... in response to Re: Re: Opposing View, posted by Wanderer on Aug 27, 2002This is probably the most serious potential problem men face in these marriages. Men would be well advised to worry more about this than about being scammed, because I think it's far more common than scammers.
If anyone can figure out how to tell if they're going to really work at learning English once they get here, they should let us all how because I've certainly not been able to figure it out. I know a Costa Rican woman who I could swear was native born English speaker after two years here. We had another lady at a party at our place this weekend who has been here 9 years and if she speaks any English at all, I'm unaware of it. I spoke only Spanish to her and never heard her say a single word of English during the whole party. She's not married to a gringo though, so I guess she can get away with it.
Until your wife becomes good in English, it can be a real drag on your relationship because she's totally dependent on you for anything that requires English. We went through that phase ourselves until my wife got good enough in English. It's nice to have a wife at home who can handle calling a plummber when a pipe breaks so you don't have to come home from work, or for her to be able to make her own doctor's appointment, etc. Without English though, every detail is up to the man.
