AmericanRooster

It's hard to know what problem we are solving without more details... you say it looks chinese... perhaps she might have configured Traditional Chinese instead of Simplified??? I don't know... XP supports Pinyin input natively... you can also use others like WuBi Xing... There are three things required to type Chinese simplified (at a minimum)... 1. Asian language fonts installed... you did that. 2. Select MS Pinyin IME 3.0 (if you want Pinyin) 3. Ensure CH is selected in the language input This has some pretty detailed instructions for using native XP pinyin input of Chinese Simplified. http://newton.uor.edu/Departments%26Progra...llation_XP.html

You are right... "potential" is a good word. But to be honest, I think the principle of the law is good. If you commit a felony as a green-card holder, we have no incentive to keep you here. The problem is how it is implemented... there seem to be some complexities and challenges that are not considered by "the system". We do live in a country where we are free to contact our legislators about the poor implementation. Thankfully we have a free press that can assist in highlighting the obvious injustices... yet for every 2 of unwarranted deportations, I'd bet we have 70 completely warranted deportations.

Great post dnoblett... the article certainly does make some good points. Let's hope the media attention on this Indian farmer's case makes a difference.

I have only used babelfish and google... can't speak for this Word XP program... babelfish is free and good enough for simple communication; however, complex sentences or words that have different meanings in context are very annoying... even simple words like "hard" frequently don't translate well. It is unreliable enough that I always wind up double-translating from English > Chinese > English multiple times while I tweak the sentence for the proper translation... frequently, I have to use bizarre or stilted English to get a coherent Babelfish translation. Further complicating the issue is the equally unreliable translation from Chinese to English. I have found that Firefox's Chinese translation plugin is helpful... at least I can see the mistranslations when Babelfish goes from Chinese back to English. The Firefox Plugin is here... https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3349/

My comment was not directed the movement of jobs, but the diminishing desirability of life in America. Regarding foreign nationals educated in the US... If the foreign science and engineering students are not displacing American students (and they are not), then why does it matter whether they leave? As you point out, it is a global economy now. We do not offer education with the hopes of retaining students here... and American companies are opening a foreign presence in other parts of the world (including my former employeer) to take advantage of this.

There is no doubt that this is a challenging problem; however, I cannot imagine China outlawing female immigration anytime soon... First, because it wouldn't be that effective, unless they also passed a national law outlawing marriage to a foreign national. The problem of a low number of women also helps China with it's original intent of the so-called "one-child" policy. Finally, they must significantly curb the number of women on foreign education visas if they want to plug the holes. These would be some very difficult measures to pass in a society that is becoming increasingly "democratic". The more disturbing thought (to the patriotic side me) is the increasing number of Chinese nationals who are moving back to China. I used to work for a very large and successful technology company... of course, we employed quite a few Chinese software engineers. It was a little disturbing to see the number of our Chinese engineers (including the most successful ones) moving back to China. I got the sense that life in the US is simply not as attractive to them anymore; and couple this with China's booming economy, you get the reverse immigration issue.

at this stage in the relationship, she does it in an affectonate way... like calling me xian3 chan2 mao1 (small greedy cat) while I'm eating. She is from Beijing, and people there are given to injecting "nage" into their Mandarin quite frequently... since this sounds remarkably like a racial insult in English (at least with her Beijing accent), it is quite noticeable... my normal response is "nage blah, blah, blah"... she seems to like that

I'm not sure I get it; in this case, the pre-nuptual seems to be doing the same thing as a will. Why not just call it a will and appoint an executor?

I completely identify with your apprehensions about a pre-nup; although I don't agree that it shows a lack of commitment. I would not even say it is planning to divorce; I consider it as planning for the contingency... similar to liability insurance on your car or catastrophe insurance on your house. The (sad) reality is that people who at one time loved each other very much get divorced, and these divorces are not always on mutually agreeable terms. Sometimes the divorce itself is something you have no control over... she could decide to bail physically or emotionally on the marriage... and will not work on fixing the problems you have together. This decision is very personal, but I think it ultimately comes down to risk... how much are you willing to loose if you are wrong? If you think the courts would award significantly more and you have some nagging doubts, then this is some safety you can buy. I do have several friends in China, and from what I can tell pre-nups are not uncommon there. I don't have the answer, but hopefully can offer some thoughts that are useful. I'm writing these things as much for myself to consider as for you. One of my brothers is urging me to get a pre-nup before I marry. Drop me a PM after you make your decision... I'd be interested to know what you decide.

My girlfriend grew up in Jilin. She stopped going to school at age 15 to help her parents on the family farm. I have been reading articles about education in China, and one article said that this was not uncommon for girls in rural families 15 or 20 years ago; it said that expectations were lower for women and many rural families felt that completing Senior High School was not as important for girls. Can anyone who grew up in China comment on whether this was true? I was initially shocked by this (since it would be unthinkable for almost anyone in the US), but since I've started wondering whether it might have been quite normal in her situation. She is almost 30 now, but wants to go to college after coming to the US; clearly she will need to take the GED. I've been wondering whether a GED is it required for all immigrants, or will some American universities actually recognize foreign education credentials? Thoughts?