1. This post is late – and solitary and longer! – this week because I’ve been attending a colloquium on Regional and minority languages within a plurilingual context at the ECML (European Centre for Modern Languages) in Graz in Southern Austria https://www.ecml.at/ECML-Programme/ECML-ECCooperation/participants/tabid/5784/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

Here’s the recording of the first two sessions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE-4nu2BcLA

and here’s the programme, to guide your viewing https://www.ecml.at/Portals/1/documents/events/ECML-EC%20Colloquium_7Nov2023_RML_Final%20agenda_EN.pdf PDF below.

2. One language discussed in Graz was Romansh, and Lia Rumantscha is the umbrella organisation for all Romansh-speaking individuals and organisations. Take a peek at their website https://www.liarumantscha.ch/rm which I think you’ll find more intelligible than you might have been expecting.

3. Here’s the ECML’s Multilingual Joke Book https://edl.ecml.at/Portals/33/documents/jokebook-2023.pdf Groans guaranteed; PDF below!

4. Here’s the latest issue of the ECML’s European Language Gazette

https://www.ecml.at/News/Newsletter/Gazette66/tabid/5678/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

5. Lots of good advice from Nik Peachey in this talk for Oxford ELT, How to plan and present ELT workshops https://oxfordtefl.com/blog/how-to-plan-and-present-elt-workshops/ Not just for ELT-wallahs, I suggest!

6. A cautionary debate from The Economist with Mustafa Suleyman & Yuval Noah Harari, What does the AI revolution mean for our future?

Highlights https://youtu.be/b2uEAgLeOzA?feature=shared

Full debate https://youtu.be/7JkPWHr7sTY?feature=shared

7. And, finally, here’s one definitely positive use to which AI has been put recently, a library of restored and AI-enhanced films https://www.youtube.com/@livinghistoryaienhanced

Try Soho in London in 1956 (a very good year) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bExnm7MZ53M

or Edinburgh in 1934 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98F2z8qh5Eo