Best Foreign-Language News

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JasonArcher
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Best Foreign-Language News

Postby JasonArcher » Fri Jul 16, 2021 6:19 am

One of the reasons I want to learn languages is foreign-language news. I occasionally see news stories treated very differently between English-language news sources and Spanish-language sources (My Spanish is still weak, but it's sufficient to read most general-interest news stories). What are some other high-quality global news sources in other languages?

Thank you.
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Re: Best Foreign-Language News

Postby DaveAgain » Fri Jul 16, 2021 7:22 am

I don't keep up with breaking news, but a French current affairs programme I like is C dans l'air.
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Re: Best Foreign-Language News

Postby SCMT » Fri Jul 16, 2021 5:14 pm

I think both https://www.bbc.com/mundo and https://elpais.com/america/ are excellent, and I read one or the other almost daily.

For broadcast, my favorite is CNN in Spanish (I have no idea how to type the ~ over both Ns, but that''s how it is spelled,) which is a little surprising because I don't particularly like the network in English. Noticias Telemundo is my regular choice now, simply because I no longer get CNNe.
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Re: Best Foreign-Language News

Postby Steve » Fri Jul 16, 2021 6:52 pm

Much of my focus on news is audio and video for improving my listening comprehension. Not necessarily the "best" (depending on one's priorities), but here are the two I find helpful for improving my Spanish as well as covering topics I typically find interesting enough that I am not bored.

I tend to follow the Spanish daily version of NHK from Japan. It's a handful of articles with word for word audio. I wouldn't so much call them transcripts as saying the audio is reading the articles. It's a handful of different readers who have generally pleasant voices and pronunciations. It's about 10 to 12 minutes of reading (not counting call sign and theme music, etc.) on weekdays with somewhat less on weekends. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/es/news/

I also follow Russia Today's Spanish channel. No subtitles or transcripts and a range of announcers for Europe and the Americas so a range of accents and coverage from around the world. They also have a lot of nice documentaries that can be watched on demand. Some of the content is dubbed with the same handful of people (with clear and pleasant speaking voices) which makes it easier to understand for me. https://actualidad.rt.com/en_vivo
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Re: Best Foreign-Language News

Postby Chung » Fri Jul 16, 2021 6:55 pm

JasonArcher wrote:One of the reasons I want to learn languages is foreign-language news. I occasionally see news stories treated very differently between English-language news sources and Spanish-language sources (My Spanish is still weak, but it's sufficient to read most general-interest news stories). What are some other high-quality global news sources in other languages?

Thank you.


For purely learning a language, I've found regular news programs on YLE Areena and Tagesschau to have their place when working on my Finnish and German respectively. In both cases, I can turn on subtitles in Finnish and German meant for viewers with hearing impairments and so get a running transcript of the narration and interviews. As a bonus, the German network ZDF offers a daily news broadcast for kids called logo! - die Kindernachrichten which is much shorter and presents current events in terms more understandable to German kids (or learners) (scroll down to "Sendungen" for broadcasts). Like the other two programs, the videos on logo! come with optional subtitles for the hearing-impaired so can be useful to a learner wanting a running transcript to go with the speech.

As far as different slants or approaches, it's ranged from a benign focus on local concerns/events (e.g. a domestic league championship game that would interest only some locals) to an obnoxious reinforcement of whatever world-view the editors or sponsors hold. I like to think that know what I'm getting when it comes to bias or slanting in a news program. To be honest, I roll my eyes whenever I come across a shred of tendentiousness in a news story when it's clear that at least two counterparties are involved (i.e. "It's more the other side's fault/problem than mine (ours)!").

The framing using a given POV is often related to the ambitiousness and support of the sponsoring party/government. For example, I'm hardly riled up or struck by Realpolitik games when watching how YLE, ZDF or even CBC (Canada) present "international" news compared to how news programs on TRT (Turkey), CGTN (China), RT (Russia) or RFE/RL (USA) present them.

P.S. You could also try to satisfy your aims of practicing your abilities in a foreign language via news by looking into slowed-down or simplified broadcasts which cater to learners of (im)migrants to a new country. In addition to News in Slow Spanish, there are similar programs for Finnish, French, German, Italian and Swedish.
Last edited by Chung on Sat Jul 17, 2021 4:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Best Foreign-Language News

Postby iguanamon » Fri Jul 16, 2021 8:40 pm

For Spanish, besides CNN en Español, BBC Mundo, and El País, I regularly read AP en Español. AP en Español human translates articles from English and also has original articles in Spanish. They do a multiple country top ten list of bestselling books in Spanish in the US, LA, and Spain. They have good sports coverage and good arts and culture coverage as well- No pay wall

Locally (well, close enough), I read El Nuevo Día a newspaper out of San Juan, Puerto Rico- pay wall for some articles. I enjoy El Nuevo Herald from Miami, Florida- especially their local South Florida news. Always something weird and unusual there, often involving alligators, iguanas, tattoos- they did a good job covering the recent condominium collapse in the area there as well. Miami and South Florida are a place where Spanish is ubiquitous in daily life. I speak almost more Spanish there than I do in Puerto Rico. If I leave island to go to the US, Europe, even Latin America, I have to spend some time in Miami to change planes. There's a pay wall after a certain amount of articles.

Global Voices Español is a great alternative news site for under-reported stories. They have original and human translated articles which is good for making your own parallel texts. Global Voices is available in well over a dozen languages. They always have something interesting to read.

The New York Times has an edition in Spanish, with translated and original articles.

Listening, CNN en Español often plays in the background here while I work. To me, they are more serious about news than their English counterparts. Plenty of video, print and podcasts on their site. You can listen to their audio feed live.

I also listen to RFI Español (Radio France International) which has a news and information- culture, in-depth, sports, health, etc. podcast. No transcript.

For video, I like Deutsche Welle en Vivo. You can watch it live 24 hours a day on youtube for free. Announcers are from all over the Spanish-speaking world. They have a newscast 10-15 minutes long or so followed by reports about a wide range of topics- newsworthy and pop-culture. DW Documental is their youtube channel for Documentaries. I wish I had something like DW available back when I was learning Spanish pre-internet!

Besides NHK, a US alternative news site, DemocracyNow, has a daily newscast with a podcast and transcript available- look at the top middle of the page for "escuche" and "lee" button links. It's fast audio and a translation of the English original... but, hey, there's a transcript. I can listen to it broadcast on the radio in my car here.

For language-learners, if a learner already knows international (even national news in the US) news in their own language, then they have half a chance of understanding it in L2. The news, and related topical items like culture, sports, health reports, expose a learner to a wide variety of vocabulary. There are plenty of free sources and the ability to make one's own parallel texts.

edit: links; spelling
Last edited by iguanamon on Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Best Foreign-Language News

Postby tractor » Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:20 pm

My favourite foreign language news channel is BBC News in English.
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Re: Best Foreign-Language News

Postby Le Baron » Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:41 pm

tractor wrote:My favourite foreign language news channel is BBC News in English.


They have started to tell a lot of lies since Cameron parachuted-in all those right-wing executives to the News division. I barely go there these days.

I don't follow as much news as I once did I just glance at the headlines, but I like to drop into France Culture because they make interesting podcasts.
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