languages and other questions about interview

[sereia 0]

i know this question is wayyy in advance but when my fiance gets his interview inchallah... if the interviewer asks him what languages *I* speak.........what should he tell them? i'm okay in french but not fluent, and i speak a little arabic. our conversations include all three languages. if anyone listens to us they'd laugh. should he just tell them i speak french. end of story? how would they even know anyway if i do or don't? i won't be at the interview. and our emails are 100% in french.

also my fiance has a cousin here in the US. he doesn't live in my city and i'm not even sure if its a 1st oe 2nd, 3rd cousin....... will this affect him? do they ask if its immediate family or not? should he say anything? he hardly ever talks to this cousin anyway. i would hate for it to be a red flag.

thanks ladies:)

[ya falaha! 0]

They would probably ask him which language he uses to communicate with you.

They may ask about family members in the US. Does he know these cousins and keep in touch with them? If not he can simply state he does have family that he isn't familiar with and that you don't know them and never had contact with them. My husband has family in Pennsylvania and New Jersey but he's never met them before.

[sereia 0]

He knows this cousin but he told me they rarely talk. I think the cousin has lived in Boston for over 10 years (and is married to an American woman but didn't come here through her....)

[ya falaha! 0]

The CO will probably be more concerned if you've had contact with the family here.

[Private 1]

i know this question is wayyy in advance but when my fiance gets his interview inchallah... if the interviewer asks him what languages *I* speak.........what should he tell them? i'm okay in french but not fluent, and i speak a little arabic. our conversations include all three languages. if anyone listens to us they'd laugh. should he just tell them i speak french. end of story? how would they even know anyway if i do or don't? i won't be at the interview. and our emails are 100% in french.

also my fiance has a cousin here in the US. he doesn't live in my city and i'm not even sure if its a 1st oe 2nd, 3rd cousin....... will this affect him? do they ask if its immediate family or not? should he say anything? he hardly ever talks to this cousin anyway. i would hate for it to be a red flag.

thanks ladies:)

Be careful because this is very important. Do not say that you are okay in this language, say that we speak this. Honesty is not the best in this case. Pick a primary language. He can tell them you know some Arabic and you practice with him; however you communicate in the language he can best express himself in. I know that there is one lady there that supposedly knows French, however, she does not speak it well. I believe from what my fiancé told me that she does not understand it well, either. When you hear something all day long say something you pick it up, if people speak French around her a lot she will pick up some of the words however that does not mean she is fluent. She normally gets a translator, the translations from my understand is not that great from what I heard when it comes to Arabic.

I email my fiancé in French and they asked him "does she speak French better than you speak English." He told her that he helps me in French and I help him in English. Even though this is true, I believe he is not confident enough to speak and I know he is not the best at expressing himself in English. I will compare it to a Jay-Z lyric, he says that he can not force a drop from my eyes so he has to make the words cry. Your fiancé may need to give them some feeling that he may not be able to express in the deficient language and they will take that deficiency and tear a hole in that interview. Also the American culture, he needs to understand that it is ok to be aggressive and to refuse to do it in the language he is not comfortable in. This is one of the most important things ever and he has to really show them they can not push him around. (Again I think this applies to that-bleep-that works there.)

Also, we chat in English but emails are in French. French I have to force on him because he gets so excited to know that he understands and that I understand him when he speaks English. However, he did the interview in English. (He was not given any alternative, if she sees that you understand they continue to talk to you in English and become upset when you do not want to continue.) So from the beginning you pick one and go from there. If she asks him something in English, either do not respond or reply to her in French. I am not sure about anybody else's experience I just speak about my own. If they look like they are having a bad day then STICK TO THE LANGUAGE THAT YOU CAN EXPRESS YOURSELF COMPLETELY IN. He needs to be able to add all the love and kiss statements he wants. The lady saw our emails and she gave them back to him, because she was not able to read them. He asked me about a word that she said he thought it was English. When he told me the word I was like what. Facility, then I realized that she was trying to say congratulations in French however she was not able to pronounce the word correctly. I find this to be odd because it is a French speaking country so she should be able to practice it you know. I laughed because I know she had to have come off like she is so well put together. As far as Arabic and French, I completely understand you. There are some words in Arabic that do not have a good translation so sometimes we will use that word because it fits best to us.

Right now I am in the group with Moroccan Arabic, so imagine that MSA, Moroccan, French, and English. I am curious are you improve you skills threw learn aids or are you taking classes. I am trying to really learn the languages so I am taking non-credit courses at the college. They remove the pressure of test and they give you what you want to know. I prefer to work on my French because I understand Creole which is a dialect of French, so listening and speaking is okay. However, I want to improve my abilities to write. To my surprise I read very well in French. I went to the library and got some French novels and my fiancé and I discussed them.

As far as Arabic, I have heard some people say they speak to there fiancé in Arabic and unless you have a job that requires it or you are traveling like with the Peace Corp; I personally believe that they do not believe that we know it that well and they question this a lot. French of course is easy for us and it is taught in schools nation wide. I would have him explain to a point but if you email in French keep it French and if he is learning English he can say he is learning however he can not say that you have a deficiency in the primary language. I hopes this is not to much or not to bad but this is just from my experience. One thing my fiancé told me was that she asked the same questions in different ways and this upset him and also frustrated him. I believe it is because he felt like he was not getting his point across the first and then the interview went down hill from there. So please pass this to your fiancé.

[Private 1]

Sorry, but knowing during the interview you never know. If you happen to be there and they just say let me talk to her or when you call the congressman office and maybe someone knows french and greats you or makes a statement in French you never kow who knows what. I am studying Arabic and I was like maybe i should try to send in Arabic, and he asked me to send it in Arabic using the translation sites. I refused because you never know, our interview at the AOS may be Arab and know it very well and then you look stupid. You talk in french so the communication is there however I would improve it if you think you need to.

My fiance has cousins in the area and I meet them before I meet him. I do not know them just the one that I am friends with. they asked him how does he have in the US and he said my fiance. Never mentioned the cousin, I am not sure if it is a red flag. However if they give me the notes that I request through the FOIA, then i will be sure to share the information with you and everyone else on the board.

[appletree352002 0]

When my husband had his interview in Casa the consul asked him how we communicated with each other, I don't speak French, but speak Spanish, which he speaks a little and also a little bit of English, , so his answered was in English and Spanish and she did talked to him in both languages thank good he understud what she asked him and had no trouble with that.

[mybackpages 0]

i know this question is wayyy in advance but when my fiance gets his interview inchallah... if the interviewer asks him what languages *I* speak.........what should he tell them? i'm okay in french but not fluent, and i speak a little arabic. our conversations include all three languages. if anyone listens to us they'd laugh. should he just tell them i speak french. end of story? how would they even know anyway if i do or don't? i won't be at the interview. and our emails are 100% in french.

also my fiance has a cousin here in the US. he doesn't live in my city and i'm not even sure if its a 1st oe 2nd, 3rd cousin....... will this affect him? do they ask if its immediate family or not? should he say anything? he hardly ever talks to this cousin anyway. i would hate for it to be a red flag.

thanks ladies:)

At the interview my fiance used English. he's good, but his vocablary is limited so sometimes he does not understadn everything. When he asked the CO for clarification in French, she asked again in french and he then answered in English/ She then asked how do you communicate. He said in English with a little French and a little Arabic. She was satisfied.

He was also asked if he knows anyone in the US or if he has family in the US (I'm not sure how she phrased it). He told her he has a cousin in Arizona but he is not sure where and they have not spoken in 2 years. She was satisfied with that answer as well.

[~*Dorothy*~ 2]

In our case all of our communication was in Spanish and that is the language that we have been using since we have met. At the interview the female officer upon entering the room greeted him in English and when he responded to her back in his broken English she jumped and said so you speak English, he responded that not enough to do the interview in English and requested an Arabic translator. He did not want to do it in French because her accent was too deep. He told her that this interview is very important too him and wanted to make sure that he is understood and that he can answer her questions without being worried that something is not clear. She complied and he had an Arabic translator. He felt that any other way would be paying with fire and taking unnecessary risk especially with her bad French. So there you go if you ask you shall receive...That brings me to what Private her said in her post... your man needs to be assertive and aggressive - show them that they are not all mighty and powerful as much as they would want to think they are...I hope it all makes some sense...

Good luck with the process...hope it is a speedy one.

Dorothy