April 2009 K-1 Filers

[attaya_girl 1]

I was thinking about our little group here while I was pulling the cylinder head off my motor today , and Nan called me to see what I was up to, and it was hard for me to explain to here over the phone, what exactly I was doing... She knows the truck is broken, but thats about it. And I wondered how everyone else here communicates with their SO... in terms of language that is... Nan and I use about a 60/40 split of English/Thai respectively, with me learning more Thai and Nan learning more english over time .

I know we have Ken with your SO from columbia. Are you fluent in spanish?

usagroom do you speak chinese?

attaya_girl does your SO speak english fluently?

I think lisa has no problem in this department...

Who else am I forgetting here?

Neil

Hahaha! Nill, first of all, you telling me that you're pulling the cylinder head off your motor today doesn't even sound like English to me So, I wouldn't beat yourself up too much for that one. The language thing was more difficult in the beginning. My SO definitely does NOT speak fluent English. We speak French together. It was difficult at first because I met him the first day I arrived in Senegal (he worked at the school where I was studying abroad) and I hadn't spoken in French in about a year. The first month of knowing one another was all stumbling and grammatical errors. It's much easier now, and we don't have too many hiccups in the communication department. When I'm tired or stressed, though, the languages all bumble up in my head and he sometimes bursts out laughing because of some great mistake I made.

When it comes to technical conversations like the one you're referring to, though, I have problems too. A few weeks ago I had a heard time explaining to him that my hard drive at work had a virus. Stuff like that.

Oh! Have any of you read Intercultural Marriage, Promises and Pitfalls? The 2nd edition is really good, but she talks a lot about how language differences can both be a strength and a weakness in intercultural relationships like ours. It can cause weaknesses for all the obvious reasons, but the fact that we have to think about what we say before we say it and make sure that we are communicating efficiently is, so she says, one of the most important puzzle pieces of a marriage, and people that speak the same language don't always but the same thoughtfulness behind each and every word that they utter to their SO. Just food for thought....And I'm done rambling. Off to work!

[Maverick64 0]

I was thinking about our little group here while I was pulling the cylinder head off my motor today , and Nan called me to see what I was up to, and it was hard for me to explain to here over the phone, what exactly I was doing... She knows the truck is broken, but thats about it. And I wondered how everyone else here communicates with their SO... in terms of language that is... Nan and I use about a 60/40 split of English/Thai respectively, with me learning more Thai and Nan learning more english over time .

I know we have Ken with your SO from columbia. Are you fluent in spanish?

usagroom do you speak chinese?

attaya_girl does your SO speak english fluently?

I think lisa has no problem in this department...

Who else am I forgetting here?

Neil

Hello Nill! We are one day behind ya on our NOA (April 22) , my SO speaks English fluently...and is self taught!

[endoftheroad 1]

usagroom do you speak chinese?

Hua can speak waaaaaay more English than I can Chinese (I can say about 70 words/phrases). My oldest son can speak/read/write a bunch of Chinese, he just finished year one of honors Chinese at his high school. But you know Chinese has many dialects, 50+. So one can speak Beijing, Shanghai. Guangzhou (Canton), Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc. None are the same. All are variants of Mandarin (sort of) but each says/writes things very different.

My girls relish learning English and they tell me not to worry about learning Chinese, they know it is so difficult. Did I mention I love them?

So when we communicate it is nearly all in English. I got her one of those way cool Besta tranlators (speaks words and allows for inputting letters/characters) so often she ask me to spell a word.

Edited June 12, 2009 by usagroom

[ashenflowers 5]

I know I wasn't pinpointed in the language discussion, but wanted to jump in... lol Both myself and my SO speak English, and only English (I wish I was bilingual, but that's another story which I will refrain from telling as I might inadvertently blame my parents for that lack of cultural upbringing).

Anyhoooo... my sister-in-law is from Cambodia though, and English is definitely her 2nd, or possibly 3rd language. My brother does not speak any Khmer, so he can't communicate with her family except through her. She does well with English, but has a very thick accent, and sometimes issues with grammar, mostly just with pluralization. Occasionally we have a hard time understanding what she is trying to say, but if everyone is patient, we all get on the same page eventually... She's improved a lot though in the years since they've been married and in Canada (moving back to Cambodia though this summer). They plan to raise their kids in Cambodia apparently, and I think will raise them speaking both languages (since my brother only speaks English, and they'd be in an area where bilingualism is much more supported).

Which makes me think... for those of you in a bilingual relationship, will you be raising any possible children bilingually, or just speaking English? Just curious.

[endoftheroad 1]

... for those of you in a bilingual relationship, will you be raising any possible children bilingually, or just speaking English? Just curious.

My daughter will be learning English and my sons will learn Chinese (I should say all will continue learning because they have already started). Bilinguality all the way. So much easier for the children, especially when they are chattering together. Edited June 12, 2009 by usagroom

[attaya_girl 1]

Our kids will grow up speaking....four languages Lamine grew up speaking six languages. They'll speak English, French, Wolof, and Manding. We plan on raising our children in Senegal for at least a few years of their lives, and we want them to be able to communicate with his side of the family (obviously), so that requires the Wolof and Manding. I'm not fluent in those two, but I'm learning...

[Chaz and Riggs 0]

I just hope my future children will have the adorable English accent. That would be so darn cute.

[ashenflowers 5]

I just hope my future children will have the adorable English accent. That would be so darn cute.

[endoftheroad 1]

They'll speak English, French, Wolof, and Manding.

Oh if we're counting dialects then it'll much more than two for us (I can converse in nine languages and my sons in four each now). I can speak a little Beijing and Shanghai too. Chinese has been the toughest by far. Edited June 12, 2009 by usagroom

[attaya_girl 1]

Hmmm..... What's the difference between dialects and languages? Manding and Wolof are definitely two very distinct and different languages. There aren't any similarities between them at all....I know what you're saying, though. Because I speak some Manding, I can also understand some Pulaar and Bambara, etc.

[NillandNan 0]

Looks like I opened up a can of worms with that question haha!

In other news. I found just found out our case is stuck in AP @ NVC... Awesomeness

Neil

[endoftheroad 1]

Hmmm..... What's the difference between dialects and languages? Manding and Wolof are definitely two very distinct and different languages. There aren't any similarities between them at all....I know what you're saying, though. Because I speak some Manding, I can also understand some Pulaar and Bambara, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manding_languages

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolof_language

[tamirpcv 0]

Hmmm..... What's the difference between dialects and languages? Manding and Wolof are definitely two very distinct and different languages. There aren't any similarities between them at all....I know what you're saying, though. Because I speak some Manding, I can also understand some Pulaar and Bambara, etc.

It's been a while since I've posted. I hope everyone is doing well.

Attaya girl, you speak some Bambara? I ni che? I ka kene wa? I che be bo Senegali. Ne che be bo Mali la. U fila bee be se ka Bananakan fo. I jiga, an bena visa soro k'an che bila Ameriki.

My fiance speaks Bambara, though he's not from the Bambara tribe. He's a Bobo or Bwa, which is on the Malian Burkina Border. He speaks French, Bambara, Bomu, Peul (Fula), and Minianka. We speak French together, with a little bit of English and Bambara thrown in.

And its right what you said earlier. They are all distinct languages. Completely different and apart from one another.

[endoftheroad 1]

Dialects are usually a common major language spoken differently, not just a different accent. Typically people of different dialects cannot understand each other very well.

Edited June 12, 2009 by usagroom

[Ken y Leidys 20]

I know we have Ken with your SO from columbia. Are you fluent in spanish?

I've had a few years of intensive Spanish review with help from co-workers on the job. When I met Leidys' family, they all asked me, "What part of Barranquilla do you come from?" So, the accent, vocabulary, and verb tenses all work fluidly...almost. I want Leidys to learn English, but I figure its best for one of us to be able to communicate 100% with the other before we start studying different languages. When she comes here, my Mother plans to help her along with taking classes at the Junior College as well.

Niel, You got stuck in AP?? #######?!? Hopefully, you will have a response as to why this happened. You're a good guy, and you two look like you're for real in the photo. Stay strong and don't let this stop both of you.