ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

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About.com resource page & links
Aardvark's English Forum (Thanks to Stephanie Marino!)
Alta Books
Altavista - Babelfish Translations
Babylon - "Translation, Information and Conversion tool"
Boston Language Institute and Boston School of Modern Languages
Business English Links
Common Errors in English and Notorious Confusables
Dave's ESL Cafe
British vs. American "English":
    The American-British - British-American Dictionary
    The Best of British - "The American's guide to speaking British"
    The Unofficial Official Dictionary of UKUS Terms
ESL Center
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ESL Net - "ESL Supplies and Services - Software, Language Labs, and TEFL"
ESL Partyland - TONS of teaching materials & ideas
EuroEnglish - Time for a little humor!
Everything ESL - lesson plans, teaching tips, classroom activities, etc.
Foreign Language Resources on the Internet
"To Get" - Look at some of the wierd and wonderful ways we use this cute little verb!
IBM Language translator (test)
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Internet Explorer Words & Phrases
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Parlo - "Language. Culture. Life"
Stephanie Marino's Q&A on Italy & Lucca
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Going overseas? The following web sites may help:
Alternative Dictionary - "Talk dirty to me"
American Citizens Abroad
American Share Links for Living Abroad
Council Travel - Now part of STA Travel - Student Travel Association
Cybercafes
Escape Artist - Travel, invest, find overseas resources, read international newspapers online.
Expat Exchange - Information on networks, business, taxes, taking the family pet, etc.
Expat Expert - Though focused on selling books, the information is both helpful & relevant, and the links are useful.
Expatriate Relocation Services - Canadian-based site with a number of useful links.
Expatriate Living - Still more links!
Go Abroad - Learn how to study, volunteer, teach or work abroad
International Orientation Resources - High-quality online information for making successful transitions abroad and repatriating back to the United States.
Network for Living Abroad
Outpost Expatriate Information Centre - A Shell International site offering detailed information about countries and cultural regions where Shell does business.
Overseas Teachers Digest - Bulletin boards, chat groups, tax information, regional/cultural sections and sections devoted to moving children and the issues of repatriation.
STA Travel - formerly Council Travel
Tales From a Small Planet - See especially "What To Know Before You Go"
Teaching Abroad Without Certification - A University of Michigan guide - lots of good information.
Third Culture Kids - Focuses on military "brats," missionary kids, Foreign Service and corporate kids, international exchange students and other children who have lived in foreign cultures.
Transitions Abroad
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Let Them Eat Vowels Vil ze Euro Revolution kil ze King’s English?
The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred langugage for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty’s government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short).

In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c." Sertainly sivil servants will reseive this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replased with "k." Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced by "f." This will make words like "fotograf" 20 persent shorter.

In the third year, publk akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al will agre that the horibl mes of silent "e"s in the languag is disgasful, and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v." During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from words kontaining "ou," and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After ze fifz yer, we will hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand eah ozer.

Ze drem vil finali kum tru.


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From: Whole Earth, Fall 1998.
My thanks to Jim Kauffman, my former boss in Florence, for sharing this endearing glimpse of the future!

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