LDR with someone from another country

[lisica]

I am new on this forum so maybe it has been discussed before, but does anyone of you have any experience with a LDR with someone from another country? I mean someone with a different cultural background and/or who speaks a different language. Don't you ever get the feeling "gosh, I wish for once I could express my feelings to him in my native language!"?

[San123]

hmmm... it could work but that sure does sound like a lot of obstacles. Being in a LDR with someone in the same country/ background is hard enough!

[XrucuX]

Its rather hard to even understand what they are saying! but sometimes when the feeling is there then....maybe it would help to understand them! 8)

[tea]

According to all my Japanese teachers... you'll understand each other in time. All of them learned English for their LDRs, and one learned Japanese for her LDR. They're all happily married now and teaching Japanese. ^^; According to them, it just takes a lot of communication and slowly learning the other person's language.

 

English's my second language... my first language's Chinese.. and sometimes I can't say stuff in Chinese, other times I can't say things in English. What I realized is that the two languages don't exactly translate that well. Some words you have in one language simply doesn't exist in the other. What my boyfriend would do is he'd just have me say it in Chinese and explain the concept to him, and he actually remembered a few of those non-translatable words like that. When he finds a word he can only say in Spanish but not English, or if a word only exists in Japanese but not other languages, we'd just say the word in the original language. (Yup, between the two of us we have english, mandarin, spanish, japanese covered. That's like... 70% of the world population's language~ =D)

 

Of course, you can't speak the whole sentence like that or no one will understand another.

[petitemarie]

trust me is can work, no matter what situation is in front of you, if you want it you will do what it takes to keep it; i have had a long distance relationship for 4 years, and one with a foreinger for 2 years, i lived in his country, and one with a foreigner who lives in the states, the one who just left me cuz i went away for é months; but regardless, anything is possible with the right will

[OceanEyes]

Ah yes, I remember this very well!

 

My first serious boyfriend was from Finland. His family moved to Canada about 4 years before I met him, but none of them had totally mastered the English language. At first, the language barrier wasn't a big deal (and very attractive at times), but when things got more serious, I found myself getting very annoyed at the fact that he wouldn't understand me when I really wanted him to.

 

Anyhow, after I had been dating him for almost 2 years, his family decided that they wanted to return to Finland. He couldn't stay with me at the time because of VISA issues, and that he couldn't work full-time, didn't have enough money, etc.

 

We kept in touch by phone and letters (yes, the old-fashioned way to love, lol). Since he wasn't using English often, he lost a lot of it and it made it even more difficult for me to understand him. This was frustrating sometimes, but I truly cared for him so it didn't matter that much.

 

If you don't start off with a strong foundation, then the communication barrier will start to get on both of your nerves. If there is a true connection and you really love each other, then it won't matter as much; you will find a way to get your feelings accross to each other. It can definitely work.

[bat_grrl]

My boyfriend and I live in different countries. I am in Canada and he is in the US. We are only about an 8 hour drive from each other though. An hour plane ride...

 

It is hard though. Any distance can be hard. With persistance, patience, love, trust and communication, it can be done. It has to be something you are both committed to equally as much though...