Have you ever, or are you now, in a relationship with someone who doesn't speak your first language?

I almost got into a relationship with an attractive woman from Laos. The language barrier did not help in the long run although at first it did.

For some reason, it was kind of cute and romantic when a couple try to have fun trying to learn each other’s language. Until serious more in depth discussions have to be made and now you find it hard to really understand the meaning of what the other is trying to express. There is no room for nuances anymore which could lead to serious miscommunication.

In your case, at least you have English to use in order to thoroughly communicate. It would be an exciting thing for him if you learn German but I don’t think it’s a deal breaker if you don’t. In my case, it played a big part along with the long distance barrier that we had.

I dated a German exchange student several years back. She spoke English though so I guess I don’t really apply for this question. I didn’t speak a word of German at the time though.

We didn’t date extremely long (she eventually went back to Germany) but my lack of the language was never an issue. I did start learning it (and still somewhat speak it now) for her though, and she did enjoy it. We’re still pretty good friends to this day, though we don’t talk very often.

I lived 7years with a man who’s first language was Farsi but spoke mostly in Russian. The language barrier wasn’t a big issue because he and his family in our home were eager to improve their English. The frustration we all had was I was able to quickly understand a lot of their Russian but not able to put a sentence together to speak Russian to them in return. My dog understands more commands in Russian than English.

My wife is English and I am Dutch and we are now living in England. My wife tried to learn Dutch but after a long struggle, her dyslexia got the upper hand. I sometimes miss talking in my native tongue (especially because there aren’t many people around that speak it here) but it is never effected our relationship negatively

I am married to a person who doesn’t speak Russian, my native language. My English, however, is better than my Russian and he’s learned enough Russian to interact with our children in Russian, whenever he feels like it. It’s not an issue for me because my language of use is English. And the kids speak both. He is unable to communicate with my mother but that’s a gigantic blessing.

Not a love relationship, but a friend relationship. I’m Puerto Rican and go to Puerto Rico every year, since my grandparents live there. In the apartment building my grandparents live in, there are alot of kids my age. We have been friends since we were little kids, but in the beggining, they didn’t speak very good English and my Spainish wasn’t great either. We communicated though. Now, they speak pretty much perfect English and my Spainish is much better, but we still laugh at when we were little kids and couldn’t really understand each other, yet still played togeher all the time.
For a funny story, my family once lived in Venezula for 18 months before I was born. My brother, who was 11 at the time, didn’t really know Spainish, but still made an effort to communicate with the teenage girls. So, he stoodat the window, yelling “bebe, bebe!” whenever they walked by.

I’m not but my wife is.

Her first language is Spanish and I know almost none, whereas she also speaks fluent English.

There was somebody in my life for quite some time who didn’t “speak” English much, but reads and writes in English fluently (in fact, took some pleasure in correcting my spelling and grammar). Communicating the words wasn’t a problem. It was the emotional nuances of language that may have been missing.

Yes.

Yes. We communicate in other languages yet sometimes it’s hard to express yourself the way you want.

Yes, for five years

I’ve never had a boyfriend who didn’t speak English while I was with him. It might be interesting to have a boyfriend like that, though…