情侣装 (qínglǔzhuāng): Lovers Clothing is a trend in China and Korea whereby a couple or lovers will wear matching, nearly identical clothing. This fashion for two concept is particularly popular on campuses but celebrities can also be spotted sporting the look.

More photos after the break...

生白族 (shēngbáizú): life idiot, this term refers to youths who cannot carry out basic tasks such as washing clothes, folding quilts, cooking food or in more extreme cases cannot even tie their own shoe laces. Life idiots are children and adolescents suffering from little emperor syndrome.

Dried-Fish Woman [himono onna - 干物女] is an increasingly popular expression that first appeared in the TV drama Hotaru no Hikari (ホタルノヒカリ) broadcasted in the summer of 2007 on NTV. The expression describes a woman in her 20s who has renounced the pursuit of romance. She spends her evenings reading manga and drinking at home alone, and she spends her weekends lazing around in bed.

The opposite of a dried-fish woman is a stekki-josei : considerate and sweet, always graceful – even when at home alone. A stekki-josei has hobbies and is eager to learn new things. She relaxes by drinking herbal tea, unlike a dried-fish woman who drinks beer.

You can find all the episodes of Hotaru no Hikari here. The episodes are subtitled in English

A retrospective of Andrei Tarkovsky’s films will be screened in London at the Curzon Mayfair Cinema between the 5 and 14 December 2007 as part of the Russian ACT Festival.

Russia Today is a 24/7 English-language news channel whose aim is to present a Russian view point on events happening in Russia and around the globe. You can now watch it live over the web with Windows Media Player simply by clicking on the ‘Watch Now’ icon on the Russia Today home page.

Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, Zhejiang University in China, the Indian Institute of Science in India and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt have been collaborating on a digital library project since 2002. The results of their efforts has just been launched: over 1.5 million books are now available online at ulib.org.

Glimpster is a new video podcast network. They have a new site Rolling Rs where Larry Keim offers weekly spanish learning video podcasts. We particularly liked R28 and R29 on spanish pronunciation but these two podcasts are audio only.

The Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky stars in a fascinating new documentary that examines the impact of China’s massive industrial revolution. With breathtaking sequences, such as the opening tracking shot through an almost endless factory, the film makers allow us to meditate on our impact on the planet and witness both the epicentres of industrial endeavour and the dumping grounds of its waste.

Cédric Klapisch, the French movie director of cult films “L’Auberge Espagnole” and “Les Poupées Russes" has a new film in post-production. The new film is titled "Paris" and is due out in February 2008. Klapisch sees it has ‘a snapshot of the Paris of today’ that ‘shows the city’s gentrification and immigration’. It stars many famous French actors such as Juliette Binoche, François Cluzet, Zinédine Soualem and Romain Duris – who plays the central character.

You can watch the trailer here.

Madame Thomas has posted this video listing French speaking countries on TeacherTube. You can visit her website here.