Casco Antiguo, Panama City

San Felipe

For those of you who might like to keep up with Panama news while working on your Spanish language skills, here is an interesting idea.   Be aware, that as far as we can determine, this works only with Google. 

   Google up La Prensa Panama.  From the main page which will be in Spanish, you'll find a link to La Prensa that says in light blue, "translate this page."   Click on that. The next screen will have the front page translated to English.  Choose an article you want to read by clicking on “more”.   What's interesting about this option is that as you click on articles, you can put your cursor over a sentence (sometimes an entire paragraph) and see it in the original Spanish.  (Be aware, that the translations option doesn’t work for the first screen which is the main page. You have to be on one of the stories.)

     Now, as many of you have may already know, automatic translations can sometimes produce some weird results, and that can happen here.   However, comparing even occasionally mangled English text with the Spanish original will more often than not be helpful, especially if your Spanish is advanced enough to discount what doesn't seem to make sense.

     To our knowledge, La Prensa translated by Google is the only Panama journalism source offering this English to Spanish translation option.    However, La Prensa as the most prominent Panama newspaper is a valuable source of information.

     There are other ways to get news from Panama in English, though and we'll get into that topic soon.  If you are planning a trip to Panama, be sure to visit Casco Viejo. During the coming weeks, this UNESCO Heritage site will be in the news frequently. Why? We’ll leave that up to you to find out through La Prensa.  Or, keep reading this blog for the latest news of What’s Happening in Casco Antiguo.