high level of fluency in English?

[db33]

Hi guys,

Just wondering if there were a lot of FSU that could speak English at a really high level?  I've lived abroad before and dated women who didn't speak English that great- and it was frustrating.  By high level, I mean watching the news and knowing what's being said.  For you guys married to a FSU woman, did their English improve quite a bit once they moved to the U.S.?  I know this is kind of a vague question, but I'm just looking for people's thoughts...

[Lily]

A high level of English is often a result of particular education. Either she learned it as her profession, or she was educated at the universities where English classes were rather intensive (often in Moscow), or she was educated in an English speaking country. There would be also other options and combination of them. The rule of thumb would be IMHO that fluent English is or was part of education since a younger age.

[ML]

I don't know exact percentages:  but there are a lot of women in FSU who can communicate in English.

But I think the criteria of watching the news and knowing what is being said is a little too high of a standard.

What I mean by being able to communicate in English is that you and she will be able to understand each other and carry on day to day activities.

Just today, I was made aware of just how much I have come to understand FSU people speaking English compared to those with no experience around FSU people.

Gal and I went to theatre play with an  AM/AW couple and then on to dinner at restaurant.

I knew exactly what was meant by every sentence my Gal spoke, but I quickly realized that the other couple missed a lot of the meaning because Gal spoke with accent, used wrong word in some instances, etc.  So I had to do a lot of clarifying.  Gal knew exactly what the others were saying.

By being around FSUW for some time, a man will be able to understand what a particular one is saying in English even considering a strong accent and misuse of words, etc. Quite amazing how this works and I hadn't really thought about it until my experience today.

It is sort of analogous to this situation:

= = = = = = = = =

How wreid is tihs?

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch sduty at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer
in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht  the
frist and lsat ltteer are at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and
you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed
ervey lteter by istlef but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig!

[TwoBitBandit]

 I've dated more Russian and Ukrainian girls than I care to admit (more than 100).


The quantity that speak English as well as you describe (being able to watch the news or read a newspaper with high comprehension) is a tiny minority.  (perhaps 10%?)  It's mostly women who majored in English or who lived abroad at some point.  I'd say that another 10% speak English well enough to carry on basic conversations if you speak very slowly.  This group will also make a lot of grammar mistakes.  ("My parents is from Siberia...")


Most Russians learned had some exposure to English in elementary school but only know a few phrases.  In general, there are fewer people in Russia who speak English than in Western Europe (e.g., France or Germany.)


Girls who speak English are over-represented in agencies.  A higher fraction of agency girls speak English than the general population of the same age from a Russian-languge site like mamba.ru.  Most of the girls who indicate that they speak English in agencies don't speak it that well, although the sites that list a graduated ability (like one to five) can be a useful guide.  On sites where speaking English is a check-box (like mamba.ru), most of the girls who indicate they speak English only know a few phrases and basic questions.


In general, you need an interpreter or to speak Russian yourself.  (I speak it fluently.)  If you restrict yourself only to women who speak English fluently you're fishing in a small and overfished pond.

[ML]

If you restrict yourself only to women who speak English fluently you're fishing in a small and overfished pond.

I have always restricted myself to women who can communicate in English without need of interpreter.

However, based on my experience, I think there might be a lot of truth in your statement that this pond may be quite overfished since many other guys have the exact same criteria as myself.  Most likely when you think you have found that one in a thousand jewel . . . she has already been rejected by several other men for various and valid reasons.

But another alternative of trying to learn Russian yourself I think is also a disaster route to follow for the vast majority of men.  And it will mostly all be for naught when you bring the gal west.

Makes for quite a bleak outlook . . . in general.

I feel pretty lucky in that the Gal that is with me now was never on any dating site or marriage agency, never answered any newpaper ads, etc.  A true virgin in that sense.

[Avis]

I don't think there are a lot of women speaking fluent English, no.


It takes time, practice, effort and enormous motivation to learn English to speak it fluently when you live in a non-English speaking country (speaking from my own experience - i never studied a language degree in Uni let alone abroad).


You can still find quite a number of women willing to improve their basic, pre-intermediate or intermediate English in order to have a meaningful conversation with you, which I personally find quite encouraging and worth giving a go.

[Gator]

DB33,
 
 
 

Just wondering if there were a lot of FSU that could speak English at a really high level?  I've lived abroad before and dated women who didn't speak English that great- and it was frustrating.  By high level, I mean watching the news and knowing what's being said.  For you guys married to a FSU woman, did their English improve quite a bit once they moved to the U.S.?  I know this is kind of a vague question, but I'm just looking for people's thoughts...

A man must possess patience to advance a relationship with a language gap.  There will be much misunderstanding.  Impatience exacerbates it.    And a sincere RW will be even more frustrated than the man.
 
Yes, a RW's proficiency in conversational English will improve quickly after arriving in America, especially if she takes English classes designed for ESL students.  Some RW, however, do not progress well, especially if they do not socialize with Americans, do not watch English TV, etc.
 
If you marry a RW I highly recommend that she take classes.  Before you know it, she will be correcting your English and questioning "you guys,"  "didn't speak English that great," etc . 

[Eduard]

My wife had a challenge. Since I'm a Russian speaker she refused speaking English with me. I tried to convince her that it would be good for her to speak it at least a couple of hours a day but she had some kind of mental block. She did take ESL classes and then took English at community college. A year later she passed a National Dental Board exam which was extremely difficult... She is pretty fluent now but still not enough practice since she won't speak English with me at home. 
Women...

[SANDRO43]

= = = = = = = = =
How wreid is tihs?
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch sduty at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht  the frist and lsat ltteer are at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by istlef but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig!

An earlier study published in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN long ago concluded that the LENGTH of the misprinted word is also a very important factor, based on eye-movement detection that showed that readers scan the beginning of a word at a certain angular speed, then move faster over the rest on to the next one. 

[Eduard]

An earlier study published in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN long ago concluded that the LENGTH of the misprinted word is also a very important factor, based on eye-movement detection that showed that readers scan the beginning of a word at a certain angular speed, then move faster over the rest on to the next one.

wow! it is perytt amzagni!

[Faux Pas]

Hi guys,

Just wondering if there were a lot of FSU that could speak English at a really high level?  I've lived abroad before and dated women who didn't speak English that great- and it was frustrating.  By high level, I mean watching the news and knowing what's being said.  For you guys married to a FSU woman, did their English improve quite a bit once they moved to the U.S.?  I know this is kind of a vague question, but I'm just looking for people's thoughts...

IMHO, there are many different levels of RW speaking english, finding a woman that's "fluent" per se' or a high level, well for the average guy looking, they don't exist. Many might profess a level 8 of 10 but she's wrong. More like a 2 or 3. I strongly encourage guys to seek women with at least some english ability and able to communicate. Doesn't matter if it is only a little, at least it is some. That is unless you know Russian.


Even if the lady has good english skills (good skills is far from fluency) there will still be serious miscommunications. It still requires a high degree of patience from both the man and the woman. Most women, even with excellent skills will still have a relatively thick accent that will mask her words and she'll speak out of syntax.  It can be quite a challenge to a man that is impatient or slightly hearing impaired. It's not that big of a deal really as it requires more attention on your part.


My wife speaks "good" english and has since we first met. I still have to do the same thing most every time she speaks. That is, (1) stop what I am doing (2) let her speak and finish while listening intensely (3) Analyze what she just said and think of possible alternatives of what she may have really meant. 50% of the time, I am wrong even after those steps.

[Kineo]

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch sduty at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer
in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht  the
frist and lsat ltteer are at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and
you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed
ervey lteter by istlef but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig!

Ipmressvie!
 
 

[Aloe]

My my, do i feel stupid setting my english level to "good" all those years, because i felt my english wasn't really 'fluent'.  And it turns out that being able to understand the news is considered a high level of english... 

[artisan5308]

My lady is very good to fluent in english. Her active vocabulary is quite large considering that she has no one but me to speak english to, which is mostly by phone or skype. Of course her higher ed is in english and french and she taught for many years. She loves it when I introduce new words into her vocab and it is amazing how she retains these words. She never learned to type until I got her a laptop my last trip over to the Ukraine. Now she can type in english almost as fast as me.

Her theory is that any language is easy to learn, as all languages have the same roots.

Easy for her to say.

[Vincenzo]

There is another aspect.

Most Eastern European women who speak fluent English are translators. It means that they won't be able to find similar jobs in foreign countries, especially in the USA.

For example, a Russian bank that works with US companies often hire an interpreter to help a manager who doesn't know English well. A US bank can hire a Russian financial manager to deal with Russian companies. It's even worse for Spanish translators.

[Faux Pas]

There is another aspect.

Most Eastern European women who speak fluent English are translators. It means that they won't be able to find similar jobs in foreign countries, especially in the USA.

For example, a Russian bank that works with US companies often hire an interpreter to help a manager who doesn't know English well. A US bank can hire a Russian financial manager to deal with Russian companies. It's even worse for Spanish translators.

Thats comparing apple to oranges in the US. There is and has been a demand for fluent Spanish speakers in the US. My daughter majored in Spanish (much to my chagrin at the time) and her spanish fluency opened quite a few doors for her

[Vincenzo]

Thats comparing apple to oranges in the US. There is and has been a demand for fluent Spanish speakers in the US. My daughter majored in Spanish (much to my chagrin at the time) and her spanish fluency opened quite a few doors for her

That's the thing that I'm talking about.
There are many bilingual professionals in the USA who are not interpreters.

My dentist has dental assistants who speak both English and Spanish. No, speaking Spanish is not their job. If I spoke only Chinese, I would easily find a dentist with Chinese assistants.

[XMan]

In my searching, it was extremely difficult to find a woman who spoke even passable English.  I would rate the percentage of fluent speakers as far less than 1% of the population.  Perhaps 5% can speak some English.  But, it could also vary by city, town, etc. 
One woman who spoke exceptionally well turned out to be ... a former KGB honeypot. 
No, I am not joking. 
Good luck getting her into the USA.
 
 

[ML]

In my searching, it was extremely difficult to find a woman who spoke even passable English.

Never found it difficult at all to meet women in this category.

[Muzh]

There is another aspect.

Most Eastern European women who speak fluent English are translators. It means that they won't be able to find similar jobs in foreign countries, especially in the USA.

For example, a Russian bank that works with US companies often hire an interpreter to help a manager who doesn't know English well. A US bank can hire a Russian financial manager to deal with Russian companies. It's even worse for Spanish translators.

My goodness Vincenzo, where do you get your information? The "Book of Quotes?"
 
Why don't you stop spouting nonsense?

[viking]

My wife speaks "good" english and has since we first met. I still have to do the same thing most every time she speaks. That is, (1) stop what I am doing (2) let her speak and finish while listening intensely (3) Analyze what she just said and think of possible alternatives of what she may have really meant. 50% of the time, I am wrong even after those steps.

So true. So true. My wife's English level was fairly low. With almost 1.5 years of ESL under her belt she is a lot better. Seems her written English is better than her spoken English. What I have found is that with her fairly strong accent I can figure out what she is saying, if for no other reason than I heard it before, but others have a problem. Additionally when she mixes up her grammar or attempts a new word, I often have to ask her to put it in a sentence so I can figure out what she is trying to say.

And after about 10PM or so, her brain gets so frazzled that just about anything that comes out is met with a big "HUH"?

An example of something we went through early on. Since I WORK from home, or WALK the dog, she will often ask me if I WOK now. So since both WALK and WORK are spoken as WOK, I had to keep asking her if she is referring to my working on the computer or taking the dog out. We got that straighten out.

[Vincenzo]

My goodness Vincenzo, where do you get your information? The "Book of Quotes?"
 
Why don't you stop spouting nonsense?

I get my information from observing real life, Sir.

Do you know many people around you who watch news in Spanish every day and who are not translators or native Spanish speakers?
The topic's author wants a woman who watches English news. Do you think he can find many?

[Muzh]

I get my information from observing real life, Sir.

The topic's author wants a woman who watches English news. Do you think he can find many?

Very few have the capability to get English programming. So, what's your point?
 
FYI, I know plenty of R/UW who are fluent in English and are NOT translators. Also, my wife's school in Ukraine was geared to teach their students English as a second language. It still is. I don't think that their intent was to produce translators for the Ukrainian economy.
 
Or maybe I'm wrong. BUT since I DON'T have the FACTS, I DON'T post it as a GIVEN.

[Vaughn]

The topic's author wants a woman who watches English news.

Vincenzo, what I understood the OP to mean what that he seeks a woman who could comprehend an English language news broadcast - not one who actually watches one.

[Misha]

I get my information from observing real life, Sir.

Do you know many people around you who watch news in Spanish every day and who are not translators or native Spanish speakers?
The topic's author wants a woman who watches English news. Do you think he can find many?

When I am in Russia I watch the news in Russian and I am not a translator. What exactly is your point?!?