YouTube EDU has launched!

For starters, you could try a video on translation studies and listen to one of the major figures in the field: Susan Bassnett, Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Warwick, speaking about the future of doctoral programs in Translation. 

If you just want to have fun, click HERE! 

NB: This is not what an interpreter should be!

Sergey, you're "overcharged"!

"No one is immune from an occasional linguistic faux pas. After all, everyone has sent out an email with a typo once in a while. It’s slightly more embarrassing when a language-related misstep is broadcast for the world to see, which is why we cringed upon reading about the goodwill gift that Secretary of State Clinton presented to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia. The gift itself, which was meant to symbolize a resetting of the relationship between the two nations, contained an embarrassing mistranslation. Instead of bearing the term reset, (perezagruzka) the gift was labeled with the word peregruzka, which means overloaded or overcharged."

You can read the whole article HERE or try to imagine US and Romania walking "şold la şold" (a mistranslation of the English phrase "shoulder to shoulder" which made my day some years ago) towards our bright future together!

The Arts and Humanities pages of Intute

Intute is a free online service providing you with access to the best Web resources for education and research, selected and evaluated by a network of subject specialists. There are over 21,000 Web resources listed here that are freely available by keyword searching and browsing.

Quick pick: E-Journals --- English.

The American Culture Club - Sibiu

The American Culture Club of Sibiu held its inaugural meeting Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at the Faculty of Arts & Letters building of the University of Lucian Blaga in Sibiu (ULBS). The club and meeting were organized by Charles Harris, American Fulbright grantee in Romania, and Viorica Fleseru of Education USA at ULBS.

The American Culture Club, which has received a warm reception by teachers and administrators at ULBS and the 18 high schools of Sibiu, has three simple, yet important goals:

• to bring American cultural events and discussion on current social issues to Sibiu;
• to provide an English speaking environment in which to hold social and cultural gatherings for students;
• to give students experience in planning events and organizing discussions.

Events organized by the American Culture Club of Sibiu:

1. Social History and Government of the United States, course taught by Professor Harris (on Mondays from 12:00 to 14:00 and on Wednesdays from 14:00 to 16:00, the Law School bldg).
2. The American Culture Club meetings: every other Wednesday at 5:00 pm in Room#1 of the Letters and Arts bldg (NEXT meeting: 25 March.)

BigThink: Paul Krugman on Post-Consumer Society

Watch Paul Krugman speaking about the impact of the financial crisis on shopping mall culture. (Click on the title of this post to go to the BigThink website!)

Paul Robin Krugman, born February 28, 1953, is an American economist, columnist, intellectual and author.He is a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, a centenary professor at the London School of Economics, and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. In 2008, Krugman won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity". Krugman is known in academia for his work in international economics, including trade theory, economic geography, and international finance.

LitSum: Free Literature Summaries and Study Guides

Litsum is a totally new alternative for free literature summaries! If you are looking for free book summaries or book notes, Litsum has more free literature summaries than any other site. Their literature study guides and enotes include full chapter summaries and analysis, topics for discussion, quotes, style, themes and character analysis. Litsum is probably the largest free literature summary website online! It is a great tool, but you should also consider reading the books. Otherwise, most study guides available on Litsum are useless!

Free E-book Download: Fiction

Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town is a contemporary fantasy novel by Canadian author Cory Doctorow. (click on the title of the book or on the title of this post to download it for FREE!)

This novel reverses many of the conventions of the cyberpunk genre. With the exception of a brief story written by the main character, it takes place wholly in a "real" world (albeit a strange one) instead of involving a complex digital simulation. The characters that would be most associated with the "punks" are older guys who are well aware of their age and show a strong emotional side instead of being younger, detached, and augmented. (It stands to note that the "standard" mohawk does appear on at least one character's head.) Some of the ones closest to the "hacking scheme" are even part of the iconic big business that would normally be a threat in a similar setting. Rather than hacking tons of code in elaborate, secretive plans, the characters use dumpster diving to piece together technology that is free to all. They are open about what they are doing, actively seeking assistance from whatever source. The rebellious youth of the novel often scorn computer technology or work on the project without knowing what they are doing. Anarchists shun helping Alan and Kurt, while big business delights in it.

Recommended TV Program

Dirty Jobs 

Friday, March 20, Discovery Channel, 6pm (Bucharest Timezone).

Readings from America

The Reading Club & the American Culture Club present:

READINGS FROM AMERICA

Jeremy Hawkins, American Fulbrighter

&

Brian Oliu, University of Alabama

will present original works of poetry and "creative" non-fiction

Monday, 16 March, 7:00pm, Room 62, Arts and Letters Building (LBUS)

Conference Announcement: March 31, 2009

Keynote speaker: Dr Olivera Petrovich lectures on Atheism or Religion. Psychological Evidence for the concept of God in Children and Adults.

Venues: the Avram Iancu Auditorium, Faculty of Letters and Arts (LBUS)

Dr Petrovich's presentation is part of a series of scientific events to be held at LBUS between March 31 and April 2, 2009. See you all there!

Dr Olivera Petrovich (University of Oxford,  Faculty of Theology) is a psychologist who specialises in the nature and development of religious belief; her main interests are: psychological research of religion in human development across life span and in different cultures; nature of religious understanding and origin of religious concepts (especially of God); religious cognition and moral development; religious education. She obtained her first degree in psychology from the University of Belgrade. A one year scholarship from The British Council enabled her to come to Oxford and embark on research of childhood artificialism, which culminated in a doctoral thesis thanks to a generous grant from The Roblee Foundation (US). Olivera Petrovich is a member of two faculties in the University of Oxford: Department of Experimental Psychology, where she conducts empirical research and lectures in Developmental Questions in Science and Religion, and the Faculty of Theology at Wolfson College, where her responsibilities include teaching and examining in the Psychology of Religion. She lectures on topics at the interface of psychology and theology.  Her latest book, The Child’s Theory of the World, was published by Psychology Press, on 30/10/2009)

Watch a video in which Dr Petrovich explains her research that suggests belief in a creator is the default position of children: click HERE!

A Great Tool for Students - Bartleby.com

Bartleby.com - one of the best internet publishers of literature offers free access to open domain texts. I strongly recommend: Columbia Encyclopedia, American Heritage Dictionary, Columbia World of Quotations, Oxford Shakespeare, Gray's Anatomy, Strunk's Elements of Style and World Factbook.

Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary Online

The Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary Online is a great resource for all of us who want to improve our general vocabulary and understanding of specialized terminology.  The 15 major themes contain more than 6,000 images and see words like never before. Click HERE to watch a demo.

Get FREE Babylon license for EDUCATIONAL USE!

Good news for people in need of a translation software, but short on money. Babylon Ltd., provider of dictionary and translation solutions, started to give away free licenses for educational use. I joined in today and immediately got a reply. So give it a try. You may apply for a license of this handy translation tool to on this page .

EUR-Lex: FREE Access to EU Law

EUR-Lex provides direct free access to European Union law. Here you can consult the Official Journal of the European Union as well as the treaties, legislation, case-law and legislative proposals. You can also use the extensive search facilities available on EUR-Lex.
The information is available in ALL the official languages of the EU.

Click on the following link to go to the EUR-Lex website: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/index.htm

Recommended:

1. Recognition of diplomas and qualifications in the European Union
2. Multilingualism in the EU
3. Employment