I happened to be on the website of Le Figaro, one of France’s biggest newspapers, and I noticed for the first time that it now has a section in English. Not sure how long it’s been there, but I don’t think it’s been there for too long – I’ve looked before, and never found it; I was starting to think that no major French newspaper would turn up in English. Anyways, I think it’s definitely a good thing: better communication can only lead to better relations between the French and the Anglo-Saxon world.
Germany’s Der Spiegel already has a well-established (and often interesting) English site; anyone know of any other major foreign newspapers or magazines (especially European ones) with English translations?
I’d also love to know of more. Beleive it or not I like to read non-US news sources.
Are you sure Le Figaro hasn’t offered this before? From what I understand French and English, for all practical purposes, are universal. As in, the majority of the world understands at least one. Le Figaro is big enough (I always thought they weere a large publication) would have had at least link to an English version.
Learn something new everyday.
If I can ask a side question, are there any English-version papers from China online? Not “renegade” publications, but papers “approved” by the government in Beijing?
I’m fairly sure it’s new for Le Figaro; I don’t speak French, but I like to visit foreign language newspapers every now and then to try to decipher the headlines and see what’s making news around the world. Usually I check to see if there’s a link to an English site; I think the last time I visited Le Figaro was during the French riots, and I don’t remember seeing the link then.
Ah, but that’s exactly why I thought the French newspapers never would create an English version. The French, by all reports, are very proud of their language, and have taken French’s declining status as a world language very much to heart. As French has declined, English has risen, and is its biggest linguistic competitor (hence the news stories you hear every now and then about language police in France and Quebec, etc.). So I didn’t think any French newspaper would want to help English along.
One site you might enjoy is http://signandsight.com/. It’s fairly new (I think it started this summer), and it’s based in Germany, but it translates articles and editorials from many different European publications into English. Some interesting stuff on there.
Not sure; I’ll let you know if I see any. I use Google News a lot, and I think I have seen Chinese newspapers listed (Google News is interesting like that – you’ll read a headline like “Nick and Jessica Splitting Up” and look down to see that the link is to the New Dehli Times).
Le Monde, another major Parisian newspaper, publishes a number of “special editions” for overseas French and others. Le Monde Diplomatique has long been in English (for 2 decades IIRC) – http://mondediplo.com/
There’s this one. I think this one is not just “approved,” but actually the party line. You could also try the South China Morning Post, which is (and always has been, I think) an English-language Hong Kong newspaper.
