1. Three pieces on language(s) to start with today:

a) Thanks to Rod Bolitho for this piece by Ana Schabl, a Slovenian short story writer, for The Guardian: Do you speak a ‘big’ global language? Here’s what my tiny language can teach you https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/24/language-speak-big-slovene-english-germanThere are lots of even tinier languages than Slovene out there with lessons to teach us – for the time being.

b) A piece in The Conversation from Abigail Parrish of Sheffield University, Young people in Britain aren’t bad at learning languages – but the school system doesn’t make it easy for them https://theconversation.com/young-people-in-britain-arent-bad-at-learning-languages-but-the-school-system-doesnt-make-it-easy-for-them-227485

c) Another piece in The Conversation, this one from Sascha Stollhans of Leeds University, The UK is poorer without Erasmus – it’s time to rejoin the European exchange programme https://theconversation.com/the-uk-is-poorer-without-erasmus-its-time-to-rejoin-the-european-exchange-programme-227498 Chance would be a fine thing …

2. Thanks to Alan Maley for giving me a sharp poke in the ribs on this one: HLT’s new regular Eco Issues section, for which Alan wrote this inaugural article, Global Ecological Collapse and the Power of Teachers https://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr24/global-ecological-collapse

Chimes in many ways with Rose Aylett’s IATEFL plenary on learner and teacher agency that I mentioned last week – here’s the link to Rose’s talk again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hor2Iyx80is

3. And on this one – ouch, Alan! The new, Winter 2024 issue of Teacher Training Journal has just come out https://pilgrimsttj.com/  and has the usual wide range of interesting articles, this time including Teacher Education during “unteachable” times:  teacher preparation and induction in areas of intractable conflict by Julia Schlam Salman & Brigitta R. Schvarcz from Israel and Many hands make light work: team-teaching within the Hands Up project (in Palestine) by Nick Bilborough. PDF of the whole issue below.

4. The week before last, I had the great pleasure of chairing a reading by David Howard, a New Zealand poet who should be much better known in the UK. David has written a wonderful sequence of poems, Mate (which is a Dalmatian name, pronounced Maat-eh, not a greeting!), about the encounter between Dalmatian immigrants to Aotearoa and the local Māori people at the turn of the century. Each poem in the sequence is told from the perspective of a different member of the Petricevich family. PDF of the sequence below, with explanatory notes at the end, and David’s website here https://davidhowardpoet.com/

5. And, finally and melodically, the Tord Gustavsen Trio play Right There, one of my favourite songs of theirs (or anyone else’s) https://youtu.be/DzFPZ01tFjg?feature=shared More of TGT here https://www.youtube.com/live/XN-QRGhJ8TY?feature=shared