Outside my native tongue, my language skills are pretty risible apart from a smattering of French that has been gradually decaying from GCSE level since 1988.

I've made a couple of half-arsed attempts to learn Spanish over the last few years but these always faltered immediately upon returning from whichever Spanish-speaking holiday destination had inspired me to take it up in the first place.

Now that I've a little more time I my hands I decided to give it one more go, and have been downloading beginners' lessons from the Cigarette Break Spanish podcast.

Cigarette Break Spanish is the only free language learning podcast that is fully endorsed by the tobacco industry. The lessons are delivered in easily digestible 5-minute chunks designed to be listened to during a cigarette break at work. Non-smokers either have the option of taking up smoking in order to improve their language skills or can choose to listen to the lessons outside of normal work hours.

The first few lessons are pretty basic, covering simple topics such as introducing yourself, saying where you live, asking someone for a light, recommending brands, etc., but later lessons cover much more complicated scenarios and I'm looking forward to reaching those.

Here's a short transcript from Lesson 2:

Man: Hola! Me llamo José.

Woman: Encantada José. Me llamo Maria.

Man: Encantado Maria. De donde eres?

Woman: Soy de Malaga. Y tu?

Man: Soy de Madrid.

Woman: Bueno. Qué tipo de cigarrillos qué le gusta?

Man: Me gustan los Lucky Strikes. Y tu?

Woman: Me gustan los Lucky Strikes también!

Man: Fenomenal! Porqué tienes gusto de los Lucky Strikes?

Woman: Porque son lisos y satisfacción.

Man: También me!

I'll continue studying with Cigarette Break Spanish and let you know how I get on.

While I was searching the internet for Spanish learning resources, I also came across a few interesting-looking podcasts for other languages.

I've always wanted to go to Istanbul and so Toilet Break Turkish caught my eye. Toilet Break Turkish is divided into four daily lessons - one lasting around ten minutes to be studied first thing in the morning and another three of around two minutes each to be studied at convenient intervals during the day.

I don't think I've got time to study that one as well, but if you do try it out please let me know how you get on.