of any other course, which is logical. However, some languages do not yet have advanced seasons and have not been updated for a long time.

For example, Coffee Break Chinese only has a beginner season, with the last episode released in March 2019. Coffee Break Swedish also has only the beginner season, with the most recent episode from April 2022.

Free trials are only available for 5 languages

Coffee Break Languages provides free trials for only five of their language courses—French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish. Therefore, if you wish to learn one of the other languages with more than just the free podcast, you must purchase the season without a trial.

Coffee Break Alternatives

Lingflix

Innovative Language

Innovative Language also utilizes podcast-style videos and audio lessons. They offer courses in 34 languages, including Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Filipino, Arabic, and others.

They release new audio and video lessons every week for all their languages, covering content from beginner to advanced levels.

Their progress tracking system is comprehensive and helps maintain motivation, and the level structure is very well organized. You can select from various learning paths within your level, progressing through lessons and monitoring your advancement on the dashboard.

Another shared feature with Coffee Break Languages is their downloadable PDF lesson notes and quizzes. However, Innovative Language goes further by offering integrated spaced repetition flashcards.

You can find a more detailed review of Innovative Language here:

Pimsleur

Pimsleur is an audio-exclusive learning program available for over 50 languages.

The courses are divided into levels, each containing 30 lessons (designed for 30 days). Some languages have only one level, while others offer up to five.

Each lesson is 30 minutes long and follows a listen-and-repeat model. The lessons begin with a conversation—initially, you likely won't understand all of it. But by the lesson's end, you will comprehend everything.

The aim is to minimize the use of English, even from the earliest levels—a feature I highly value.

We also have a Pimsleur review if you are interested, which you can read here:

Final Thoughts: Should You Use Coffee Break Languages?

My conclusion is that the Coffee Break podcasts rank highly among audio-focused language programs, but I would not personally pay for the online course and would instead use the free version on Spotify, as I did for Portuguese.

All lessons are accessible for free, and I found I learned sufficiently from them without the extra materials (which, frankly, did not meet my expectations).

However, the content is of high quality and follows a logical, progressive structure, making it an excellent free resource.

Coffee Break Languages is a major presence in the language learning community, and I hope my insights assist you in determining if it's a resource you'd like to explore.

I would welcome the addition of more languages in the future and further seasons for those that currently stop at the beginner level—such as Chinese and Portuguese.