Translators getting in the way?

[Peter Arnold]

Hi Steve, welcome to the site. I understand your time being eaten up. It can become a wonderful distraction trying to find the right lady. I would recommend http://imtranslator.com. It will translate back to English for you. I always work until I find what I want to say. Sometimes it will translate it more succinctly because English can be a bit convoluted, well mine anyway. It was recommended by someone on this site.
 BTW, good luck in your search. I think that most men here would agree that it takes time, money and persistence most of all to find the right woman for you.
In hindsight, I would not have used Cnlove. Good luck

[Wilfred Motosue]

To get away from chnlove translators , I hired my own. I then my emails directly to the girl in chinese and she would write to me in Chinese and I would send it to my translator to translate in English and resend back to me. To me it is worth the cost and time. Then I KNOW that I am talking to my friend and not their translator. If you want to use the translator I used, email me and I can send her email address to you.
My email is "  motosue@hawaii.rr.com "

wilfred

[Neil]

谢谢。
这是好事。
我很高兴。
我希望你睡不好觉。
 

Try www.mdbg.net - you get the translation, plus a detailed explanation of the words used.  the last one clearly has: bu hao - not well (I hope you sleep not well).

change the translation software you use, and double check before sending it.

[kiwisteve]

Thanks Neil,

That explains it. I have been using mainly Google (and QQ) to translate and it does not show the negative in this case. I have found the same thing on a few other occasions. The negative certainly does not work well when you are trying to communicate with a woman!

Anyway, I am finding it a lot easier to communicate using QQ, Any translation issues are quickly resolved before any offence can be taken.

cheers,
Steve

[Neil]

I sometimes get frustrated with Google Translate (MDBG uses Google Translate as it's engine as well).  I understand that translation can't be easy but I don't understand how a negative can get thrown into the mix randomly.  Early on in my relationship with my wife, I told her that if I ever say anything out of the ordinary, she should tell me to check the translation.  With an understanding partner, mistakes are just that and no offence is taken (hopefully). 

I'm also loving the fact that qq has incorporated an instant translation button, though sometimes I chat with my english speaking friends and accidentally hit the translate button out of habit. 

[kiwisteve]

Hi Neil,

Yes the QQ translate is good. It is often different to Google and I use both sometimes as a comparison. Just a few minutes ago my lady who is chatting on her phone while at work, said:

我上班，很好，现在不忙

QQ translates that as: I go to work, is good, not be busy now

Google says: I go to work, well, now busy

It doesn't really matter, as I assume as she is chatting to me during work hours that she really is not that busy. But it makes me wonder how many other times we have got lost in translation.

cheers,
Steve

[Jan]

Well I have been learning Chinese for 1 year. The first 6 months I was super lazy. I could not really understand a thing after 6 months.
The last 6 months I have learned quite a lot.
I can understand basic spoken Chinese. And simple stuff like prices, exit, entrance, toilet, man, woman, Chinese characters.
I think if you put your heart in it, get a good teacher that can teach you at least once a week face to face. Or even more often. You can learn basic Chinese in maybe 3 months, enough to know if the sentences are understandable that you make with a translator (google translate for me) (as an example if I write something in English, then translate to Chinese, then translate the Chinese back to English. By looking at both of the sentences and pinyin I can understand if the meaning is somewhat similar to what I want to say).

I want to learn a lot more Chinese. To be able to communicate with my girls family and friends better. At the moment it is quite limited. Because they really can't speak English. And my Chinese is not enough to make proper conversations.
So I have to work hard...

[kiwisteve]

Hi all,

A couple of months on and I thought I'd update this thread.

I still chat on QQ to the first lovely woman I met there, although we have no long term future, we are just good friends now. I have not been to China yet but when I do I'll be trying to get to meet her for sure.

Meanwhile I gave up on chnlove and never got any satisfactory resolution to my complaints. I know when to cut my losses and move on.

I joined a couple of other sites, but the best one I found was chineselovelinks. I lurked there for a month before trusting it enough to pay for a 1 month subscription. Within days I was flooded with messages and replies to my 'interests'. After 1 week I had to shut it down even though I paid for a month.

Since then I have been chatting regularly to a few of them and things have developed to the point that I will have to make some serious decisions soon about who to carry on with. Before anyone gets hurt which I have no intention of doing.

Incidentally one of them who seemed very prim and proper and well spoken (she's an English teacher), just asked me if I would help her by sending her money to buy a new phone because she dropped her old one accidentally in her bucket of water when mopping the floor. I have stalled her as I do not want to be doing that so early in our relationship. SO maybe that is an easy one to eliminate now - a pity as she was so lovely otherwise. I told her that maybe she should buy a cheap phone for now, and when I come to China to visit her we can buy her a decent new phone together. We're not talking a lot of money here - she wants 1850 yuan, but I think it might be the start of a slippery slope considering we have not met or chatted on a webcam yet - just lots of emails and a couple of phone calls over about 8 weeks.

Can you guys tell me if it is common for Chinese woman to not consider sex before marriage? There is one lady in particular I am getting on extremely well with. She says she loves me and wants to marry me. When I said I would come to visit she said she would take me to see the sights and places of historical interest. I jokingly asked does her bedroom count as a place of historical interest, whereby she said she was a good girl and that we would not be married at that stage so I would be in a hotel.  Any thoughts? I'm 53 and she is 44 and we've both been through a failed marriage. From a Western point of view, staying together would have been the norm I feel, but I'm happy to just go with the flow with her.

This is in stark contrast to some of the other women I have chatted to on QQ, but then again they are not the ones I feel I might have a long term future with.

Oh, and the translation issues that I started this thread with: not really a problem any more as I have got used to what type of language translates well and what doesn't and I structure my words to suit. I also use the built in QQ translate as well as Google  plus other engines if I find any misunderstandings. This reinforces in my mind how fraudulent the chnlove EMF emails were with so-called professional translators, whereas I have no problems communicating and joking with women on QQ that speak no English at all.

cheers,
Steve

[RobertBfrom aust]

Hi Steve , you can forget about the one asking for a phone if she really wants one you can pick up a reasonable one for a couple of hundred Yuan .
 Many Chinese ladies do not understand our way of joking it is a bit like you hearing half a question and then nodding your head .
 Just because the lady said you will stay in a hotel which may be true as far as she is concerned as it can be a no no for a Westerner to be seen in her residence , it does not mean as things progress that she may not have to go home every night depending on who is at home [ she may have to feed the dog or bird ] but things like that are only ever discussed after you have met face to face , regards Sujuan and Robert .

[Willy The Londoner]

Can you guys tell me if it is common for Chinese woman to not consider sex before marriage? There is one lady in particular I am getting on extremely well with. She says she loves me and wants to marry me. When I said I would come to visit she said she would take me to see the sights and places of historical interest. I jokingly asked does her bedroom count as a place of historical interest, whereby she said she was a good girl and that we would not be married at that stage so I would be in a hotel.  Any thoughts? I'm 53 and she is 44 and we've both been through a failed marriage. From a Western point of view, staying together would have been the norm I feel, but I'm happy to just go with the flow with her.

She may well want to go home at night but in my youthful days here before I found the perfect wife I found only one previously married woman in the 35 - 48 age bracket that not indulge in lifes No.1 pleasure.  Was glad about that one exception as she was about as pretty as a camels back side.

Willy

[sunny]

From my email to M with both Chinese and English (deliberately kept very simple):
谢谢。
这是好事。
我很高兴。
我希望你睡不好觉。
 
Thank you.
This is good.
I am very happy.
I hope you sleep well.


She replied via EMF saying:
I am confused about something you wrote. Hey, what did you mean when you said something good? Why didn't want me to sleep well? Did I say anything wrong? I hope not.


Another example to S:
我希望你能来新西兰，以满足我。I hope you can come to New Zealand to meet me.
Her reply (via EMF) contained this:
In fact, the Chinese you wrote is also a little confusing....What did you try to say ?
Can you tell me ? Did you say you don't welcome me to visit New Zealand ? Why is that ?
I hope you like me.

Another example, this time written by S as a test for me to translate, and I can't get a decent translation for this at all:
下午好，唔知道你而家系度做D咩呢？
我而家睇紧韩剧啊，你钟意睇韩剧架吗？你平时钟意睇咩个呢？？
希望你可以明白我嘅中文信啦！

Hahahaha. Omg, that's sooooo funny.

谢谢。
这是好事。
我很高兴。
我希望你睡不好觉。

Thanks.
That's good.
I'm very happy.
I hope you have a bad sleep. (so weird! Lmao )

我希望你能来新西兰，以满足我。
I hope you can come to New Zealand to satisfy me.

下午好，唔知道你而家系度做D咩呢？
我而家睇紧韩剧啊，你钟意睇韩剧架吗？你平时钟意睇咩个呢？？
希望你可以明白我嘅中文信啦！

(Cantonese)
Good afternoon. What are you doing at your home now?(= What is up?)
I'm watching Korean soap opera. Do you like the Korean soap opera? What kind of TV dramas do you watch usually? (Many women like Korean soap operas in China.)
Hopefully you can understand my Chinese letter. (Seemed the answer was NO. lol)

[David E]

Incidentally one of them who seemed very prim and proper and well spoken (she's an English teacher), just asked me if I would help her by sending her money to buy a new phone because she dropped her old one accidentally in her bucket of water when mopping the floor. I have stalled her as I do not want to be doing that so early in our relationship. SO maybe that is an easy one to eliminate now - a pity as she was so lovely otherwise. I told her that maybe she should buy a cheap phone for now, and when I come to China to visit her we can buy her a decent new phone together. We're not talking a lot of money here - she wants 1850 yuan, but I think it might be the start of a slippery slope considering we have not met or chatted on a webcam yet - just lots of emails and a couple of phone calls over about 8 weeks.

Can you guys tell me if it is common for Chinese woman to not consider sex before marriage? There is one lady in particular I am getting on extremely well with. She says she loves me and wants to marry me. When I said I would come to visit she said she would take me to see the sights and places of historical interest. I jokingly asked does her bedroom count as a place of historical interest, whereby she said she was a good girl and that we would not be married at that stage so I would be in a hotel.  Any thoughts? I'm 53 and she is 44 and we've both been through a failed marriage. From a Western point of view, staying together would have been the norm I feel, but I'm happy to just go with the flow with her.

Firstly Steve....

NEVER, never, never, never send money to ANYBODY you have not met personally. This is the Golden Rule, and you ignore it at your peril !!!...yes, I know it is only little money by Western Standards, but it IS the start of a slippery slope and it also further encouragers other scammers to keep playing these bastard games.

Secondly, On the subject of horizontal dancing....my only comment is that any woman who would openly discuss the wheres and whyfors of sexual activity with a Man she had never met would be really suspect, so dont get invollved in these sort of questions. If she wants to openly discuss sexual matters with a stranger...beware !!!!.

What you will find in reality, when she has met you and you seem to tick all the boxes...then stand back, you will likely astounded by the outcome (in the nicest possible way)!!!!.

[kiwisteve]

Hey, thanks for all the replies - that's awesome.

Robert: I think you are right about the first woman unfortunately. I am still chatting to her for now - she has stopped asking for money, I just want to see what she does next. About the hotel thing, I also suspect you are right, at least I hope so. She has family around so I can understand why I would not be staying at her house. I know what you mean about understanding joking, but with this second lady we kid each other all the time and she gives as good as she gets. The other day (in QQ but with no video) she said that she read that the world will end in 2012 and what was I going to do? I suspected she was kidding, so I said she would have to come to NZ immediately and could she bring my other 11 Chinese girlfriends with her? She said of course but did I have room for her boyfriends as well? This was all in written Chinese.

Willy: Is that your real name or your given name from all those women? Thanks, I suspect once she and I meet I will understand pretty quick where things are heading long term for us, and that's the most important thing.

Sunny: Thanks for clearing that translation up. I always wondered what that meant, and knowing it was Cantonese confirms it. On another occasion she mentioned Cantonese but I didn't appreciate what she meant at the time.

David: Yes I was tempted just to send the money, but thankfully I paused to read more of the great advice on this forum first.

Cheers,
Steve

[Willy The Londoner]

Hey, thanks for all the replies - that's awesome.


Willy: Is that your real name or your given name from all those women? Thanks, I suspect once she and I meet I will understand pretty quick where things are heading long term for us, and that's the most important thing.

They usually call me Wirry Da!     But not one to get the women too excited I leave the 'big' accolade off.   

Willy

[kiwisteve]

Hi all,

Things are progressing nicely for me and I am all booked for my first trip to China in early May to Guangzhou then Chengdu. If anyone is interested in tracking my story and chipping in with much-needed advice I'll maybe start a new thread in another forum (suggestions welcome).

Originally I was going to do like Gerry (until I read his story), and try and visit all the women I had on my short list. But now I have one special woman to visit, and a vague backup plan if there are any show-stopping issues between us there.

My visa to get into China was all done inside 2 working days. After reading here about all the problems in getting wives out of China, I sure hope it will be easier for me bringing her into New Zealand but that is way down the track at this stage. We have to get past this short trip to meet each other first. Then there's the small matter of my divorce...

cheers,
Steve