My gf and I are just back from a long weekend in her home country to celebrate her brother’s wedding. It was fantastic and her family are lovely but, other than the most basic phrases, I don’t yet speak their language and the older members of the family (including my future in-laws) grew up under Communist rule and therefore their second language is Russian, unlike those of the generation that my gf and I belong to who learnt English at school.
My gf spent a lot of the weekend translating, which I’m hugely grateful for, and I am making an effort to learn her home language but until then I’m relying on gesturing and the basics whenever we see her parents.
I’m interested to know how many others are in this situation and what they are doing about it, if anything.
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My gf and I are just back from a long weekend in her home country to celebrate her brother’s wedding. It was fantastic and her family are lovely but, other than the most basic phrases, I don’t yet speak their language and the older members of the family (including my future in-laws) grew up under Communist rule and therefore their second language is Russian, unlike those of the generation that my gf and I belong to who learnt English at school.
My gf spent a lot of the weekend translating, which I’m hugely grateful for, and I am making an effort to learn her home language but until then I’m relying on gesturing and the basics whenever we see her parents.
I’m interested to know how many others are in this situation and what they are doing about it, if anything.
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Lots of pointing and gesturing.
It’s time to learn a second (or third) language. It’s exactly how you describe it: lotta translating and gestures.
You know, there is something called google translate, right?
Which you can speak into and it translate and vice versa.
Try to learn the language fam, duolingo or some shit. You’ll actually get extra points from your girl AND the fam just for trying, you don’t even have to become good or fluent. If you can show you put that extra work into genuinely trying it will go a long way
How? By learning the language her side of the family speaks. My Japanese is like a 5 or 6/10, but I think they mostly understand the core of what Im trying to say so I feel we can have a pretty decent convo at this point so long as its not about something complicated that takes a lot of specialized vocabulary I dont know.
If you make a real effort it will go a long way.
I started learning their language, and they started learning mine. My wife translates the rest.
I don’t really have that deep relation to my in-laws, however I do understand a bit if they speak slowly. I’m the immigrant so eventually I’ll speak better!
The old fashion way, you learn the language if you want to join her family.via marriage.
The modern way, you pull out a smart phone and get a live translation app and you take turns talking into the phone.