US hotels and restaurants are leading the way in teaching immigrant employees English, says an article in the Education Guardian. The nation’s Hispanic population doubled between 1980 and 2000, making immigrant and US-born people of Hispanic origin the country’s largest minority group. An estimated 5 million adults with limited English skills work in the service industry.

School pupils in the Highlands and Islands can now speak 60 different languages between them, as the number of migrant workers to the area has doubled in recent years. The article in the Herald gives details.
 

Christmas shopping this year looks likely to be mostly online shopping, according to DW-TV.
Great little paragraph article on the subject.

Some resources to get your Harry lessons off to a start:

German:

Harry Potter und der Feuerkilch

Daniel Radcliffe: Zauberprinz

French:

Synopsis of ‘La Coupe de Feu’

Film trailers (Trailers 2 & 3 in French, trailer 1 in English with subtitles)

Critique du film

The latest podcast from the MFLE features highlights from Ewan McIntosh’s seminar on using technology in inclusive classes, which was presented at the SETT learning festival. Contains French-language music.
You can subscribe to the MFLE podcast by right-clicking on the orange XML box in the right-hand column of this page (or Ctrl-click if you’re a Mac user) and copying […]

Two new radio stations from France Culture 2, as well as their excellent live service over the web. Currently there is a whole audio dossier on the events of the last 18 nights all over France.
The two new web radios cover knowledge (particularly science) and culture, offering the chance to get audio material on some […]

Jérome Charée blogs from inside Aulnay-Sous-Bois about his experiences during the riots and violence of the past 17 nights. All the posts about his experiences can be found here, under the Sécurité tag.
Would this not make super reading for Advanced Higher students? Talk about authentic material!

If only it were that easy. But according to a leader in today’s Independent, those leaving university with language skills are likely to gain the significant financial benefits that we have all been promised. Read the full story here.

There are now just five days left before the close of the Schools Awards 2005-06, all about speaking and listening. So if you’re thinking about making an application, make sure you do it by 14 November 2005 so that you don’t miss out.

If you’re still contemplating whether or not to apply, here are five good […]

Europe: its multicultural nature; economic and political
role; common history; and cultural and linguistic diversity;
is an ideal theme to promote inter-disciplinary action from
different fields of learning and teaching. Social Studies
and Modern Languages Departments unite in promoting
the idea of global citizenship and have, as yet, an untapped
scope of working together on promoting active European
citizenship.
The Goethe-Institut, Glasgow is […]