German teachers campaign to simplify handwriting in schools

t has long been a painful rite of passage for German schoolchildren – learning "die Schreibschrift", a fiddly form of joined-up handwriting all pupils are expected to have mastered by the time they leave primary school.

But now, many German teachers have had enough, insisting it is a waste of time to force children to learn a cursive script when they have already learned to print letters at kindergarten. Furthermore, they say, the joined-up handwriting is often illegible.

The Guardian

Vous êtes congédié! Monoglots bad for business

British business is losing out because of the nation's foreign language failings - yet academics are struggling to convince their universities to do anything about it.

Those were among the issues raised in The Future of UK Modern Languages, a debate organised by the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies and the Modern Humanities Research Association.

Times Higher Education

Baroness Cousins raises languages in the Lords

My Lords, I will raise briefly two or three issues connected with modern languages in relation to some of the Bill's objectives. I declare an interest as chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages.

Lihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnk to speech

British academics launch £18,000 humanities college in London

A new British college aiming to rival Oxford and Cambridge has been launched by leading academics.

New College of the Humanities will give a high-quality education to "gifted" undergraduates and a degree from the University of London, creators say.

BBC news