First Week Events in the LRC!

Come get your Wimba and your Welcome Week on in the Language Lab!

Monday, Aug 24 10:00-12:00: McGraw Hill's Spanish line on Quia.
Monday, Aug 24 12:00-4:00: Eat & Greet with TED Talks from Allende, Davis + Pinker.

Tuesday, Aug 25 2:00-3:00: Wimba (Online) Workshop
Tuesday, Aug 25 3:00-4:00: Wimba (via WebCT) Workshop

Thursday, Aug 27 9:00-11:00: Open Session on Wimba + Audacity

Come join us and learn something!

Ukraine's Got Talent

Below is an amazing sand painting performance by Ukraine's Got Talent winner Kseniya Simonova. If your Ukrainian is rusty or you're too in awe of the images to follow the story they weave, the animation is a tribute to the Ukrainians who perished in World War II. It's no wonder there's hardly a dry eye in the audience.

Welcome Week in the Language Lab

On Monday, August 24, all are encouraged to come by the Language Resource Center in ECTR 225 as we watch TED talks on language and culture. We'll watch and discuss talks by linguist Stephen Pinker on language and the mind; ethnobotanist Wade Davis (author of the Serpent and the Rainbow) on the world's disappearing cultural diversity; Chilean author Isabel Allende talks about living passionately in the face of adversity... and more! We'll have food and beverages, good folks and good fun.

The event is aimed at students, but faculty and staff are certainly encouraged to drop in as well! We're a community, join us!

Maestro Abreu: Colma mi corazon de júbilo

TED Prize recipient Maestro Jose Antonio Abreu, who has spent years teaching music to poor children in Venezuela's El Sistema youth orchestra, makes a wish:


”I wish you would help create and document a special training program for at least 50 gifted young musicians, passionate for their art and for social justice, and dedicated to developing El Sistema in the US and in other countries.”

See more: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jose_abreu_on_kids_transformed_by_music.html

Read more: http://tedchris.posterous.com/#ixzz0FQJZZGYY&B

French OPIc Test In Progress!

Bonjour! Ç va? French OPIc testing is ready to go for those of you who signed up with Dr. Morrison:

http://testing.actfltesting.org/

The OPIc test is a great way to receive an official certification in your language proficiency. You've earned it, so why not get certified?

Good luck (we're sure it's not needed!), test takers!

Mes amis, French OPIc Test Next Week

Dust off your berets and black turtlenecks, the French OPIc test is scheduled in ECTR 225 on Tuesday, May 5 between the hours of 10 am and 4 pm.

French students, register with Dr. Morrison if you would like to take advantage of this unique opportunity to test for a certification of your French language skills at no cost - the French Department is footing the bill for testing of our majors and minors!

FFotW: Linux on the LRC Checkout Laptop

LRC Checkout Laptop Screen, originally uploaded by languagelab.cofc.

Times are tough, and the Lab's checkout laptop, from circa 2003, just can't functionally run Windows anymore. Windows is just too slow on a machine that old. Most faculty who use the laptop only need PowerPoint or to use the Web - teachable moment: ask me about alternatives to Powerpoint for your presentations.

Back to the topic at hand... Ubuntu to the rescue. The laptop runs fine under lightweight and sensible Linux. Note that we have fudged the OpenOffice shortcuts a bit to make users more comfortable with their Word and Powerpoint files. :)

Neither the new Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) nor recent its predecessors will send the display to a projector, which is pretty much what the machine gets checked out for. So we rolled back to Breezy Badger, which handles external display fine.

We should mention, thanks to user j / f / photos for the great image used for our desktop:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/good-karma/13622 73975/

We're all about the Creative Commons here at the CofC Language Resource Center.