ken88 Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 How did your communication with your wife/gf in China evolve during the first and second year of your relationship ? What gadgets, what methods, what language, what time? What were the hardship? How did you overcome them? etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewDay2006 Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 How did your communication with your wife/gf in China evolve during the first and second year of your relationship ? What gadgets, what methods, what language, what time? What were the hardship? How did you overcome them? etc.Not many hardships, only I not there Daily I use www.ecallchina.com to call her, $20 usually last 1-2 monthsWe use ibbtalk at home and skype, with a cam corder on each end.email for quick messages. She doesn't buy phone cards much any more, she'll just ask me to call her with a email. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy W Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 We used an IM, with an electronic cut and paste translator at each end. Babel Fish at my end, King Soft at hers. We each translated the other's messages. This made it very easy to insert punctuation to help clarify the translation. I would recommend NOT using a translator if that is at ALL possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usaRichard Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 Hello KenMy wife & I met on an online singles site and at first we sent emails thru the site. After about a week we wanted more freedom to communicate, the site would not allow us to send our personal email address to each other, so she gave me her cell #. After this we talked on cell and then exchanged email addresses. After having our email addresses we could then talk on webcam for free, and seeing and hearing each other was the best we could hope for short of actually meeting. My wife has a bachelors degree in English so our communication had this advantage, at first she would often say "how can I say this in English" but since we talked everyday her English usage improved quickly. I suppose for this reason we didn't have any real hardships to communicate. We are both very patient and have good listening skills, so even when she had a hard time to explain something I usually knew what she was trying to say. Once in awhile when I would use a word she was not familiar with she would ask me to type the word (in our chat client) and then she would look in her dictionary to know it's meaning. Because of her work schedule and the fact that we are 12 hours apart, we can talk twice a day, when it's my evening it is her morning & vise a versa. Also sending letters and gifts thru the postal service is another way to express yourself, when I received her first letter with her Chinese and English writing on the envelope, it was very exciting . Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay & Ping Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 How did your communication with your wife/gf in China evolve during the first and second year of your relationship ? What gadgets, what methods, what language, what time? What were the hardship? How did you overcome them? etc.Well, as often as possible. Our preference is Skype. We mostly text so she can translate to Mandarine. As her english improved we added video chat. The service is free and she is computer savy. We were able keep the text records for interview. This is important to show the state of your relationship. We chat every day when I get home from work. I'm fortunate (in many ways), she doesn't work early so we can chat a while. Sometimes we chat in the morning. The 15 hour time change is a pain. Then again the distance is worse. Whatever method you choose, check to see that you have records kept of the conversations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usaRichard Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 Daily I use www.ecallchina.com to call her, $20 usually last 1-2 monthsWe use ibbtalk at home and skype, with a cam corder on each end.email for quick messages. She doesn't buy phone cards much any more, she'll just ask me to call her with a email. Something that might work for you, is to tell your wife/GF to call you, let your cell ring two or three times and then she hangs up. This is your signal to call her back, and you don't have to be at home sitting in front of the computer to know she wants to talk. Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shushuweiwei Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 How did your communication with your wife/gf in China evolve during the first and second year of your relationship ? What gadgets, what methods, what language, what time? What were the hardship? How did you overcome them? etc. We communicated through a translator at the site where we met for the first 3 or 4 months while she took an English course. We also signed up at www.livemocha.com and she took the English course while I took Chinese. We had fun "correcting each others exercises. She can occasionally talk to other English speakers there so it isn't just me she feels confident that she understands. Since communicating directly we us www.jajah.com, if you both sign up calls are free and they provide a local number for each of her numbers so I can call from my cell anytime I need to. We videocall on Skype, usually twice a day. I keep the babelfish.com window open but her English is getting pretty good so it's just the occasional word we put through there. I second the opinion that it is very exciting to see her cute writing on a box covered with China Post tape. On my last trip I brought her a 5" x 5" notepad with our picture in one corner, hearts at the bottom etc. I just got 5 pages of it back with a very long handwritten note in English. Very very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinblue Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 Yan works with computers and her english is fine. She could write and read english better than she could speak. We both bought a web cam and used MSN and yahoo messenger. I had sprint international so that I could have a phone bill for future need at interview time. I would call her up and ask if she was busy. We would talk on the phone for a few minutes and then go to the web cam. As time went on her spoken english inproved a great deal. We kept an occasional copy of our chat and instant message's.....for interview time. Do this once in a while as yan's computer crashed more than once (virus) and I had to send my copies in the mail. You should always try to work on things that would be needed for the interview. Snail mail and packages also were nice to send and receive. I was 12 hours different in time from her so at times someone lost a little sleep. On occasion she would IM me when things were slow at work when she saw that I was online. With the webcam she saw the different seasons by pointing it outside and that was a first introduction to winter. Try to explain 2 feet of snow in upstate NY to a Chengdu girl My family and hers were introduced to each other over the web cam. There are scammers on both sides of the ocean. If your intended can talk to your mother,sisters and brother. You take some of the worry about how serious your commitment to the relationship. And vice versa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnoblett Posted August 4, 2008 Report Share Posted August 4, 2008 We used email, Yahoo Messenger, and Skype to communicate. We still use Yahoo for chatting when I am at work and she is at home, and Skype for Yu to call anyone in China or long distance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken88 Posted August 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 How did your communication with your wife/gf in China evolve during the first and second year of your relationship ? What gadgets, what methods, what language, what time? What were the hardship? How did you overcome them? etc.Not many hardships, only I not there Daily I use www.ecallchina.com to call her, $20 usually last 1-2 monthsWe use ibbtalk at home and skype, with a cam corder on each end.email for quick messages. She doesn't buy phone cards much any more, she'll just ask me to call her with a email. When you met her, did she know English (speaking and writing or typing, pinyin, computer skills, etc. ) ? ken88 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken88 Posted August 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 We used an IM, with an electronic cut and paste translator at each end. Babel Fish at my end, King Soft at hers. We each translated the other's messages. This made it very easy to insert punctuation to help clarify the translation. I would recommend NOT using a translator if that is at ALL possible. Did she know how to use a computer, pinyin, etc ? ken88 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken88 Posted August 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 Hello KenMy wife & I met on an online singles site and at first we sent emails thru the site. After about a week we wanted more freedom to communicate, the site would not allow us to send our personal email address to each other, so she gave me her cell #. After this we talked on cell and then exchanged email addresses. After having our email addresses we could then talk on webcam for free, and seeing and hearing each other was the best we could hope for short of actually meeting. My wife has a bachelors degree in English so our communication had this advantage, at first she would often say "how can I say this in English" but since we talked everyday her English usage improved quickly. I suppose for this reason we didn't have any real hardships to communicate. We are both very patient and have good listening skills, so even when she had a hard time to explain something I usually knew what she was trying to say. Once in awhile when I would use a word she was not familiar with she would ask me to type the word (in our chat client) and then she would look in her dictionary to know it's meaning. Because of her work schedule and the fact that we are 12 hours apart, we can talk twice a day, when it's my evening it is her morning & vise a versa. Also sending letters and gifts thru the postal service is another way to express yourself, when I received her first letter with her Chinese and English writing on the envelope, it was very exciting . Richard Richard: You are really lucky that you have wife with a BA in English ! What more can you ask for in communications? Ken88 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy W Posted August 5, 2008 Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 We used an IM, with an electronic cut and paste translator at each end. Babel Fish at my end, King Soft at hers. We each translated the other's messages. This made it very easy to insert punctuation to help clarify the translation. I would recommend NOT using a translator if that is at ALL possible. Did she know how to use a computer, pinyin, etc ? ken88 Someone set up the computer for her. No she does not do pinyin (it was not taught during the Cultural Revolution) - just the handwriting input pad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewDay2006 Posted August 5, 2008 Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 Daily I use www.ecallchina.com to call her, $20 usually last 1-2 monthsWe use ibbtalk at home and skype, with a cam corder on each end.email for quick messages. She doesn't buy phone cards much any more, she'll just ask me to call her with a email. Something that might work for you, is to tell your wife/GF to call you, let your cell ring two or three times and then she hangs up. This is your signal to call her back, and you don't have to be at home sitting in front of the computer to know she wants to talk. RichardActually, I posted this... but I never sit and wait to see if she wants to talk.. we basically have a routine to talk about 8pm if I'm not working... but I have Italkbb,,, she can call me for free whenever she wants... but when I'm at work, she will send me the email to call her. Ibbtalk works good and will be great for her wen she comes, so she and her son will be able to make and receive calls all the time for free. She wanted to talk to a friend of hers in Washington DC last week, so I had her on my cell and I called her frieind and flipped the phones and they talk for about 10 minutes, I just watched TV until the chatter stopped B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
credzba Posted August 5, 2008 Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 Ibbtalk works good and will be great for her wen she comes, so she and her son will be able to make and receive calls all the time for free. She wanted to talk to a friend of hers in Washington DC last week, so I had her on my cell and I called her frieind and flipped the phones and they talk for about 10 minutes, I just watched TV until the chatter stopped B) A couple of suggestions ItalkBB.1) I forward the phone after 3 rings to my cell number. This way no matter where I am my wife can reach me.2) ItalkBB has 3 way calling, so no need to wrap the phones, just conference the third person in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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