Divorce finally final after 3 years and 3 different lawyers for her.

[LiveFromUkraine]

Filipinos are everywhere. A lot of them are in the service industry. Many are also Engineers (men) and nurses (women). In Hawaii, most of the hotel workers are Filipinos. They all have that distinct 'accent' wherever they go. I suppose that to be true for other immigrants coming to another country.

For instance, I heard there are now many Russian women marrying Filipinos and are moving to the Philippines and learning Tagalog.

It really does seem like Filipinos are able to adapt to different environments very quickly. 

[GQBlues]

It really does seem like Filipinos are able to adapt to different environments very quickly.

Yeah. They also seem to be capable of learning new languages fairly rapidly...


Here are two examples...this guy came from San Francisco under the Peace Corp mission to teach English In Bulgaria. He was there 2 years and became fairly fluent in that short of time.





...and for some reason, the men seem to have an effect to women everywhere even if they're as ugly as me and this guy... or as Gator is proud of calling guys like me 'Monkeys'. Ha-hah!

Check out the reaction of the blonde judge.

[Muzh]

But the islands are called The Philippines and the nation Republic of the Philippines in English, so the confusion is understandable .

The Philippines are named in honor of King Philip (Felipe) II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos during his expedition in 1542 named the islands of Leyte and Samar Felipinas after the then Prince of Asturias - the latter incidentally the name of a beautiful piece of guitar music by Isaac Albéniz:
 
However, if you ask a native, he'll call himself a Pilipino (at least my houseboy does) - and the nation is Repúblika ng Pilipinas because, IINM, the Tagalog alphabet (a, ba, ka, da, e, ga, ha, i, la, ma, na, nga, o, pa, ra, sa, ta, u, wa, ya) has no F sound.

Thanks Sandro.
 
Many flashbacks of my grandmother playing this for me at night so I could go to sleep.

[GQBlues]

GQ, It hurts you don't remember us talking. LOL, I always thought I made better impressions. LOL,...

Dang! You're right Greg...I stand corrected. Now I do remember talking to you on the phone. What was that, 6 years ago? My bad...

... To address my sentiments about being grateful.  I don't feel girls owe their respective husbands gratitude for marrying them. I think anyone not living in poverty,being healthy, having a decent job or whatever should be grateful for being members of the lucky sperm club. My ex thought she was prettier,had more style as she called it, more talent  and was more intelligent than anyone that ever walked in her shop. All the women here were all uneducated rednecks in her eyes even the educated ones. For someone that didn't have hot water, a family car,2 pairs of jeans and a shared apartment with 3 others when we met I found this very telling over the years. It got worse not better. Her mom fueled this attitude. I never saw this sign over there. I'm grateful for my health,my family and friends and the fact I have food,clothing and a nice place to lay my head. I don't think people owe me anything. I want my kids grow up to have the attributes. She refused to tell her customers "Thank You" because she thought she should be the one getting  the thanks although they were pulling money and paying her. There were weeks she would make more in a week than she would make in a year in her old job in Ukraine. It got old...

Yeah, I know the type. Don't think the East Coast have the monopoly of these types. I've seen many of these MOB couples wither their marriages away like badly worn socks. Unfortunately many of them have kids as well..I think for the most part, not only those from FSU, but the MOB in general, are comprised of people that aren't exactly suited for the pursuit they involved themselves into. I don't know. I really don't know.

Oh well...maybe another reason why the rate of K-visa POEs from FSU had fallen to sub-500 (R/U) yearly from the numbers in the 4K range not too long ago.

[SANDRO43]

Additionally, IINM, they never use 'th', 'ch' and 'ph'. Which is strange considering the official English name of the country. For instance, *Machine* is Makina, while in Russian, it sounds like 'Machina'.

As far as I know, no single human language produces ALL the sounds expressed by the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet), i.e. some 107 letters plus 52 diacritics.

For example, few languages except those of the 3 Khoisan language families of Southern Africa (which include Xhosa, Zulu, Swazi, etc.) can utter 'clicks' :

Just as Japanese have a hard time with words that start with 'L', pronouncing them with an 'R' sound. 'Rrrr-ion' for Lions - 'Rrros Angeleres'.

That inability was exploited by US troops in the Pacific campaigns of WWII when devising passwords, lullaby and lollipop possibly being the hardest invented to discomfit Jap infiltrators .

[TomT]

If you took your own advice you would have never posted this...because you would never come here.

Touché!

If he knew Greg, he would know that Greg has no problem with forum nastiness and toxicity.

[GQBlues]

As far as I know, no single human language produces ALL the sounds expressed by the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet), i.e. some 107 letters plus 52 diacritics.

For example, few languages except those of the 3 Khoisan language families of Southern Africa (which include Xhosa, Zulu, Swazi, etc.) can utter 'clicks' :...

WOW! very refreshing sounding song Sandro, thanks. Are the 'clicks' you hear created by tongue-clicks, or instrumental?

I was aware of the IPA just never really read up on it much. As a linguist, no doubt you know this inside/out.

...That inability was exploited by US troops in the Pacific campaigns of WWII when devising passwords, lullaby and lollipop possibly being the hardest invented to discomfit Jap infiltrators ....

LOL. Those definitely can be a mouthful for a typical Japanese. 

As with the heavy usage of native American Indian language i.e. Navajo, known as Code Talkers.

[LiveFromUkraine]

Check out the reaction of the blonde judge.

hah She was ready to jump the table.  Maybe YoungBuck should take note and possibly some singing lessons.

[GQBlues]

hah She was ready to jump the table.  Maybe YoungBuck should take note and possibly some singing lessons.

LOL.

"You made me horny, honey!"

She said it's his voice, but that's BS. If you look carefully, there are obvious signs/actions women show the deal is done that some guys very easily pick out while others miss. When the guy first walked in and started talking, she took both her hands, held the glass of water and sipped while placing both elbows on the table as she stared at him intently then carefully tilts her head...approximately 1:50 into the video......that's when her motor started humming...

[LiveFromUkraine]

LOL.

"You made me horny, honey!"

She said it's his voice, but that's BS. If you look carefully, there are obvious signs/actions women show the deal is done that some guys very easily pick out while others miss. When the guy first walked in and started talking, she took both her hands, held the glass of water and sipped while placing both elbows on the table as she stared at him intently then carefully tilts her head...approximately 1:50 into the video......that's when her motor started humming...

You're right, it wasn't his singing but that was the nail in the coffin for sure. hah


You can see her mouth the word WOW when he walked on stage.  Besides what you noted, she is leaning forward while the other judges are in a more relaxed position.   I don't think she was trying to hard to hide her interest. 

[SANDRO43]

WOW! very refreshing sounding song Sandro, thanks. Are the 'clicks' you hear created by tongue-clicks, or instrumental?

They are 'obstruent consonants' made in a number of ways, basically by closing the mouth, increasing the air pressure within,  then opening it suddenly. The tongue may also be involved in articulating them. In a way, they remind of the pizzicato on string instruments.

Think of something similar to but more complex than the deprecating Tsk! Tsk! in your language, akin to the almost universal sound to spur a horse (a lateral click), or the French Zut! (a semi-raspberry/mouth fart ).

As with the heavy usage of native American Indian language i.e. Navajo, known as Code Talkers.

Or Windtalkers .

[SANDRO43]

She said it's his voice, but that's BS.

I didn't catch her saying that - but the way she looked at him and her motions spoke volumes of Kama Sutra .

[AnonMod]

Ade went so far as to require a mod to redact something unsavory or aggressive from his post.  You even mentioned that speculating is not productive. 

Moderator action was not taken due to an unsavory or aggressive post. 

[TS]

Regarding children not speaking Russian when half their family is Russian sounds cruel.  This was the cause of the divorce for the OP.  MIL in the house for 6 months and seeing father telling children not to speak Russian.  Never ends well.  Bad things snowball after this.  When you marry someone from another country you better be ready to except their culture.  Rejecting the Russian language was not smart.
I have several children and they speak Russian, English, and Spanish at advanced level for there age.  Most people in this world speak 2-3 languages well. 

[Hammer2722]

Regarding children not speaking Russian when half their family is Russian sounds cruel.  This was the cause of the divorce for the OP.  MIL in the house for 6 months and seeing father telling children not to speak Russian.  Never ends well.  Bad things snowball after this.  When you marry someone from another country you better be ready to except their culture.  Rejecting the Russian language was not smart.
I have several children and they speak Russian, English, and Spanish at advanced level for there age.  Most people in this world speak 2-3 languages well.

My understanding of Greg's situation was that his ex was not allowing the children to speak English at home and not that HE was forbidding Russian at home. That would be like my mom (Puerto Rican) requiring us children to speak only Spanish at home. Its unrealistic at best. 

[LAman]

My understanding of Greg's situation was that his ex was not allowing the children to speak English at home and not that HE was forbidding Russian at home. That would be like my mom (Puerto Rican) requiring us children to speak only Spanish at home. Its unrealistic at best.

Well, I was brought up speaking only English at home ( at school only English too), when I got to college, my friends spoke fluently in English and Spanish, after some talking, they told me they grew up to only speak Spanish at home and  English in school. They were forced to learn 2 languages, so they did. Kids are sponges, you'd be surprised what they can accomplish if given chance........
BTW......I did learn at home many 'cuss' words in Spanish growing up!!!!!!

[Daveman]

Well, I was brought up speaking only English at home ( at school only English too), when I got to college, my friends spoke fluently in English and Spanish, after some talking, they told me they grew up to only speak Spanish at home and  English in school. They were forced to learn 2 languages, so they did. Kids are sponges, you'd be surprised what they can accomplish if given chance........
BTW......I did learn at home many 'cuss' words in Spanish growing up!!!!!!

Would speaking Spanish only at home have alienated one of your parents from "family participation"?


I can see the advantages if both parents speak the immigrant language, or if both are bilingual, however it would seem in Greg's situation that he would pretty much have been ostracized by language.

[LiveFromUkraine]

Would speaking Spanish only at home have alienated one of your parents from "family participation"?


I can see the advantages if both parents speak the immigrant language, or if both are bilingual, however it would seem in Greg's situation that he would pretty much have been ostracized by language.

His daughter was in speech therapy.   I don't think it is far fetched for Greg to think she should work on English until the problem is corrected.

[GQBlues]

When I arrived in the US, I didn't speak English other than to say 'Thank you' or Good morning' regardless of applicability. 

The night of my arrival, my mother told me straight up she'll never speak with me with our native tongue and that I better learn English quickly. She and I never spoke using our native language until about my 5th year anniversary.

This was also way before the introduction of the internet, mediums such as CD language learning tool, ESL classes, etc...and Mum and SD weren't exactly rich to send me to any specialized school. 2 days after arrival, I had to take the school bus and attended grade school armed only with those 2 phrases and a note to the school bus driver. The school did have an appointed delegate to meet me at our school drop-off.

It was tough but very doable.

I would think it isn't a biggie kids learn more than one language during their early years. My only opinion on this is making sure to stress the curve a bit more for the language primal to their place of residency.

[Anotherkiwi]

Well, I was brought up speaking only English at home ( at school only English too), when I got to college, my friends spoke fluently in English and Spanish, after some talking, they told me they grew up to only speak Spanish at home and  English in school. They were forced to learn 2 languages, so they did. Kids are sponges, you'd be surprised what they can accomplish if given chance........
BTW......I did learn at home many 'cuss' words in Spanish growing up!!!!!!

The difference here is (I guess) that the friends you quote came from totally Spanish-speaking (Mexican?) families.  As such, I would expect them to speak only Spanish at home, and English where it was needed outside (e.g. at work or school).  Someone born into a blended background would normally be at home with two or more languages from a fairly early age, as would a child (even a teenager) who is transplanted into a foreign-speaking environment.
 

When I arrived in the US, I didn't speak English other than to say 'Thank you' or Good morning' regardless of applicability. 

The night of my arrival, my mother told me straight up she'll never speak with me with our native tongue and that I better learn English quickly. She and I never spoke using our native language until about my 5th year anniversary.
 
2 days after arrival, I had to take the school bus and attended grade school armed only with those 2 phrases and a note to the school bus driver. The school did have an appointed delegate to meet me at our school drop-off.

It was tough but very doable.

I would think it isn't a biggie kids learn more than one language during their early years. My only opinion on this is making sure to stress the curve a bit more for the language primal to their place of residency.

Exactly - and look how you've turned out!

From my own point of view, living in the city which has the largest Polynesian population in the world, I get a first-hand look at how this affects (especially) Samoan and Tongan families.  There is also a large Indian and Chinese presence, and in many of those families the grand-parents (and often the parents) speak only their native language.  It's the children who lead the way, acting as translators and teaching their parents to speak English.

[LAman]

Would speaking Spanish only at home have alienated one of your parents from "family participation"?


I can see the advantages if both parents speak the immigrant language, or if both are bilingual, however it would seem in Greg's situation that he would pretty much have been ostracized by language.

To your question, for me no but to some of my friends families, yes, if it was not worked out. The father's learned Spanish along with kids ( while I sure some English was spoken at home) so they were bilingual families.
Ostracized?? I wonder if Greg made an attempt to learn Russian having a wife from FSU. Did he know his wife's insistence for kids to only speak Russian beforehand?  It is a very touchy situation, you need to know all variables to know what is actually going on, I don't. I just wish Greg all the best for himself and his children.

[mies]

My understanding of Greg's situation was that his ex was not allowing the children to speak English at home and not that HE was forbidding Russian at home. That would be like my mom (Puerto Rican) requiring us children to speak only Spanish at home. Its unrealistic at best.

How do you arrive to that understanding? Did Greg post anywhere that his wife forbade him to speak English to children? He did post, however, that he was forbidding Russian at home. Children speak the language they hear around them. If older daughter didn't speak good English, it only means she didn't have sufficient exposure to English language, and the reason why she didn't have sufficient exposure to English was because... where was Greg and why wasn't he speaking and teaching English to his daughter?

I have friends, an international couple, with a kid. 5yo girl. She speaks 4 languages: 2 European languages (each parent teaches her his/her mother tongue), English, and Latin American Spanish - because she has a Hispanic nanny and many children in the kindergarten are from Latin America.
Another friends couple are originally from India, their 2 daughters speak Hindu, English, and Spanish as well.
I don't see why should anyone object to their child learning an additional (2nd, 3rd etc) language. Let alone if this is a language of their mother/father.

Regardless of all language discussions, I would like to congratulate you, Greg, on your divorce. It must have been a very difficult experience, and I believe your life will be happy from now on. You and your ex seem to be too different and have different opinions on the most important family matters (children and money).

[Hammer2722]

How do you arrive to that understanding? Did Greg post anywhere that his wife forbade him to speak English to children? He did post, however, that he was forbidding Russian at home. Children speak the language they hear around them. If older daughter didn't speak good English, it only means she didn't have sufficient exposure to English language, and the reason why she didn't have sufficient exposure to English was because... where was Greg and why wasn't he speaking and teaching English to his daughter?

I have friends, an international couple, with a kid. 5yo girl. She speaks 4 languages: 2 European languages (each parent teaches her his/her mother tongue), English, and Latin American Spanish - because she has a Hispanic nanny and many children in the kindergarten are from Latin America.
Another friends couple are originally from India, their 2 daughters speak Hindu, English, and Spanish as well.
I don't see why should anyone object to their child learning an additional (2nd, 3rd etc) language. Let alone if this is a language of their mother/father.

Perhaps its because I'm an American and understand his post far better than you Mies. Maybe you should re-read his entire post. You seem you want to make all men the bad guy. I read it in almost everyone of your posts. Get over it! 

[mies]

Perhaps its because I'm an American and understand his post far better than you Mies. Maybe you should re-read his entire post. You seem you want to make all men the bad guy. I read it in almost everyone of your posts. Get over it! 

are you trying to say that you are reading between the lines, and understand something that wasn't explicitly expressed by Greg? I read his statements about language in several threads this morning. I never saw him saying that his wife forbade HIM to speak English to children. I did not see Greg saying "I was teaching English to my G7 and my wife walked on us and told me "Don't you dare!" I did read that Greg tried to forbade his wife to teach Russian to children (why he thought this was appropriate is beyond my understanding).

Also, thank you for educating me on the matter that Americans are far superior than non-americans in reading-comprehension. I am humbled and grateful for your words of wisdom.

[Boethius]

Perhaps its because I'm an American and understand his post far better than you Mies. Maybe you should re-read his entire post. You seem you want to make all men the bad guy. I read it in almost everyone of your posts. Get over it! 

My understanding, based partly on posts from when Greg was still married, is that he wanted his wife to speak English to the children, she wanted to, and did, speak Russian to them.  She did not forbid him from speaking English to them.  So, on this point, it appears mies is correct.

I'm not American, but I did grow up in a bilingual home, with English and Ukrainian as my mother tongues.