Living and working, permanently or even temporarily, in a foreign language country often, unfortunately, means living in semi-ignorance. You may know what’s going on all around the world but you often don’t know what’s going on right under your nose. Local news in your own language is often hard to come by, you usually learn about things long after they happen, if ever.

You find yourself lunching with colleagues or dining with friends talking about things or people you have no inkling of, who’s that? What? Huh? Well, if you live or work in Italy you can now access the recently launched Il Sole 24 Ore English version Italy 24. It’s great for a quick catch-up on the state of the economy, definitions for all those darn acronyms, a clue to who all those millions of politicians really are, and a peek into what’s not happening – speculation let’s call it.

Great for English learners and teachers, translators and normal folk just trying to have an intelligent informed conversation, informed, well not totally, perhaps one day we’ll get an Italian tabloid in English and we’ll find out what’s so fascinating about all those “telenovela” stars. That would really be the day. Oh, let’s hope this news site is still going long after the Expo is over.

You can catch up on what’s happening in Italy, in English (jump around, it’s not all boring) at http://www.italy24.ilsole24ore.com

maka language consulting
www.makaitalia.com