Communication with your wife/gf in china

[Sebastian]

Kenn88 - I'll add my experience.

 

She has 1) landline 2) cellphone 3) dsl at home.

 

We communicate via telephone and internet. When chatting on computer, I'll use chinese, translated at http://babelfish.yahoo.com - copy/paste into a IM window. When she types to me in chinese, i translate it back with the same copy/paste into babelfish method.

 

Sometimes we use camera, sometimes not.

 

Regardless of which computer she uses, she still infects her machines on a regular basis. So about twice in a 3 month period, her disk is wiped and an illegal copy of windows xp is put on it. I don't know if the 'hole' is through the os or the other illegal software she's used. The laptop I bought her - she wiped it after I left, and put on another illegal chinese copy of windows xp. I hate the virus stuff, as it means that there are 'black periods' when we only communicate via telephone.

 

I have a VOIP phone system from broadvox - used it the last 6 years - it travels well, no computer required to use it. My long distance charges to china are 1.7 cents/minute.

 

Sometimes I'll use a phone card, but it's only if I'm out of pocket and can't get to her any other way.

 

I don't like to use skype on a regular basis- it eats up my bandwith for the 'other p-p users' but we do use it sometimes. I had a hong kong number with skype for a year, useful for my hong kong sales team to contact me. Usually, it's YIM, I save the logs automatically with the archiving process. When we use MSN, I save a chat file into rtf (the chinese text comes across easily this way).

 

You'll have to install a language pack in yer OS to see the chinese characters on your computer.

 

First Year - we told each other about our lives and relatives.

Second year, we talk mostly of plans and babies and making twins.

 

hth !

[Guest WenDylan]

Kenn88 - I'll add my experience.

 

First Year - we told each other about our lives and relatives.

Second year, we talk mostly of plans and babies and making twins.

 

hth !

 

 

[ken88]

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

 

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.

 

 

What is ItalkBB ?

 

Ken88

[Lexar]

 

What is ItalkBB ?

 

Ken88

 

 

italkbb is a VoIP phone service that a lot of the members at this forum to use to call their wife/girlfriend in China. The price is very good for around $21/month, you can have unlimited call to China. I think the most attractive feature, is the Chinese call back number they provide, which let your wife/girlfriend call your US number at local Chinese rate (of course, you can always call her back so it won't cost anything for her)

 

For those haven't sign up this service, I just receive a promotion email from them. It says every new sign up will get extra credit based on the the total Gold medal Chinese team (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) will get during the 2008 Olympics. So if the Chinese team get more than 30 gold metal, you will get more than $30. You can also easily find more promotion code online with around another $15-25 saving.

 

Good luck for your communication.

[Dave&Hong]

Skype, it's free and it works great!

[Guest WenDylan]

Skype, it's free and it works great!

Nearly perfect I would say! They have plenty of in and out call options if needed. Heck, I can use Skype on my mobile phone!