Breaking the Language Barrier! There is no way around it, language is the lightning rod of cultural misunderstandings. Literal translation is more noise on top of that! This problem can be overcome by neglect and time, and if you're lucky, your marriage will last long enough for your wife to learn the language and the entire structure of beliefs/assumptions that lie beneath our language. As in most things, neglect is a pretty lousy way to go. You risk numerous misunderstandings, and very possibly the failure of your marriage.

A chapter on transition stress from Inna McNeill's forthcoming book, Coming to America, a Russian Woman's Experience can be read HERE!

It isn't the biggest things that will get you, its the words and phrases that seem absolutely safe to a Western English speaker that murder your intent the moment before it leaves your mouth. Girlfriend, and opposite sex are just two examples. Girlfriend translates directly in the best electronic translator to be "lover" in Russian, and lover means someone you are NOT going to marry, not now, probably not ever. Opposite sex, well I still don't understand why that's so bad, but it seems to imply a not serious commitment to the marriage process, despite it being completely harmless, devoid of emotional connotation in American English.

Solutions: Here are four steps that we think every man looking for a Russian bride should consider:

1. Remember that there is a human translator between you and your lady, both ways. That means you are hearing the translator's interpretation of the woman's emotional meaning. We have excellent translators, but remember to keep your thoughts and expressions simple and clear.

2. As soon as you have narrowed down to an important woman that you are writing, put her in an English course in Sochi as soon as possible. (March 1st update) We have formed an American English Language school, taught by one the few teachers in Sochi who teaches conversational American English.

Here is a great site that has many Russian tender expressions for you to learn to use with your Sochi special lady. It has the Russian and transliterated forms, and when you click on the expression you can here the phrases pronounced. Highly recommended.

I am Antonina Rozhkovskaya. I am the English teacher at "A Russian Romance". I graduated from the University of Foreign Languages and hold a degree in teaching English. I have been a teacher since 1995 and have had extensive experience in teaching a variety of students. At the agency I hold the courses in English which are specially designed to help Russian-speaking immigrants adapt to life in America, and to be able to do well at the consulate interviews required for their visa. The course not only provides students with a basic knowledge of the language, but provides practical knowledge too. It is vitally important to do well at the interview, to overcome the language barrier in everyday situations. Immersion in another language world might course stress which is difficult to overcome without previous knowledge of the language. So we pay special attention to practicing speaking and provide students with material which will be helpful for students to live in America. It helps prepare our women clients for the everyday language situations a woman will find herself in when coming to the US. "How to survive in America" is a book with many authentic examples of forms, documents, and written material that a woman may have to use or fill out in real life. There is useful information for student to look at and read in the illustrations, conversations and texts. there are questions, answers, notes and additional recorded conversations to help students understand and test themselves. Click here for information on English Language Courses.

Antonina teaching two of our women clients in English, targeting the visa interview and transition.

3. When your fiancee arrives in the USA, get her enrolled in an English as a Second Language (ESL) program immediately. These are funded by the Federal government and schools and community colleges close to you will have these courses. There are usually seven levels to the programs. If your wife has some English, even a strong beginning, she'll start in the higher levels. ESL is an important social connection for your bride too. She'll meet people who have the same concerns as she does, the same transition pressures. She will feel less alone.

4. Allow plenty of time. Even as your wife becomes fluent, it won't do her any good when you're talking about Super sizing fries at Mickey D's. What will she say to "paper or plastic at the grocery store?" She has to learn all the conversational colloquialisms that make up our language. What's enough time? 2-3 years if she is trying hard. If you allow your relationship to center on the Russian friends that she makes, she will have a much slower transition. The children adapt faster because they usually do not have the luxury of Russian speakers at school.

5. Get a good electronic translator. Even now that she is fluent and expert in grammar skills, my daughter Svetlana still carries her translator with her at school. It takes a lifetime to develop an educated vocabulary, and Sveta feels she's always playing "catch up" in courses like biology, AP Government, and English literature. Every teacher has allowed her to use the translator during exams. Here's a picture of Svetlana's hand and her ER486T Ectaco Language Teacher. There are many newer choices for every budget on their website. Follow this link to see the pocket electronic calculators to and this link to see the translation software they have for Palms and desktop computers.

To the right is a keyboard mapping program with a twist - it reads the type of keyboard you currently have and automatically maps the Cyrillic keys to your keyboard automatically! In addition, when you type you can see the keys depress on the keyboard, and it can type in Standard or the Russian Phonetic alphabet. A wonderful inexpensive program that every client should have! Click here!	RUSSIAN KEYBOARD EDITOR
	Below is a free online translator you can use, courtesy of Ectaco!    Albanian Arabic Bulgarian Czech Dutch Estonian French German Greek Hungarian Italian Korean Latvian Farsi Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Serbo-Croatian Slovak Spanish Swedish Turkish Yiddish      Direction:    Into English    From English © Ectaco, Inc. Electronic Dictionary

Albanian Arabic Bulgarian Czech Dutch Estonian French German Greek Hungarian Italian Korean Latvian Farsi Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Serbo-Croatian Slovak Spanish Swedish Turkish Yiddish      Direction:    Into English    From English © Ectaco, Inc. Electronic Dictionary