New Year's resolution - improve my English! If your New Year's resolution was to improve your English, a good place to start might be to listen to more English. Many of you have .mp3 players (iPods, etc.). Instead of listening to music, try some English. Several postings have already pointed to places to download law-related material, some of it long and of interest only to specialists. If you're looking for something shorter, simpler, and with more written help for the language learner, try Breaking News English. You'll find short (about 2 min.) soundfiles, with a choice of easier or harder versions, featuring stories in the news. Some of the stories have a legal angle (see the list below), but they can also be about things like smashing (literally) works of art. The current story begins "An angry 77-year-old art hater has been arrested in Paris for hitting a valuable work of art with a hammer." (even here we find some legal vocabulary) Some stories with a legal angle from the BNE archives 2006-01-04: UN suspends international trade in caviar - easier | harder 2006-01-03: Starbucks wins logo case in China - easier | harder 2005-12-27: Libya overturns AIDS death penalties - easier | harder 2005-12-17: The Beatles sue EMI for $50 million - easier | harder 2005-12-11: New life given to Kyoto Protocol - easier | harder 2005-12-05: Rice faces questions over CIA prisons - easier | harder 2005-11-22: Australia's death row plea to Singapore - easier | harder 2005-10-30: China’s death penalty reform - easier | harder 2005-10-20: David Beckham to defend marriage in court - easier | harder 2005-10-19: Corruption widespread in 70 countries - easier | harder 2005-09-15: Annan pleads for United Nations reform - easier | harder