The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the
official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other
possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that
English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in
plan that would become known as 'Euro-English'. In the first year, 's' will replace
the soft 'c'. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard
'c' will be dropped in favour of 'k'. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards
kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year
when the troublesome 'ph' will be replaced with 'f'. This will make words like
fotograf 20% shorter. In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be
expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments
will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to
akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent 'e' in the
languag is disgrasful and it should go away. By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv
to steps such as replasing 'th' with 'z' and 'w' with 'v'. During ze fifz yer, ze
unesesary 'o' kan be dropd from vords kontaining 'ou' and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil
hav a reil sensi bl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun
vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

Here is a nice test for all levels together - http://www.englishtests.ru/?page=index&lang=en

Here is a really nice link - you can enlarge your vocabulary and donate rice - http://www.freerice.com

Do you like risk? Would you like to do a parachute jump or rock climbing? Why and why not?

Dear Signor Direttore,

Now I am tella you the story how I was treated at your hotella. I am comma from Palermo as tourist to London and stay as a young man at your hotella.
When I comma in my room I see no shit in my bed. How can I sleep with no shit in my bed? I calla down the receptione and tell:" I wanna shit." They tella me "Go to the toilet." I said "No, no. I wanna shit in my bed." They said "You betta not shit in your bed, you sonnawabitch." What is sonnawabitch?
I go down to ristorante for breakfast. I order bacon and eggs an two pisses of toast. I getta only one piss of toast. I point to toast "I wanna piss." The waitress tella me "Go to the toilet." I say "No, no. I wanna piss on my plate." She then say to me "You bloody fella better not piss on the plate, you sonnawabitch." Second peron who do not even know me and call me sonnawabitch! What is sonnawabitch?
Later I go dinner into ristorante. Spoon and knife is laid but no fock. I tella waitress "I wanna fock." and she tella me "Sure, everybody wanna fock." I tell her "No, no. You don't understand me. I wanna fock on the table." She then tell me "So you sonnawabitch, wanna fock on the table? Get your ass outa here!"
So I go to the receptione and ask for bills. I no wanna stay in your hotel no more. When I have pay the bills, the porter say to me "Thank you and peace be with you." I say "Piss on you too, you sonnawabitch." I go back to Italy! I never more comma stay in your hotella, you sonnawabitch!

Continuing the topic of marriages: what do you think of living together without being registered? I mean what is called "grazhdanski brak"?

What do you think of the following statement:
Parents and their married children should live separately.

What do you think of such a kind of service as "Dating sites" in the Internet? Isn't is a kind of risk of loading your photo and information and then "blind-dating" (cause you don't really know if  it is a real person with a real photo)? I met boys who thought that a girl looking for a life partner by such methods is not  decent ( I mean they thought that such a girl was looking for  a kind of fun and nothing more), which is, of course, not true. Well, there are a lot of people looking just for sex, for one night, but what should other people do? And how effective is this method?

What do you think of marriage of convenience? Could you marry to a person you don't love for money or social status, or just because of your age (when you suppose it to be your last chance)?
These are some words from a text about marriage of convenience:
"The fact is that in a marriage of convenience you expect less and so you are less likely to be disappointed. Passion is all very well, but it it not a proper foundation for marriage. For two people to be happy in marriage they must be able to respect one another, and their interests must be alike; then if they are decent people and are willing to give and take, to live and let live, there is no reason why their union should not be happy."

These are 15 films to be released this summer. Which of them are you looking forward with impatience and why? Are these some new films of which you'd heard or, may be, some sequels?

I rarely write here 'cause I have no much time and sometimes I have no idea what to write either) BUT it's very pleasant to see new members here)
So, because of our community consists of girls-readers mainly I'd like to talk about serials (and not only about soap operas). Of course, I suppose that youth of today doesn't like soap operas, but there is a plenty of other good films.
For example, I like "Friends" (and I know that here are the same addicted persons) and the new american serial "Weeds", and in my childhood I liked very much "Thunder in paradise" (you know, with Hulk Hogan, and today it's very strange to see it and to compare those feelings with today's ones). I won't name those soap operas that I saw when I was a little girl 'cause there were so much of them)
So, now here is the question: What did you watch when you were a child and what do you watch now?

Let's talk about traditions. Maybe your family or you with your friends have your own tradition?
For example, when I studied at school, all the girls of our class decided that we would gather each year on 23 of February. This tradition originated from the 23 of February 2001 (if I am not wrong), wneh before the congratulating our boys-classmates we'd bought a cake and went to my house to celebrate the holiday (girls only))
Next year we gathered also, but then... boys, men... they don't like to be alone at this holiday, so now there is no such tradition...

Japanese Banking Crisis

Recent reports indicate the Japanese banking crisis shows no signs of improving. If anything, it's getting worse. Following last week's news that Origami Bank had folded, it was today learned that Sumo Bank has gone belly up. Bonsai Bank plans to cut back some of its branches. Karaoke Bank is up for sale and is going for a song.

Meanwhile, shares in Kamikaze Bank have nose-dived and 500 jobs at Karate Bank will be chopped. Analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank and staff there fear they may get a raw deal.


Unknown words:
to indicate - обращать внимание, указывать
to fold - сгибать; "накрываться медным тазом"
belly up - "кверху пузом" ( o фирме, которой угрожает банкротство )
to cut back - сокращать
to go for a song - продаваться за гроши
share - акция
to nose-dive - пикировать; резко падать, снижаться
job - внезапный удар, толчок, тычок
to chop - отрезать, отрубать; урезать; резко сокращать
fishy - сомнительный, подозрительный
raw deal - (sl.) нечестная сделка

В колонках играет - The Cure - Burn

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In one English book there is a unit under the name "Eating out", and after it there are some exercises. And the third question in the first exercise is: "Which of the places in A opposite would you go to if you have three small children with you?"
Well, the right answer is "A fast-food restaurant".
Maybe, in different countries there are different fast-food chains, but I suppose that, for example, McDonald's is the same for all of them. So, as for me, I would never take three small children with me there.
Do you happen to know anything about these chains all over the world? Are there really good fast-food chains? For some reason, I don't think that they really exist.

What do you usually ask for when you go to a cafe?
And what kind of cafe should it be so that you go there?

How do you usually raise your spirits when you are depressed? Shopping, reading, meeting with friends or anything else?

Summing up the results of the year 2006, could you tell us what exciting event remained in your memory? Maybe, some of your dreams came true or it was an unpleasant event? What do you remember about the last year?

I've got plenty of different links and I'd like to share them with you:

Spanish:

http://espanol.net.ru
http://www.donquijote.org
http://www.studyspanish.ru
http://www.spanish.about.com
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryspanish
http://spanish.report.ru

English:
http://www.britishcouncil.org
http://www.atrefact.lib.ru
http://www.uztranslations.net.ru
http://www.study.ru
http://www.mystudy.ru
http://about.com/food
http://www.alleng.ru/english/txb.htm
http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish
http://www.unibuc.ro/eBooks/filologie/mateescu/cuprins.htm - English phonetics and phonological theory
http://www.businessenglishonline.net/InCompany/resources-ws.htm - Macmillan Business English
http://www.ricgroup.com.au/RICNetschool/netschool.html
http://www.homeenglish.ru
http://learnenglish4freeonline.com/index.php
http://www.e-lingvo.net
http://www.anriintern.com/leseng2/langpart/temple1.htm
http://www.sparknotes.com
http://www.samouchiteli.ru
http://librivox.org/librivox-catalogue

France:
http://www.french.about.com
http://tenpi-co.pisem.net/lessons1.htm

Happy New Year and Merry Christmas to everybody!
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In our childhood we dreamed of different occupations. I recall that in Soviet Union time boys wanted to be cosmonauts and when The Soviet Union collapsed and some of them got the opportunity to have different interesting toys, most of them wanted to be transformers)
Girls wanted to be teachers, doctors and mothers, of course (but I suppose I can't name being a mother as an occupation).
I'd like to find out if someone's wishes coincide with someone's possibility and real life.
So, there's a question for you: who did you want to be and where do you work now?