language issue/ understanding problems

[lala]

I'm sure there are many international couples..
My SO speaks English and me German.. sometimes it gets really difficult especially when we were CD to talk to eachother-not because my English is bad, just because there are idioms he uses and also when I try to express my feelings. Sometimes I don't really understand what he wants to tell me and sometimes I also can't tell him what I think and feel,cause I try to find the right words in his language and don't want to say anything wrong. Do you sometimes feel the same??

maybe one of you English speaking guys can help me to explain what he means when he tells me that:
- I mean the world to him
- "I want you" (not in a sexual way)
- you mean a great deal to me
- one of a kind
... other thing I can't remember right now

[lademoiselle]

My interpretations:

"You mean the world to me." = "You are as important to me as the entire world."
"I want you." = Generally used in a sexual way but in innocent terms could mean "I want you in my life," etc.
"You mean a great deal to me." = "You mean very much to me." (see also "you mean to the world to me")
"One of a kind" = "The only item - or person - of a particular type... special, unique."

Your SO evidently loves you very much Here's a really useful website for explaining English idioms and phrases: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/

I hope that helps a bit!

[lala]

aaah thank you sooo much! I mean I already looked it up in a dictionary but I can't look up the meaning lol
he has never said that he loves me,just sometimes these things, but I never know what they really mean..

thank you for your interpretation

[lucybelle]

It's not so much idioms as it is slang. In fact when my SO introduces me to people he says "she speaks Spanish, but is still learning Costa Rican". There is so much slang here you can be a native Spanish speaker and still have no idea what people are saying. One time my SO's mom was talking about how some girl brought her cabro (goat) over and about how nice he was-- I was hella confused. Later, my SO told me cabro/a means boyfriend/girlfriend. Ugh, seriously? jaja Another thing is they call coffee "yodo", which means "iodine". We're always going over to my SO's mom's house for a cup of iodine.

And of course there's sayings that I use that are hard for my SO to understand. Most of the time he sees/hears them on TV shows. Like "dog eat dog world" aaand I can't think of any other ones. But we both really enjoy learning about each other's language. It's fun to learn new things, and make fun of different ways to say things. Sometimes the country accent comes out of me and my SO loves to make fun of me when I say "aight". It can be frustrating to not be able to follow a conversation, but I mostly think it's fun to learn new words. If you ever don't understand something, ASK HIM!

If I ever want to understand his grandma I'm going to need all the "Costa Rican" I can get!

[Manoek]

What lademoiselle says

BUT I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN!!

I think it's hard for people that are english to understand how hard it is sometimes to express your feelings in english, even though we can speak it fluently.

Sometimes I use Dutch sayings and make them English, and then they sound so stupid o_0
(See new thread btw ^_^ )

Especially when we are in a discussion, because I have to think twice before I say something. First I have to translate it to English, and then I have to think about: "Should I really say this like this..?"

Sometimes it is really frustrating...

[lala]

What lademoiselle says

BUT I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN!!

I think it's hard for people that are english to understand how hard it is sometimes to express your feelings in english, even though we can speak it fluently.

Sometimes I use Dutch sayings and make them English, and then they sound so stupid o_0
(See new thread btw ^_^ )

Especially when we are in a discussion, because I have to think twice before I say something. First I have to translate it to English, and then I have to think about: "Should I really say this like this..?"

Sometimes it is really frustrating...

That's totally what I meant

[Manoek]

A couple of days a go, when my SO and I had a discussion and I was trying to explain how I feel. And I always had problems expressing how I feel, so to do it in English.. And then I contradict myself sometimes.. But he just said.. 'I'm sorry baby, I really don't understand what you mean " and i explained it in the most easiest english i could think of.. But it felt like I was speaking Japanese

I guess, practice makes perfect!

[kittyo9]

My boyfriend experiences this. He is from Peru, so his first language is Spanish. Before he met me, he didn't really have the opportunity to speak English, although he could write and read it very well. His English has improved greatly since we've started talking, but he still needs subtitles on movies with people who speak with British accents (as he is accustomed to American English), and he still sometimes says things that he has literally translated from Spanish sayings. As his girlfriend, I find it endearing. I like picking out his cute idiosyncrasies, like how he still puts an "e" before any word that starts with sp- or st-, like they do in Spanish ("It's e-still raining"). I also like teaching him some of the idioms we use here and teaching him how certain words are used.

For instance, he has a lot of trouble picking when to use "in" and when to use "on". It's not easy! Yesterday, we ran into the word "chair". Do you sit in a chair or on a chair?! I summarized it by saying that often times we say in ("Just sitting in my chair"), but we also say "on" sometimes, most usually when it is a chair without arms. If the chair has arms, I imagine someone who is sitting "on" it as sitting on the arm or back of the chair.

He also sometimes misses some phrases I use, usually because they really aren't something you would learn in a classroom. I love teaching him those and he has no problem just asking me what I mean. He gets to learn new colloquialisms and I get to share part of my culture with him.

We have run into a few bumps because of the way certain words are used in Spanish vs. English. Sometimes the way he interprets something he says to me is quite different from the way I interpret it, so we get into a temporary disagreement, but usually we figure out that our different interpretations are the culprits and we straighten it out from there.

Because he hasn't spoken English for very long, he does not have a good feel for the way words should be expressed, and we are constantly trying to get him to express his emotions through his language. I tell him to think of how he would say it in Spanish first-- the ups and downs of his voice-- and then to carry those patterns over into the English he uses, but it is still pretty hard because he still translates Spanish to English a lot when he is speaking, so he loses the emotional aspect in the process.

[Manoek]

I tell him to think of how he would say it in Spanish first-- the ups and downs of his voice-- and then to carry those patterns over into the English he uses.

Smart! Definitly going to remember that!

Tone is so important and because of the 'think twice' situation I guess we sometimes lose the tone we SHOULD say things..

[Bethypoo]

They are defiantly more slang terms.


But all of the things that you have put on your post that he has said, they are all good things and when you sum them all up, he really adores you. Which is a good thing and a great feeling.