Englishphobia anyone ?

[david_dawei]

this is one of those really tough areas where there is no 'one-size-fits-all'... there are so many factors that play a role with the SO learning english, with comfort, confidence, and face being important as well as motivation and quality of the lessons... in the end, she'll have a hard time to practice anyways. So you really need to understand all these issues about her when trying to figure out what is the best solution...

 

Having said that, I'll give my basic opinion which will only work for some anyways;

- Agree with Randy, get rid of human translators (save them for really important problems!) and get more connected by translating directly to each other. Follow a few simple rules; Extremely short sentence with alot of periods is paramount. Double translate (english to chinese; chinese back to english) to ensure it makes sense.

- Don't bother with english classes in china; let her work to stay busy. It's what she is accustomed to and more comfortable with.

- Setup a routine of talking which focuses on the two of you practicing english; this will be her 'class'.

- Once in the US, get her enrolled in ESL; Even if she studies english in china, most likely she is not able to work anywhere requiring decent english; so save the english lessons for once in the US; Spend time together practicing and going to ESL.

- While in china, buy american movies/shows which will have the chinese subtitles.

- Get english teaching dvds too like Action English; American Slang.

 

My last comment would be that you don't want to pressure her with comments like she must do this or that to be happy or integrated; let the learning come with as much structure as she can handle. Her motivation to learn may be different in china than the US, so you have to be flexible to recognize the signs and when more or less can be applied at the right times.

[griz326]

Here is the plan we've devised:

 

30 minutes of English; 30 minutes of Chinese with our 18 year old Chinese daughter as the instructor. I'll be looking at English language courseware for our instructor, but we've got enough material to get going. Because my gal is a news junkie, I'm thinking that getting the US and Chinese versions of non-political news items might be of great interest to her. I am hoping to expand the English of the 18 year old by asking challenging questions and helping with pronunciation.

 

As for the Chinese lessons, Pinyin will be the basis of the teaching because my gal does not know Pinyin.

 

Fortunately, I have a wonderful array of language books as well as computer software, audio DVDs and even a professional recording studio to use.

[JimS.]

Here are some sites to learn Chinese, clearchinese.com (also known as chinesepod.com) I downloaded to my ipod and listen to it when I have free time. The others I used for looking for a Phrase, word or want to write in simple CH.

 

http://www.clearchinese.com/mp3-lessons/index.htm

 

http://www.zapchinese.com/

 

http://www.ipl.org.ar/youth/hello/chinese.html

[warpedbored]

Bottom line, if she wants to function the USA she will have to learn English. Her statement that she cant learn and you will have to learn Chinese is not a viable solution in my opinnion. Without English skills she will have dificulty finding a job, learning to drive, shopping at the supermarket, in short just being able to barely function. Yes if you learn Chinese you can do all those things for her but she will be like an infant that must have you to help her do anything.

 

My wife grew up in the cultural revolution and she managed to learn pinyin and now English. Not easy but necessary.

[dnoblett]

 

Tell me the how the whole thing worked out for you. Is babel fish free? Does it need any set up? If she goes to a netcafe with this writing pad would she be able to use it there, you think?

 

I took my wife to a dentist. We communicated with a computer. When I typed a question, he clicked on it, and it came out in Chinese. He typed the answer in Pin yan. When he clicked on it, it came out English. Is this babelfish you think?

 

Ken88

 

No - babelfish is a website - http://babelfish.yahoo.com/?fr=avbbf-us - google has an equivalent site.

 

I think pinyin is the most popular input method, but anyone who went to school during the Cultural Revolution would not have learned that in school. There are also encoding methods that professionals use for speed - but they have to memorize a code for each character.

 

I bought my wife a computer fairly early on - this is a very good investment. She had someone set it up. Kingsoft and other programs work in the way you describe.

 

I doubt that she would be able to install any software on a computer at a netcafe - she would probably have to use whatever they had

Google's page, http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

You can also download and install google's tool bar, it has a translate button that will translate entire webpages.

 

But, yes having an interpreter involved can cause problems with communications, I have read of several stories where US citizen is mostly communicating with interpreter and not with their fiancee in China.

 

A few examples:

http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29580

http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22883

http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=21162

 

You will find that speaks fair English is a thread in many posts about troubled relationships, it was a big factor in mine and Yu's relationship, we communicate without problems, this is a big thing if your fiancee wishes to thrive in the USA, unless you speak mandarin, and live in a high Chinese population area, your fiancee will find life in the USA to be a challenge due to language barrier.

[amanda1969]

Bottom line, if she wants to function the USA she will have to learn English. Her statement that she cant learn and you will have to learn Chinese is not a viable solution in my opinnion. Without English skills she will have dificulty finding a job, learning to drive, shopping at the supermarket, in short just being able to barely function. Yes if you learn Chinese you can do all those things for her but she will be like an infant that must have you to help her do anything.

 

My wife grew up in the cultural revolution and she managed to learn pinyin and now English. Not easy but necessary.

In my personal opinion, understanding English is not only the basic need of function the US but also for good communication between a USA husband and Chinese wife.

I went to an university at my age of 32 years old, where my major was English and I got my BA at 35 years old. I always want to learn English more...I have strong interest in English...

 

Amanda from China

[lostinblue]

Bottom line, if she wants to function the USA she will have to learn English. Her statement that she cant learn and you will have to learn Chinese is not a viable solution in my opinnion. Without English skills she will have dificulty finding a job, learning to drive, shopping at the supermarket, in short just being able to barely function. Yes if you learn Chinese you can do all those things for her but she will be like an infant that must have you to help her do anything.

 

My wife grew up in the cultural revolution and she managed to learn pinyin and now English. Not easy but necessary.

If you cannot communicate with each other why even get married. Marriage is tough enough when you both speak the same language and come from a different culture. The effort has to be made to learn a common language. From her side or your side. Or both. Asking for a chop stick is easy....Talking about your retirement plan or why you are 1000's of dollars in debt is not.

[Sebastian]

ok - so she doesn't know pinyin.

there is some input method to type chinese characters for her, does she use it to type chinese characters into a computer? If she doesn't know pinyin, then typing the characters will be difficult, as many chinese typing and input methods are either pinyin or a series of key sequences to make the chinese characters. Can she type into a computer in china, at all, to make chinese characters, by herself? if not, then this will be another problem later on.

 

once something comes into an instant message window on your computer, in chinese characters, then you can copy the words , and paste them into babelfish for translation. you can also go english to chinese in babelfish too, copying the words in babelfish then pasting in yer IM. It means having a web browser pgm running at the same time yer IM pgm is running, and doing lots of copy/paste methods inbetween.

 

 

I have tried and true 'learn english' method. Get an english newspaper, hand copy with pencil and paper 3 articles each day. once the copying is done, look up each word ya don't know, make copious notes. Do this every day for 3 months. In the beginning of the 3rd week, start speaking out the words that are hand copied. There's many english newspapers in china, even at the library. It's a type of 'total immersion', but can be done in spurts.

 

FWIW, if she has English Phobia, and If and Only If you aren't gonna learn Chinese, be prepared financially to have intepreter person as part of your household. I know yer money is tight, but at least try to learn chinese with the free MIT courseware.

[Randy W]

ok - so she doesn't know pinyin.

there is some input method to type chinese characters for her, does she use it to type chinese characters into a computer? If she doesn't know pinyin, then typing the characters will be difficult, as many chinese typing and input methods are either pinyin or a series of key sequences to make the chinese characters. Can she type into a computer in china, at all, to make chinese characters, by herself? if not, then this will be another problem later on.

 

 

My wife uses her handwriting pad with character recognition software (this is also built into Microsoft's Japanese IME). This is common in China, but slower than the professional (Wuxi or whatever) input methods.

[Sebastian]

Randy - thanks for reminding me about this. My lao po can handle the pinyin, but I know she's used a pad in the past with her job - she found some way where it was faster. Oh well.