added you on my watch list sunnybear!

Tee hee thanks Shes! I will take any good vibes we can get!

On a dif note I got wii fit yesterday and OMG what fun it is! I am HOOKED! I know how I shall be wasting time now haha! Anyone have any plans for this long weekend? I know it is bank holiday in England as well....no plans for me except laundry, beer, and wii fit haha!

It's going to be a normal weekend, no holiday in France (we had enough the past weeks anyway). I need to find some shoes. And do some laundry. nothing else planned so far!

You're so funny sunnybear, I now have an image of you leaping about the living room this weekend - with a wii control in one hand, a beer in the other, and the unfolded laundry on your couch.

Good afternoon, people.

Alex received a letter yesterday informing him that the petition is on its way to the London embassy! I had no idea they issued letters.

I'm off to my parents' tomorrow; looking forward to walking the dogs and watching a performance of The Cherry Orchard with my grandparents.

Hi Rachel!

Have a question for you.
Did Alex received a first letter saying your petition arrived in NVC, or did he only received the one you're telling about, saying it is on his way to the embassy.
My fiancé received one saying they got our petition, but have still no idea if they send it to the embassy or not!
I am not really worried, just curious!

I will ask him to clarify tonight, but I am pretty certain the letter he received informed him that it was on the way to the embassy. He's not received any other letters. His text to me said: 'BTW, my dad called to say that I got a letter saying that our petition should be in London next week!'

Oh, and I booked an appointment with a nurse for Monday 3rd June to discuss vaccinations. I should at least be able to have the MMR for free (I'm under 25) on the NHS.

Alex finally filled out the Affidavit of Support form and will hopefully have it notarized for free at his work tonight. Looking at his earnings he does earn quite a bit more than 125% of the poverty level but I'll still feel happier having his dad as a co-sponsor as Alex can only provide me with one year's tax returns.

Hi Rachel, sounds like you have a good weekend planned. I think its a good idea to have Alexs' dad co sponsor as well. That should make it a slam dunk and yet another thing you will not have to worry about.

Exactly! I am all for the slam-dunking.

Good morning all Happy Friday

Good morning everyone! How are we all doing today? I'm being anxious and impatient.

Good morning to you (though it's almost the evening here)!

I'm okay. Trying not to think too hard about moving and... the wedding. It's a potential minimum 7 months away and I'm already dreading it.

Love the new avatar!

I'm trying to find a good way to teach French to Bryan. Would you have any ideas?

Thank you for checking for me!!
Like you, I feel more secure about having a co-sponsor ( which is my fiancé's mother).
I just received this morning all their papers, with the 2 affidavits of support. Man, they both send me tons of papers, and proofs!!
Well, it is better than less!

About my week-end, me, it is work and work as usual, because I work in hospitality!
Wish you all a good week-end!

More is usually always better! I know petitions shouldn't be too thick, but at the interview you'll be taking it in yourself, so you only need to hand over the relevant papers.

Cecile - I hear that it's not always the best idea to teach a significant other your language as if a lesson doesn't go too well, or someone ends up getting frustrated, it can lead to arguments. It might be best if Brian could sign up to a French course somewhere and then you help out at home by conversing with him in French. It will certainly be a great opportunity for him to practise with a native speaker, though!

i love wii! but im liking PSP cus its simply portable...i can hang out at burger king playing and eating fries and can browse the net with it too! kewl

I totally agree with that. He said he will take a class as soon as he can. But it would be fun to try to teach him a few things and... i'm bored right now that's why I was thinking of it now!

Waow!! I know what you're talking about...
When I was living with my fiancé, I tried to teach him French, but it didn't work out so much...
First of all, does he want to learn French, is he motivated?
Josh knows some words, but that's all.
He, after trying with some books, bought a CD room, I would have to ask him what was the name of it!
It seemed to be a good way to learn French, but he wasn't doing it too frequently! He needs to really want to learn French! not me wanted him to speak French.

I like your new pictures You look like you could be my sister! My girls and I both have the curly hair like that... Lol

I was hopeless at French at school, by the way! I was pretty decent at writing and reading - and I did receive an A-grade for my finals in high school - but when I went and stayed with my mother's penfriend's parents in France for a couple of weeks I found it very difficult to communicate with them. I had never been taught by a native speaker and so I was unfamiliar with how the French pronounced French words. I also found the speed at which French was spoken was a good deal faster than I was used to hearing in school. Several times I had to retrieve a dictionary and point to words to try and get my meaning across.

I've forgotten pretty much all of the French I learned now, of course. Practise really does make perfect and I haven't had any reason to use French since I was 16. I really wish I could speak another language but it is hard to find the discipline required to learn one, especially when you are not exposed to any foreign languages in any capacity. Learning to read and write the basics would be a lot easier.

Not even married yet and she's already trying to change her man

I suggest he make his way down to Barnes & Noble and get a CD set that he can listen to and practice with while driving. There are many language instruction programs in French to choose from. Forget about him learning to write the language since seemingly half the letters in words are not pronounced. Of course if you set a reward system for his good efforts then he will be quite motivated to learn. It's an easier language to speak than to read (at least that's my take).

Hehe. Hmm, what could you do? Does he know any French at all? I was wondering if you could do something like write e-mails in both French and English, or maybe compile a small vocabulary list for him, or start off with a very few words - for example, getting him to greet you in French and say goodnight in French?


This, this is my biggest peeve with French. I don't know of any other language that uses so many letters to communicate what emerges from the mouth as a few mumbled syllables.

I don't know if it is just me, but I have real difficulty distinguishing distinct sounds in spoken languages, even sometimes in English. I watched anime regularly for years in the original Japanese language and picked up maybe one or two words. Other people picked up whole phrases! I've always found writing and reading easier.

I'm also doomed to failure to speak a great number of languages as I cannot roll my Rs.

Thank you! I don't have any sisters...so maybe you're like a long lost one.

About teaching French...have you tried Rosetta stone? It's fantastic.

He says he wants to learn but he doesn't seem very motivated.
He bought a CD rom (with a book), played with it for a while and then forgot about it.



I'm not trying to change him, I'm just trying to make our life easier and funnier it would be great to be able to talk a language that no-one around us would understand.
And he knows he will have to learn at one point, because when we have kids, they will speak both languages. So, it's better if their dad can tell when they are insulting him

I thought about the reward system. I think I'm going to think about it more, it could be a good way to do it

I know that learning French is quite difficult (more difficult than learning English). And I think he knows it too. And Rachel, you are right, when you can't practice you forget how to use it. Last year we broke up for several months (won't go into details, I'm glad we realized we needed each others so much!) and when we first started to talk via the webcam and microphone I was scared I would not be able to understand what he says! but it worked perfectly

He knows how to say hello, goodnight, I love you, yes, no, my name is Bryan, what's your name. that's a good start


It is not just you. Writing and reading is so much easier than understand what people say! I met some people in the USA that I couldn't understand (but Bryan said it's because they didn't speak good English). It's probably easier now, after spending so much time together, and it will be easier after more months in the USA. but it's quite scary to go to a country where I can only understand half of the people!

So maybe I'm going to start typing some of my emails in both languages, and then ask him to make small sentences (with the words I'll have explained in my emails) and if it's correct there will be a reward

[quote name='aravis227' date='May 23 2008, 05:40 PM' post='1865839'
About teaching French...have you tried Rosetta stone? It's fantastic.
[/quote]

Yep, thanks Aravis! Rosetta Stone was the name of the CD room I was talking about!
It is a little expensing, but if motivated, really helpful!

I sometimes wonder why I'm marrying an American. All my kids will be able to speak is English and bastardized English.

I know what I immediately thought of when I read 'reward system'.

We probably all thought of the same thing
Your children will be lost! should they use "theatre" or "theater"? "learnt" or "learned"? at least mine will have two completely different languages

"motivated" being the important part! I have it and what languages do you think I speak? English and....English.



My opinion? "theater" is where you see movies, "theatre" is where you see plays, operas, or ballets...at least, that's how I use them. I don't think I've ever used "learnt"...

It must be very scary! I am so grateful that I will not encounter a language barrier; although I still frustrate Alex by making him order things for me in shops.

And that sounds like a plan; good luck!

I am not always good at speaking English myself. Accents aside, I stammer sometimes and say 'um' a lot. When I write I can revise what I have written and make amendments if necessary. I day-dream a lot and when I am speaking my mind often wanders and I end up breaking off mid-sentence because I have completely forgotten what I was talking about!

may i ask...after getting the NOA2..i heard couples who called NVC to check if they've received the application from csc..

how's that? when we should call and what number? do you know guys? especially those who've been approved already.

can anyone share their experience with it.

tnx in advance!

I'm leaving work now, it's the weekend

I know! I know most of the obvious ones but I keep finding differences that surprise me. For example: Canceled vs. cancelled, or silicone sealant = caulking.

Also, I've learned not to use 'learnt' or 'dreamt' or 'whilst' too often online because some Americans see this as a form of 'pretentiousness'. Likewise using 'cinema' instead of 'theater'.

Alex helps, though. For example:

Me: I am cutting shapes out of aluminium foil.
Alex: What?
Me: I'm cutting shapes out of aluminium foil.
Alex: What do you mean?
Me: I'm sorry, I'm cutting shapes out of a-loo-min-um foil.
Alex: See, I knew you'd get there eventually!

He's terrible!

Actually I was thinking of Cecile walking around with a pocket full of crackers- and whenever Bryan used a word correctly, she could flip him a little treat.......what were you guys implying

The reason why I say to focus on the spoken rather than the written at this point is that unless he intends to walk around with a dictionary all the time it will not be very practical for daily activity. My sister and her husband, who have just moved to Belgium, started speaking french to each other about 5 years ago, and really made it an enjoyable activity in their daily lives. Because they were able to laugh their way through the process, learning was not viewed by them as a task. Now they are both relatively fluent. The ear can certainly be trained - I'm reminded of Spanish classes I took, the first week everything sounded like dadadada-dadadada-dadadrrrrrrrdadadada-dada, but shortly thereafter I could distinguish individual words. I worked for a French comapny as well and learned some of the language for that - same process. Bryan will probably not be communicating by writing but by speaking, and in order to speak well you have to be able to hear the spoken language.

Dennis and I were talking one time while I was in my kitchen and we had this conversation:
Him: Do you have a garburator?
me: a what?
him: ...a garburator?
me: ...what?
him: That thing in your sink that grinds up food
me: Ohhhh...a garbage disposal!
This whole different words thing is fun.

We all know the English can't spell correctly, nor can they follow simple vowel-consonant-vowel conventions - and I think that using words like "whilst" are quite in keeping with your accent, and very cute - don't stop doing that Note, that if an American would say those words too often (notice you do not pronounce the "t" in american english) then they would be viewed less favorably.

Depends which Americans! I've heard 'often' with the 't' pronounced and without it, in the same city!

Don't believe anyone that pronounces the "t" they're just trying to impress you.

I say "of-ten" with the t, and I'm just a Seattle bum. I also say "neither" (opposed to nee-ther).

I've read one of the biggest challenges in learning another language is learning to differentiate one word from another. Speaking slowly can help with this, but moreso, being able to pause slightly between each word will help a non-native speaker immensely when there are learning. I think back to my days when I was first learning spanish, and it's so true!

The thing that I think is interesting now, is that I have become pretty fluent in my fiance's spanish, but when talking to other people, apparently I am not as easily understood, nor can I grasp what they are saying as much. It's interesting how my brain has come to know and learn Greivin's way of speaking and still has trouble distinguishing other spanish speakers.

Levi and I always have "discussions" about the proper word to use and how they should be spelled and he's just from Canada!! They put U's in things that shouln't have U's and he borrowed his friend some money instead of loaned him some money and its an expirey instead of expiration date. A winter hat is NOT a hat its a toque..... On and on.. Its funny

Hey now! I pronounce the "t" in often...I had a teacher once who tried to tell us all that you do not pronounce the "l" in "almond", though. I didn't believe a word she said.

my future step-son thinks that "toque" is the funniest word on the planet. i'm glad that it doesn't take much to keep an 8 year-old entertained

hehehe...we laugh about the "expirey" date all the time! He also talks about "traffic pylons" which I think is adorable! I picked that up from him and say it, too.

My kids thought that was hilarious too! When he was here at Christmas they teased him about it constantly

Does Dennis have a noticeable accent? Levi does and I think its so cute

Yeah...but it's not really placeable. Both of his parents grew up in Germany and moved to Canada in their 20's...Dennis' first language was German and it was all they spoke in their house until he was a teenager...so his accent is this weird amalgamation...it's like he speaks Canerman.

Levi's mom has a strong German accent but they speak low German as they came from South America in their 20's. South American Germans lol.