cataspanglish/English

Derrick de Kerckhove @ Citilab

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:01:00 +0000

Nina Simone: Why (The King of Love Is Dead)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:07:00 +0000

Once upon this planet Earth,
Lived a man of humble birth,
Preaching love and freedom
For his fellow man.

He was dreaming of the day
Peace would come to Earth to stay,
And he spread this message
All across the land.

"Turn the other cheek," he'd plead.
"Love thy neighbor," was his creed.
Pain, humiliation, death he did not dread.
With his bible at his side,
From his foes he did not hide.
It's hard to think that this great man is dead.

Will the murders never cease?
Are they men or are they beasts?
What do they ever hope to gain?
Will my country stand or fall?
Is it too late for us all?
And did Martin Luther King just die in vain?

But he had seen the mountaintop,
And he knew he could not stop,
Always living with the threat of death ahead.
Folks you'd better stop and think,
Everybody knows we're on the brink.
What will happen, now that he is dead?

He was for equality,
For all people, you and me,
Full of love and goodwill,
Hate was not his way.

He was not a violent man,
Tell me folks if you can?
Just why, why was he shot down the other day?

But he had seen the mountaintop,
And he knew he could not stop.
Always living with the threat of death ahead.

Folks you'd better stop and think,
Cause we headed for the brink,
What will happen, now that the King of love is dead?

The History of the Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:50:00 +0000

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

The Future of Online Learning: Ten Years On

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 10:01:00 +0000

Stephen Downes has published an updated version of his essay about the future of online learning. Read it here

Solar to power Spain?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:33:00 +0000

The Guardian reports today on Spain's ambitious solar projects.

Read the article here

PODCASTS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:43:00 +0000

Check them out here

Basic Prepositions

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:05:00 +0000

Sarah from The Daily English Show explains basic prepositions.

#880 ESL Video: Basic Prepositions

on
under
in
in front of
behind
next to
between

umbrella
tree
bird

bird
umbrella
tree

on
under
in
in front of
behind
next to
between

Where is the bird?
It’s on the umbrella.
It’s under the umbrella.
It’s in the tree.
It’s in front of the tree.
It’s behind the tree.
It’s next to the tree.
It’s between the tree and the umbrella.

Where’s the bird?
It’s on the tree.

Where’s the umbrella?
It’s next to the bird?

Where’s the tree?
It’s between the bird and the umbrella.

links

pictures from today's show
* These pictures are licenced with a Creative Commons Attribution License

You can use them any way you like, as long as you credit them to:
studio tdes
http://www.thedailyenglishshow.com/

USA Election Day Special

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:25:00 +0000

Lee and Sachi LeFever of Common Craft explain the US Election process.Transcription here

Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:00:00 +0000

One of the great things about the Internet is how people use it to present ideas in a different way. Neil Gaimen writes books for teenagers and is using his website to read the book to the public:

Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book
Watch Neil Gaiman read The Graveyard Book on a 9-city video tour. At each stop on the tour, Neil will read one chapter from The Graveyard Book. Beginning on October 1st, we will post the video readings daily. By the end of the tour, on October 9th, you will be able to watch the master storyteller himself read The Graveyard Book in its entirety right here.

Welcome back!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:14:00 +0000

I hope you have had a great summer and are ready to start practising English again. Let's get started with another great video from commoncraft which will explain how to make searching for information on the Web a little easier.

Web Search Strategies in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

Without subtitles

With subtitles

Read the transcript here

John Le Carré - A Most Wanted Man

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:39:00 +0000

John Le Carreé speaks about his new book, A Most Wanted Man

A Most Wanted Man

A half-starved young Russian man is smuggled into Hamburg at dead of night. He has an improbable amount of cash, is a devout Muslim and says his name is Issa.

Annabel is an idealistic German lawyer determined to save Issa from deportation. In pursuit of Issa's mysterious past she confronts Tommy Brue, the scion of a failing British bank based in Hamburg.

Meanwhile, scenting a sure kill in the War on Terror the rival spies of three nations converge upon the innocents.

The Orwell Diaries

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 10:22:00 +0000

FFrom the Orwell Prize blog

"The Orwell Prize is publishing George Orwell’s diaries as a blog. From 9th August 2008, Orwell’s domestic and political diaries (from 9th August 1938 until October 1942) will be posted in real-time, exactly 70 years after the entries were written.

Orwell’s ‘domestic’ diaries begin on 9th August 1938/2008; his ‘political’ diaries (which are further categorised as ‘Morocco’, ‘Pre-war’ and ‘Wartime’) begin on 7th September 1938/2008.

The diaries are exactly as Orwell wrote them. Where there are original spelling errors, they are indicated by a ° following the offending word"

This is a fantastic opportunity to read a daily post by one of the greatest English writers ever. Check out the Orwell Diaries here

Chongqing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:50:00 +0000

Lee and Sachi LeFever from Common Craft show us around Chongqing, China as part of China week on their blog

June Taylor Jams

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:40:00 +0000

Another cool Cool Hunting video, in which June Taylor demonstrates her art

US Elections in Plain English

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:17:00 +0000

The Common Craft store

With English subtitles

Electing a US President in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

Finally - somebody has explained the crazy US election process. Thanks to Common Craft for this and all their great videos

Finding True Knowledge on the net

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:55:00 +0000

True Knowledge aims to answer questions

FREE BEER!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:47:00 +0000

Sarah from The Daily English Show tells us all about FREE Beer! Yay!

Transcription here (if you can focus)

Running for President

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:08:00 +0000

The Glass House

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 09:49:00 +0000

In this Cool Hunting video RISD president John Maeda narrates a visit to Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, CT. Maeda shares his impressions and talks about how it relates to his thoughts on simplicity.

Summer Tips No.5 - Office massage

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:09:00 +0000

If you're working in the office this summer, take some time to relax with a quick massage. Here's a video from The Guardian to show you how. Watch here

Summer tips no.4 - Summer dictionary

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:59:00 +0000

Here's a great way to carry a whole lot of dictionaries with you - so if you are going on holiday to different countries and you don't want to fill your suitcase with heavy books, put this site in your browser favourites and don't fill your laptop with big files either.

Check out WordReference.com here

Summer tips no.3 - Summer listening

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:59:00 +0000

Podictionary is a short, free podcast with a transcription available daily or weekly.

Charles Hodgson, creator of Podictionary says,

"Every day podictionary delivers a new short story about the history of a common word to thousands of subscribed listeners.

Not only is podictionary an audio word-a-day, but as the number of words grows in the podictionary archive the website is becoming an on-line audio etymology reference of sorts.

It's all for fun, so please enjoy."

Check out Podictionary here

Technorati Tags: Charles Hodgson, e-learning, education, English, language learning, listening, podcast, Podictionary

Summer tips no.2 - Summer research

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:52:00 +0000

The Internet Public Library is a public service organization and a learning/teaching environment founded at the University of Michigan School of Information and hosted by Drexel University's College of Information Science & Technology. Check it out here.

Technorati Tags: University of Michigan School of Information , education, Internet, Internet Public Library, Drexel University's College of Information Science & Technology

Summer tips no.1 - Summer reading

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:32:00 +0000

This week I'm going to be posting about some resources you can use to continue practising English over the summer. The first of these is a List of Online Archives for Free Unabridged Books Online posted at Diploma Guide

Now there is no excuse for not having something to read in English this summer...

This

My day

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:31:00 +0000

Sarah from The Daily English Show describes a day. Transcript here