ENGLISH, BABY!

Visit daily for free real conversations about popular culture. Downloadable lessons for iPod or MP4 player. You can chat with people from all over the world or join online forums to practise English while meeting international friends. Cool. Quizzes and vocabulary building lists provided.

SCHWITTERS IN BRITAIN

Check out Tate's website to read about the final touches towards the exhibition that opens 30 January on the late work of Kurt Schwitters, a significant figure of Dadaism forced to flee Germany when his work was condemned by the nazi government. Please, read Emma Chambers' comments on the installation challenges, and watch the video that explores his life in the lake District in the 1940s, or how he created the artwork 'Merz Barn'.

GLOGSTER EDU,- 21st CENTURY MULTIMEDIA TOOL

Glogster EDU is a global education platform where educators and students can create glogs - online multimedia posters- with text, photos, videos, sounds, drawings, attachments and more. Now over 7,000,000 people use it across the world to keep their portfolios, presentations or bookmarks. It expands digital literacy and encourages creative learning. Check out glogs and tutorials in the net. And remember, the word glog was coined in 2007. 

MAGICAL PHOTO-MANIPULATION

Inspired by Spanish surrealist Dalí, a Swedish photographer called Erik Johansson has created a series of reworkings of pics, most of them taken near the farm he grew up in. View Gallery at his personal site or at London Evening Standard.

2012 VENICE BIENNALE: LISBON GROUND

The city of Lisbon is the focus of this exhibition that represented Portugal at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition- La Bienale di Venezia until last November. The city is conceived as a common territory shared by a group of thinkers and artists, and reveals 24 years of intervention. Do not miss the selection of texts by Antonio Tabucchi, or the photographs by Duarte Belo.

SECOND LIFE CHAT "Microrrelato Hispánico" | Hotel Kafka

 Second Life Chat : "Microrrelato Hispánico" | Hotel Kafka

If You are keen on Lit and a techno geek, why don't you create an avatar and join the chat? Fun granted. Once in, go to Café Gijón and attend the 'Microrrelato Hispánico' venue. They intend to set up a whole thing on creative writing. Surf the net for similar stuff in English.

THE ITALIAN MAN WHO WENT TO MALTA

Taboo words, phonetics and cultural misunderstanding. Do you find it extremely dull when we do insist on long and short vowels? Watch this video on the net. So true.

BEHIND SPAIN'S TURMOIL. JOHN CARLIN

'Behind Spain's turmoil lies a cronyism that stifles the young and ambitious.The country needs more than a bailout. It needs a revolutionary change in its hidebound social structures'.

This article appeared on the Observer on Sunday 30 Sept. 2012. and I quote: 

'Here's the news from Spain last week, in case anybody missed it: huge cuts in government spending; higher taxes; biting austerity; unemployment higher than in Greece; big and growing demonstrations in Madrid; violent clashes with police; and in Catalonia, a rising clamour for secession. The only hope on the horizon takes the ambiguous form of an expected financial rescue package, with still more austerity strings attached, from the richer countries of the north'.

Please leave your comments.

HUGH LAURIE: BRITISH SLANG VS: AMERICAN SLANG

Hugh Laurie visited Ellen's show and they played a brilliant game on slang. Have a gig watching it at YouTube.

KEATS AND SHELLEY IN PIAZZA DI SPAGNA

Piazza di Spagna has been a compulsory stop for tourists ever since the 18th century, when a number of poets and musicians stayed nearby. The small pink house at the bottom of the Spanish steps is now a Memorial House crammed with manuscripts and belongings of Keats and Shelley. If tea is your crave, try Babington's tea rooms on the Piazza. Do not miss Café Greco in via Condotti, whose clients included Casanova and King Ludwig of Bavaria.

GOYA IN THE PRADO

The Museo Nacional del Prado has launched 'Goya in the Prado', a website within its own one exclusively devoted to Goya, which includes documents by the artist. The public and experts can thus access the more than 1000 paintings, drawings, prints and documents housed in the Museum. Go for it.

HALLOWHAT?

Are you travelling to Spain for the first time in November? There are tons of local alternatives to Halloween. Spanish remember their dearly departed on All Saints' Day bringing flowers to their graves, but you may also taste a few traditional sweets, such as 'Huesos de Santo' (literally 'Saint's bones'), made of marzipan, or 'Buñuelos', quite similar to 'Churros'. If you can get to see a performance of Don Juan Tenorio to end up the day, seize the opportunity. Alcalá de Henares could be the perfect place.

WORLD SKETCHING TOUR

A Portuguese urban sketcher goes around the world to sketch whatever his eyes seize. Five continents, five years, one dream. Share his sketches and experiences and read some Portuguese.

OER COMMONS (OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES)

UNESCO claims that the universal access to quality education is key to the building of peace and intercultural dialogue. In 2002 they coined OER to mean teaching and learning materials freely available online. Willing to design resources on your own? Check out Richey & Klein (2007) for Design and Development research. Lane (2010), or Mulder (2011) for further reading.

ITALIAN FOR LIT GEEKS

Blogging about language geekery. If you are not big on it, save us both the embarrasment and stop reading this. If it is too late for you, check out the Lang-8 site. Just fell for Italian culture? Then, this could be one of your Ten Top Sites:  

http://www.mixcloud.com/mezzorainitalia/