To foreign fiancees/spouses: Learn English before coming to the US

[R de la R 2]

I am fully agree with some of the comments posted here.

To learn English is a process that takes years and years, I can say that by my own experience. I have more than 18 years learning English, taking classes here in my country and my speaking are better since I am communicating myself with Donald in English. It isn't easy, it takes time, effort and money.

[Y's_habibitk 2]

Thanks guys for ansswering my question

I wish I was fluent in arabic so my husband and I could go back and forth. One day I will be, but that will be a long time from now.

[Completely 3]

I just wanted to encourage all the foreign fiancees and spouses to learn English in your country before coming to the US. The English courses in the US are very expensive. There are free courses offered by the government in some cities but for the most part you have to pay. And it's usually much cheaper in your home countries. With all the costs involved in bringing a person over, you don't need the added expense for an English course. But it's not just about the money. In your home country the teachers usually speak your language, so they can explain complex things better than here.

My wife could have taken classes back home for $40/month and the teacher spoke Spanish so he could've explained things clearly. She chose not to for various reasons. And now she's struggling with it. She has improved a lot since coming here in late May, but it's not easy. Here, a class in a community college costs about $1,000 for about 6-8 weeks. The "better" (more popular) private ESL schools charge over $2,000. My wife is taking a class now where the majority of the class is struggling to keep up. I'm teaching her at home as much as I can, but I thought I wouldn't need to if she took a class.

Bottom line: if your English is weak, study before coming to the US. It will save you stress, time, and money.

I am glad most of the people in my country speaks english.. Just need practice for other people but it will be better..

You can help her by talking to her more everyday.

[Completely 3]

I just wanted to encourage all the foreign fiancees and spouses to learn English in your country before coming to the US. The English courses in the US are very expensive. There are free courses offered by the government in some cities but for the most part you have to pay. And it's usually much cheaper in your home countries. With all the costs involved in bringing a person over, you don't need the added expense for an English course. But it's not just about the money. In your home country the teachers usually speak your language, so they can explain complex things better than here.

My wife could have taken classes back home for $40/month and the teacher spoke Spanish so he could've explained things clearly. She chose not to for various reasons. And now she's struggling with it. She has improved a lot since coming here in late May, but it's not easy. Here, a class in a community college costs about $1,000 for about 6-8 weeks. The "better" (more popular) private ESL schools charge over $2,000. My wife is taking a class now where the majority of the class is struggling to keep up. I'm teaching her at home as much as I can, but I thought I wouldn't need to if she took a class.

Bottom line: if your English is weak, study before coming to the US. It will save you stress, time, and money.

I am glad most of the people in my country speaks english.. Just need practice for other people but it will be better..

You can help her by talking to her more everyday.

[nra19 0]

I just wanted to encourage all the foreign fiancees and spouses to learn English in your country before coming to the US. The English courses in the US are very expensive. There are free courses offered by the government in some cities but for the most part you have to pay. And it's usually much cheaper in your home countries. With all the costs involved in bringing a person over, you don't need the added expense for an English course. But it's not just about the money. In your home country the teachers usually speak your language, so they can explain complex things better than here.

My wife could have taken classes back home for $40/month and the teacher spoke Spanish so he could've explained things clearly. She chose not to for various reasons. And now she's struggling with it. She has improved a lot since coming here in late May, but it's not easy. Here, a class in a community college costs about $1,000 for about 6-8 weeks. The "better" (more popular) private ESL schools charge over $2,000. My wife is taking a class now where the majority of the class is struggling to keep up. I'm teaching her at home as much as I can, but I thought I wouldn't need to if she took a class.

Bottom line: if your English is weak, study before coming to the US. It will save you stress, time, and money.

Why are you paying so much for English classes for your wife?? You live in NYC - there are TOOOONS of organizations that offer free English classes....

[Rocky_nBullwinkle 6]

We spoke only Spanish for the first year and a half of knowing each other. We gradually transitioned to mostly English. But now, we're going back to a fair bit of Spanish, because we want our daughter to be exposed to both languages enough so that she will grow up to be fluently bilingual.

I'll add another note: Don't expect to stop taking English classes any time soon.

At my workplace, we have a number of foreign born engineers, from Russia, France, Germany, Japan, China, India, Spain, and other countries. Though all of them are relatively fluent and have basic communications ability, most of them are still taking advanced English classes, sometimes after having been here for 10 years or more. The learning never stops. There's always a bit of potential for accent reduction, for improving grammar, for learning slang, for learning to use contractions the way native speakers use them, for avoiding awkward sentence structure that native speakers wouldn't use, etc.

Many times, an English learner will reach a plateau of functional proficiency, and then stay there for awhile. Sometimes, for too long. But if the US is going to be your real long-term home, you need to know the language well enough that you can always make yourself clearly understood, well enough that you can easily understand a TV news broadcast, well enough that you can overhear a conversation at the next table in a restaurant, well enough that speaking English over the phone to a stranger is as easy as conversing with your spouse, well enough to confidently deliver a public speech to an audience, well enough that strangers who hear you speak can tell that they won't have to slow down or repeat in order for you to understand them, etc. The level of proficiency required to really make this your comfortable home language is not something that's going to happen in just a few years of classes.

I've been in the United States for almost a year now. Although I can carry conversational English (because I studied English before coming here), I am still having some problems with my accent. It is true that learning never stops because I want to improve my accent. My husband is a native Californian and until now I am still having a hard time getting used to his accent. I also want to learn Spanish because my husband is fluent in Spanish and sometimes he speaks to me in Spanish. I need to take English and Spanish classes because I feel that these are very important if you want to settle permanently in the United States.

[cris11 0]

When I visited my husband in US under my tourist visa, I toke lesson at a College, Continuing Education, ESL course. It was cheap, around 240 Us dollar for 10 weeks and 9 hours/week. However,,, all my classmates were from a Spanish speaking country or from a country in Asia. They speak theirs native language on all breaks. I was the only European student in my class. It’s important to search after a teacher who are born with English language, so you don’t get a teacher who explain the English language on another language. English speaking teacher, they need to explain the grammar on English not on Korean, that’s happen me, so after a while I changed to another class with a native born American teacher!

To learn a language are a process, I have still a bit to go, but when I am back to Us I plan to take more courses and do some voluntary work so I need to speak English my whole days, special when my husband work daytime. The free courses in English was not special good, sometime we was over 40 students, its not a dialog lessons its one way teaching. I try to read English books and always watch english/american TV, but the hardest is the writing.. Good luck

[chuckb 0]

I've been in the United States for almost a year now. Although I can carry conversational English (because I studied English before coming here), I am still having some problems with my accent. It is true that learning never stops because I want to improve my accent. My husband is a native Californian and until now I am still having a hard time getting used to his accent. I also want to learn Spanish because my husband is fluent in Spanish and sometimes he speaks to me in Spanish. I need to take English and Spanish classes because I feel that these are very important if you want to settle permanently in the United States.

Heck, I've lived in Colorado all of my life except a year in California, and I have trouble understanding Californians! Try the East Coast accent, or the deep South, Texas, Florida, New York, or British accents? They are all different. English isn't just English especially if one talks fast!

I tried to help the kids in the Philippines with the English they were learning in school. The books they were using had bad grammer, misspelling, and other errors. Makes it difficult. They are doing well now, because they are here. But then, even the British spell things differently, and say things differently. Where did English come from?

It's tough, but even more so when there are varieties of it that differ. My wife does very good with English, she can make herself understood, but the grammer would make a pure English major shudder! Kids are sponges when it comes to language. They have an accent still, but the English grammer is very good. The oldest is learning Spanish, and getting better grades than many of the native "Spanish" speakers.

Spanish isn't just Spanish, any more than English is just the Queens English. Those that speak any language as a native might speak it, are either very gifted, or learned it very young. I tried to learn Tagalog. I can read a book out loud, and usually pronounce the words correctly, but I don't understand most of what I'm saying. I feel for those that have to speak a second language.

Usually, a Filipino speaks more than one language from an early age. I can't help but think that is an advantage!

Here in Colorado, there are ESL classes that are very reasonable in terms of cost at the local Community College. I'm not sure that they are worth the time, efort and gasoline from what I've seen. I suppose you get what you pay for...

[Nessa 23]

ESL around here is 4K

[bora bora 1]

ESL around here is 4K

That's expensive....as learning a language usually is, but it may be extreme in your case since it looks like you live in Kansas City. In Florida it's a lot cheaper.

[Brian-Charisma 0]

I just wanted to encourage all the foreign fiancees and spouses to learn English in your country before coming to the US. The English courses in the US are very expensive. There are free courses offered by the government in some cities but for the most part you have to pay. And it's usually much cheaper in your home countries. With all the costs involved in bringing a person over, you don't need the added expense for an English course. But it's not just about the money. In your home country the teachers usually speak your language, so they can explain complex things better than here.

My wife could have taken classes back home for $40/month and the teacher spoke Spanish so he could've explained things clearly. She chose not to for various reasons. And now she's struggling with it. She has improved a lot since coming here in late May, but it's not easy. Here, a class in a community college costs about $1,000 for about 6-8 weeks. The "better" (more popular) private ESL schools charge over $2,000. My wife is taking a class now where the majority of the class is struggling to keep up. I'm teaching her at home as much as I can, but I thought I wouldn't need to if she took a class.

Bottom line: if your English is weak, study before coming to the US.

It will save you stress, time, and money.

hi !! my Brian asked me to read books...read news form CNN and

we really praticed to speak proper English when we talked online and it really helps me to adjust and to learn more and have confident to speak English....

i have read books from high school ...books of my cousins it helps me a lot because

u will learn the basic English there..... :thumbs:

[brtlmj 0]

My ESL classes were free (I live in California). I did not find them particularly useful, though. There is not too much you can learn if you are one of 30 or so students in a class...

[bora bora 1]

My ESL classes were free (I live in California). I did not find them particularly useful, though. There is not too much you can learn if you are one of 30 or so students in a class...

That's why my husband opted for the more expensive classess (though he gets 50% off becauses of me). He tried free classes through the public school system and then the public library. He didn't learn ANYTHING. So he started to study at Berlitz. Honestly, he learns the most at work and with friends (and me - though I speak to him in English and he answers in Portuguese ).

It's important to study ESL in a school IMHO because you have to learn grammar and how to read/write the best you can - you won't learn that as much talking to your friends. That's what I tell my hubby...

[Mononoke28 134]

I agree. A lot of free classes are taught by volunteers and/or people who only want to do it part-time, so the dedication is not the same as if they were going to a different school. This does not mean that they have to pay and arm and a leg for them, but I think the classes are out there. Also, I don't like the type of schools who only offer classes for an hour or two twice a week are good enough. You can't learn much in so little time. I found my husband classes in a technical college here in Denver and for $200 he takes 2 hours of English classes M-F for two months and we saw a huuuuge difference.

Diana

[antda 13]

Hi Kidbrooklyn,

There is "no such thing as too much learning", and by all means, everyone should learn as much English (or other language) as they can before moving to another country, both before moving, and more so after moving. In fact, I think that they should make it a requirement that one should learn the country's language before and after they move there. After all, how else will they be able to communicate in their new home country? I wish more immigrants would be motivated to learn long-term throughout their lives for everything and not only do short-term learning for a test and/or job or educational requirement.

One can learn English and/or any other language formally through local classes (there are free ones too, I remember I used to volunteer teaching English to new immigrants in Canada) and informally through conversations, newspapers, magazines, tv, etc. By learning the country's language, one can feel less alone (especially in a class setting), more of a sense of beloning into the new society, and more confident in their communication abilities overall.

I agree too, with the following previous posted message, which sums up my point too:

Don't expect to stop taking English classes any time soon.The learning never stops. There's always a bit of potential for accent reduction, for improving grammar, for learning slang, for learning to use contractions the way native speakers use them, for avoiding awkward sentence structure that native speakers wouldn't use, etc. Many times, an English learner will reach a plateau of functional proficiency, and then stay there for awhile. Sometimes, for too long. But if the US is going to be your real long-term home, you need to know the language well enough that you can always make yourself clearly understood, well enough that you can easily understand a TV news broadcast, well enough that you can overhear a conversation at the next table in a restaurant, well enough that speaking English over the phone to a stranger is as easy as conversing with your spouse, well enough to confidently deliver a public speech to an audience, well enough that strangers who hear you speak can tell that they won't have to slow down or repeat in order for you to understand them, etc. The level of proficiency required to really make this your comfortable home language is not something that's going to happen in just a few years of classes.

Good luck in learning English and good luck with your immigration situation.

Ant (Still learning about everything in life...)