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'.

LET'S SPEAK SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has just published a multilingual glossary on sustainable construction which contains the English, French, German and Spanish equivalences. Worth revising if you are interested in the subject.

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. 

READATHON: THE BI-CENTENARY OF PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

The bi-centenary of the publication of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was celebrated yesterday with a 'readathon' in Bath. Fans and experts read aloud the whole novel in a 12 hour web broadcast, linking up with Jane Austen societies around the world. Have a shot at it. Societal norms have changed since, but given some people are still forced to seek marriages of convenience for economic security, have things shifted so?

ALISA WEILERSTEIN PLAYS ELGAR

British composer Edward Elgar wrote his cello concert in 1919, the End of the First World War and the Edwardian Era. it is noteworthy how tragedy and nostalgia would reach its most famous interpreter as well: Barenboim's late wife, Jacqueline du Pre. For nearly four decades he didn't perform the concert with another female cellist until Alisa Weilerstein, who grew up listening to her recordings. Worth checking out this moving story at a blog called deceptive cadence.

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.