questions and now some very deep concerns.

[brett]

I'd second what Willy said about language - my previous lady's English was chnlove rating:Fair. Her spoken English was OK (maybe same as my French after studying it in school for years), but her written English was pretty hatstand :icon_cheesygrin:. With other ladies it is sometimes the other way round.

I did find her written English very funny though!

Some people are much better at learning languages than others. I'm not that great. My previous lady was very good indeed.

Sadly our Chinese ladies may never get very good at writing English. Our Chinese teacher has been in the UK for years yet her written English can best be described by this emoticon -> :dodgy:.

[Martin]

Another point to consider about the chnlove language rating system, learning means just that.  It does not mean they are learning right now however.  I have seen some complain that their lady has had a profile for years, and if she has been learning all that time, she should be able to speak English pretty well.  But like I said, it does not mean that she is learning to speak English at this moment.  Like my wife, who had a profile up for 4 years, it means she started to actually study English after I met her here.

[ttwjr32]

thats true Martin and if they are learning they do have a
hard time using it as they usually dont have anyone to talk
with as they learn. and the schools here are really not that
good at teaching them anything other than single words from
what i have seen going to them and seeing the operation. my wife
learned thru reading and watching movies and shows and it took her
about 10 years to get to her level that she is at now which is very good

[Willy The Londoner]

If you insist on having direct contact and it looks like you and the lady may get a lot closer then they are more likely to pass you the direct details.   They will replace reading your emfs with regular cell phone calls to your chosen lady to see how you are doing together.  This is really not out of interest it is just to keep a check on you both.

By that time they may realise that there is a good chance that the loss of a few hundred rmb in emf fees will be more than out weighed by them claiming the tens of thousands or rmb as a success fee that a lady has signed up to pay.

Willy

[brett]

Well I am "learning" Mandarin but it doesn't mean I'm any good lol :huh:.

I got direct MSN/Skype contact with my lady 1.0 pretty quickly, although communicating about important things (travel plans etc.) was tricky so I still used to send an EMF every week or so.

[stratus27]

Thank you all for your information. I read from someone from this site whoes name escapes me ATM, but he recomended opening dialog with the translator, and so far it's worked out really well. Still no direct contact info yet, she said that she doesn't have an email yet and is too busy. Or something like that. I don't know I think so stuff still gets lost in translation. Any ways from what I hear from just reading all your comments this seems pretty legit. So thanks again. And now to get my friends wife to teach me Chinese...

[Arnold]

Stratus , my Wife and I have alway's been in Contact seperately ( either Yahoo Messenger or MSN ) with our Translator , this build a very good relationship with her and there was no reason for any dought on being scamed . We have also met her in GZ , while there for the interview ... would not want to miss that chance . Just yesterday , she send us a note on MSN , that she too is getting married next month to an English Man .
I have mentioned before , if any Lady's english is good enough to read ( my Wife reads a lot better than speaking english ) ... have her tell the Translator to send your Letter directly to her and she will then answer it in chinese and send it back to the Translator who will send it to you in English . This way your Lady will get all of your Letter and she will answer accordingly and leave very little room for add on's ( sugar from the Translator ) . This made our writing foolproof .

[Neil]

Not to mention Arnold, it helps her get used to using an online translator, and after a few uses, she will understand about translation errors.  The transition to direct communication can be a real shocker for both parties.  

I keep hearing about how Google is leading the translation software field by leaps and bounds.  Everyone seems to gush about how well they are able to translate, but it is still far from perfect.  I look forward to the day of the universal translator.

Or the Babelfish:

Arthur Dent finds himself in a Vogon spacecraft. Their voices are not exactly music to the human ear.

"You'll need to have this fish in your ear."

"I beg your pardon?" asked Arthur.

Ford (Prefect) was holding up a small glass jar which quite clearly had a small yellow fish wriggling around in it…He gasped in terror at what sounded like a man trying to gargle while fighting off a pack of wolves.

Once he had the Babel Fish in his ear, Arthur understood perfectly. The Babel Fish lives on brainwave radiation from every source but its host. It then excretes energy in the form of exactly the correct brainwaves needed by its host to understand what was just said.

The Babel Fish reverses the problem defined by its namesake; the original Tower of Babel (according to the Bible) inspired the Deity to confuse human beings by making them unable to understand each other.

[Martin]

Not to mention Arnold, it helps her get used to using an online translator, and after a few uses, she will understand about translation errors.  The transition to direct communication can be a real shocker for both parties.  

I keep hearing about how Google is leading the translation software field by leaps and bounds.  Everyone seems to gush about how well they are able to translate, but it is still far from perfect.  I look forward to the day of the universal translator.

Yeah...the online translators certainly leave a lot to be desired.  It is a really good idea to double check the translation...although this can be really time consuming.

[ttwjr32]

i think if you utilize both it would help in the process