News, actualités, Nachrichten, noticias, notícias

Reading the news in the language we are learning is a wonderful way to train that language and get to know the culture and the way speakers of that language see the world. News media around the world usually organize themselves in an identical structure. Furthermore, some of the world news is the same, so one can read the same news in newspapers from different countries. This will give you the chance to compare the way each country sees the world, what they value, and the words they use to describe the same things.

Nowadays, some reference media have versions in different languages. For example, Euronews is available in 17 languages, including Arabic and Persian. However, be aware that it doesn’t necessarily mean that all versions have the same news or, if they have, the article will be exactly the same. Editions are independent from each other. National media may also have news available in different languages. For example, Deutsche Welle (DW) is a German TV channel and its website is available in 29 languages.

Below, we compare the basic structure of news media in English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Homeland, patrie, Heimat, patria, pátria

It is a well-known fact that Europe was devastated many times due to numerous wars throughout the centuries and, consequently, frontiers changed frequently. At that time, kingdoms and empires were really a collection of principalities and counties. The rulers of those territories would pledge their allegiance to the King or the Emperor and they were under their authority from then onwards. Common people didn’t feel they belonged to a country or that they had a nationality. They would feel they would belong to a religion or a region.

Nationalism is a political ideology that aims to make people believe they have a national identity superior to all others. This means that only a group of people (those who are part of a certain identity and possess certain characteristics) are part of a “nation”. On the other hand, patriotism is the love for one’s country and includes everyone who was born there (or acquired its citizenship) regardless of the characteristics they may have. The difference may be thin, but it does exist.

Below, we will discuss patriotism in a linguistic (and cultural) perspective.

Lawns, cherries, cows, and chickens

Proverbs or sayings are one of the best ways to get to know the culture of a country, or a language. A language is developed according to the place where it is born. That is why snowy countries have many words for snow and words and expressions related to the sea are common in coastal countries. Of course, with colonialism and the imposition of European languages in other parts of the world, this got a little distorted. However, European languages are evolving differently in each part of the world where they were introduced. This means that European languages are adapting themselves to other realities. That is why we have British English, American English, and Australian English, for example. It is the same language (English), but with specificities in each region. Even British English is not as harmonious as people might think.

As people are similar everywhere, some proverbs or sayings have the same meaning although they are presented differently, according to the reality of each language. On the other hand, there are those which are unique and don’t have a direct equivalence. When translating these, chances are they need to be explained rather than translated.

Let’s analyse a practical example, comparing an English proverb with its equivalent in French, Germany, Spanish, and Portuguese:

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

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