Political events can influence language in an unpredictable way. They can affect (1) everyday language, (2) official language and (3) the language of the media. The media are recommended to students of a foreign language as a resource for acquiring practical present day language skills as well as a major source of cross cultural competence and communication. The shifts introduced by ideology and politics, however, are hurdles to both learning and translation which the author suggests have often been underestimated. It is particularly difficult to adjust the teaching/application of language to the speed of its moves toward new meaning because of their unpredictability, but a thorough awareness of the problems and pitfalls may help to avoid embarrassment. This contribution highlights three questions: (1) can we recognize such hurdles?; (2) can we surmount them?; (3) can we define any general rules for coping with the issue in the future, when the changes are likely to be faster than ever before?