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Free France Calendar when you subscribe to the Global Language Club!

The first fifteen people to subscribe to the Champs-Elysées Global Language Club by clicking a link in this newsletter will receive a copy of the stunning France 2008 calendar absolutely free! Now available worldwide to all audiomagazine subscribers, you can join the language elite for just $99 (£50, €65) with a subscription to Champs-Elysées's Global Language Club. As a member you will receive the following great benefits:

• Downloadable audio content
• New online page-turning transcripts*
• View the latest issues as soon as they are produced
• Practice more than one language
• 10% off at shop.champs-elysees.com
• Free shipping and handling (P&P) on all subscription orders
• Bonus electronic documents and audio

Join the Global Language Club and get exclusive access to mp3 downloads of our audiomagazines as soon as they are mastered, weeks in advance of when you will receive your CD or cassette version. To compliment the audio, we have now made the transcript* available online too, and using our page-turning software you can flick through the transcription of the audio for the language(s) you have a physical subscription to.

The benefits of Global Language Club membership don't end there. As a member, we will waive shipping and handling (P&P) charges on all your subscription orders, and give you 10% off all purchases of non-subscription items at our online shop, plus you get access to exclusive Global Language Club-only content in our new bonus folder.

To ensure you receive your free France calendar, sign up to the Global Language Club now. Click here to sign up online, or call us on 1-800 824 0829 in the US, or +44 (0)117 929 2318 in the UK and rest of the world, and we look forward to welcoming you to the language elite.

If you are already a member of the Global Language Club, you can sign in to your account by clicking here

*Please note transcripts do not include any translations or notes.

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Best wishes from all at Champs-Elysées.

Stop Press--Previews of the next issues of our audio magazines

Champs-Elysées
In the next issue of Champs-Elysées, 24-10, Evelyne Pagès interviews the renowned couturier and académicien, Pierre Cardin and Jean-François Johann pays tribute to the famous French crooner, Henri Salvador, who died recently.

Acquerello italiano
The next issue of Acquerello italiano, 14-02, will have a report on the Teatro Sperimentale di Spoleto--an opera school where foreign, especially Asian students, outnumber Italians. Another highlight is a visit to two ancient Roman domus found under Palazzo Valentini, the headquarters of the Rome provincial government.

Puerta del Sol
In the next issue of Puerta del Sol, 14-06, we have a report on the port of Algeciras, Spain's "Gateway to the South," and a portrait of the new president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Schau ins Land
In the next issue of Schau ins Land, 20-04, we interview well-known actor and producer, Michael "Bully" Herbig and we have an entertaining report from Bavaria on the history of the Lederhosen.

N.B. Content of future issues may be subject to change.

Featured Products

Spring clean out!

We now have very limited stock of Assimil language courses, at 40% off the usual price. Designed so you learn a new language the way you learnt your own--through natural assimilation. Assimil courses are designed to give absolute beginners a vocabulary of 2,000–3,000 words, a grounding in grammar and the ability to understand everyday conversation in just six months.

Orders can only be placed via our UK offices, so call us on +44 (0)117 929 2220 or send us an email to ukorders@champs-elysees.com and we will call you back to arrange your order.

These courses will sell out very quickly so call us now on +44 (0)117 929 2320 to place your order and make a great saving today!

Orders are on a first-come-first-served basis, and the prices quoted above do not include shipping and handling (P&P) and cannot be combined with any other offers.

Drop In For Some Lively Conversation

Check out the latest hot topics of conversation among our online community of language learners. We've set out below four of the most recent posts to whet your appetite and, hopefully, to encourage you to contribute:

French Language and Culture Forum
French TV channels in UK

German Language and Culture Forum
I need help understanding word order in German!

Italian Language and Culture Forum
Zucchero

Spanish Language and Culture Forum
Authentic Latin American children's authors

Please join in and post to our forums if you have a burning question to do with language learning or European culture or if you think you can help. As a Celect subscriber and language-learning enthusiast, we hope you enjoy reading and contributing to our online community.

Notable Notes

Italian Notable Note: Benjamino Esposito--extract from Acquerello italiano 14-01

The late Benjamino Esposito was the front man for the Orchestra Italiana. In 1998, after his death, Arbore and other friends brought out a CD featuring the artist and created a not-for-profit foundation in his honor, also sponsored by the Regione Campania and the Comune di Napoli, which offers prizes in several categories for emerging musicians. Among the 2005 winners was up and-coming Simone Cristicchi (b. 1977). Peppino Gagliardi (Naples, 1940) is an offbeat performer, mostly of Neapolitan dialect songs, whose career peaked in the 1970s. The title song of the Orchestra Italiana's 1996 album Pecché nun ce ne jammo in America ("Why Don't We Go to America"), on whose cover Renzo Arbore poses with Bill Clinton, was written by Arbore in collaboration with Esposito and Gagliardi. Esposito, by the way, is one of the most common last names in Naples. It derives from the historical practice whereby unwed mothers would leave their babies "exposed" outside a church or an orphanage.

Send us your suggestions!

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Language and Culture Resources

Cervantes TV

A new service from the Instituto Cervantes, Cervantes TV contains Spanish language videos of interviews with literary and political figures, the arts, documentaries and more. Watch a documentary on the new Alfonso Reyes exhibition by clicking here, and find out more about a man called "una de las grandes figuras intelectuales mexicanas del siglo XX" or take your pick from the other documentaries by clicking here.

French Fairy Tales

The online version of a physical exhibition at the Bibliothèque nationale de France which has long since finished, “Les Contes des Fées” is packed with information on the history of fairy tales – did you know that the motifs and structures of fairy tales are almost universal? The exhibition also contains hundreds of images of illustrations from fairy tales. Click here to start the image tour, and click here information on some of the best known authors of fairy tales.

Le Bon Patron

Correct your French spelling and grammar online, using this impressive tool. Typing in "une petit maison" and asking the tool to verify your text will highlight that the second word should be feminine. For more complex sentences, such as "il faut que je faire mes devoirs" the "je faire" is highlighted and the tool suggests changing the ending of the verb. Though the correct ending is not given (in fact in this case, it should be "fasse" in the subjunctive). Le Bon Patron is a very good starting point for correcting your spelling and grammar mistakes.