Fortunately, gone are the days where - Tradução em português

Hi everyone.

The other day I was reading a book and I came cross with this passage:

"Fortunately, gone are the days where the only way to learn a second language was to either become stranded in a foreign country or go back to high school language classes."

I think that one of the possible translations to this passage could be: "Felizmente, foram-se os dias onde a única forma de aprender uma segunda língua era - negrito - ou voltar para as aulas de idiomas do ensino médio."

What is the meaning of "to either become stranded"? Is this any sort of idiom or phrasal verb or even a collocation?

Note: if I made any mistake in my message, feel free to correct it if you want.

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3 respostas
Ordenar por: Data
Leonardo96 19 293
You got it right as far as the "gone are the days..." part of the sentence. Now as for "to either become stranded..." it's not an idiom, and it's important to connect it to the rest of the paragraph to understand its meaning, because "either" in that context was used with "or", which comes later in the sentence.

"either this or that" = ou isso ou aquilo.
"to be stranded somewhere" = to be secluded, isolated, trapped.

With that being said:

...was to either become stranded in a foreign country or go back to high school language classes= ... Era ou ficar preso/isolado em um país estrangeiro ou voltar para as aulas de idioma do ensino médio.
Redseahorse 4 35 574
To comprehend that extract, you'd better analyze that separately!

TO (EITHER) BECOME OR GO BACK. = Para (ou) tornar-se ou voltar;
STRANDED (ADJECTIVE) = ENCALHADO/PRESO.

" "Felizmente, foram-se os dias onde a única forma de aprender uma segunda língua era, ou tornar-se (encalhado/preso) em/a um país estrangeiro, ou voltar para as aulas de idiomas do ensino médio."
Thank you very much, guys. It was really helpful!