Willamette World News

As you head into Spring Break some of you may have travel plans – wherein you may notice different fashions trends. Before you leave, take a look at this latest issue of the Willamette World News- read about trends in Germany, the season-less style in Colombia, fashion in China and more! Happy Spring Break! WWN […]

Welcome back! We hope you all had a fun and maybe different winter break. Our contributors from the international community certainly had a different experience than usual! We invite you to read about their experience in the States,  learn about traditions back home and the comparisons between the two! Happy 2012! WWN Editors -Nina and […]

Greetings from the World News Editors! We’re getting ready to wrap up the year, here’s your chance to read up on 10 things you probably didn’t know about different countries abroad! Check out some random facts about France, Colombia, China, Japan, Germany, and Spain!

Last week marked a historic occasion in human history as we saw our global population rise to over 7 billion people. This event sparked discussion about human achievements that have brought about this change, and also about issues that are bound to get worse due to the resources required to sustain such a large number […]

When, for the most part, the world spins around the ideals of consumerism and capitalism, it is often hard to reconcile these motifs with an environmental awareness. In the case of Spain, and in the past few years, there has been an evident effort from governmental quarters to implement policies that may contribute to a […]

As this school year comes to a close, our contributors are going to be returning to their home countries soon. Before their final goodbye, we have asked them to share memorable moments of their time here at Willamette. Read on and you will find friendships made, surprises and bittersweet goodbyes. Enjoy and have a good […]

My studying abroad will be at an end within three weeks. I still find it hard to phrase exact words to express how I feel about graduating from WU and saying good bye to friends. There are many things that happened in my life and these experiences have changed my life while I’m here. I […]

One of the most difficult aspects of this experience is describing it and answering those “How was it? Are you having fun? Is it a blast?’ questions. They’re not easy to answer because it’s not so simple to explain or easy to convey the bevy of emotions that this process involves. Of course there are […]

Since I came to the US, I have seen and felt many differences from Japan through daily life, contact with friends from all around the world and the people here, nature, and so on.

It is hard to believe that I am graduating in a few days… I feel like I came here only a few months ago, but I cannot even remember how I felt and how I was when I came here two years ago. I have so many great memories from these two years at Willamette. […]

It is always difficult to say goodbye, especially when you find amazing people. This has been undoubtedly one of the most enriching experiences in my professional and personal life.

When I think back on all the things I’ve seen, all of them are memorable. It is hard to choose one of them because I have so many cultural moments that I would like to share.

Time has a wing…

“Are French people mean?” is the first question that I’ve been asked during a presentation about France in a high school. So, are French people mean? My reply was that life is very different in cities like Paris from cities like Salem, so you just don’t meet the same kind of people in Paris and […]

We’ve asked out contributors to dig deep into their native language and let us know about some of the most interesting aspects of their slang and changing expressions. Here at the Language Learning Center, we’re taking this opportunity to tell you about our personal favorite tool, WordChamp! WordChamp is an online tool that allows you […]

Some people say that German is a difficult language. In terms of grammar, it is definitely not one of the easiest languages to learn as a second language. If your mother tongue is English you will encounter a lot of similarities concerning vocabulary, though, since both languages are Germanic languages.

In 2001, in a Hong Kong comedy film *Shaolin Soccer*, Sing (Stephen Chow) tells Mui (Zhao Wei): “Go back to Mars, the Earth is so dangerous.” Since then, people who seem strange to local culture are often referred to as Martians and strange Internet slang words are often called Martian words. *Martian language* has become […]

Language is in constant movement and it changes according to the user’s needs or context. There are different factors that influence language including internet, television and the possibility to access many sources of information in a short amount of time has made language a subject of change and something that responds and adapts to various […]

Argentina has a unique vocabulary of slang expressions that you won’t hear in any other country, except perhaps in neighboring Uruguay. Below is a list of some of the most common slang expressions that I have heard used by locals in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

There are some informal words, -slang words-, that we use far more than the “normal” or common words, like, for instance, the word “mec” (it means “guy”, but is perhaps more pejorative).

There are three sets of alphabets in Japanese: Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. Many nouns are written in Kanji, verbs and adjectives are written mostly in Kanji-Hiragana combination, particles and auxiliary verbs are in Hiragana, and words borrowed from foreign languages in Katakana.

Lately more than ever I’ve been noticing the subtle differences in the American, English and Australian grasps of the English language. I’m misunderstood almost daily and therefore this topic has been quite significant to me recently. From the beginning of my time abroad, I never expected to have such a difficult time being understood in […]

As spring slowly but surely arrives on campus, students are beginning to wake up from winter hibernation, and they are HUNGRY! Well, luckily for you we’ve got just the thing to satisfy your appetite. This issue is all about food. Discover unknown German cuisine, the diversity of crock pot cooking in Japan and more! Some […]

What can you imagine about Japanese food? There are a lot of famous foods in Japan. For example, Sushi, Tempura, Sukiyaki, and so on… I would like to share something about staple meals you would find in the Japanese home, especially during winter season. According to the calendar it is almost spring. However, we still […]

France is well-known in the world for its gastronomy. I am not myself an expert on the topic (I think some people expect all French to be wonderful chefs) but like many people, I know a few things about French food. First, it is characterized by its diversity. There are many French dishes that are […]