Advice for colombian living in the UK

msaucey says on Jan 7, 2008, 08:32:

Contact Kat1.... She's in Wales (I think), but until Mona pops back in, she is your closest Colombian friend from PBH.... Olga1512 was also in Essex, but I think she's moved back to Colombia....

But, I here there's a REALLY small community.... Good luck.... Take her to Spain for a weekend so that she can get over the blues....

Good luck....

The trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. - CS Lewis

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craigyvane says on Jan 7, 2008, 08:38:

We live in wigan, close to manchester, just want her to try and make some friends if possible or any advice to help

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kat1 (Moderator) says on Jan 7, 2008, 08:42:

how long she is been in the UK?
sure she will make lots of friend at the college, give her time, I am sure there are lots of Colombian in Manchester, it's a big city, unfortunately I live in Wales, so i am long way from you, but you can pm and give her my e mail, perhaps we can can just chat. :)

although I am off to Colombia next week for a month :))

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craigyvane says on Jan 7, 2008, 08:44:

how did you first get by when you cam here Kat? I am sure she could get a part time job, just to keep her occupied, even though her english is very little,

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craigyvane says on Jan 7, 2008, 08:52:

sorry its wigan, but is where i live, surely there are some colombiand close to here, we are not far from manchester and that is a big city, i am 32 she is 24, thanks again chorizo

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kat1 (Moderator) says on Jan 7, 2008, 08:53:

for me was worse, i came to a place were there were zero latinos, i also enrolled myself into the college , i did so many courses over the years and I started to meet friends,
then I became pregnant and that help me to meet even more people (mothers specially), from then on it was easy, because i live in an small town it was easy to be part of a community and meet people, and they help me a lot, I did some voluntary work to help to improve my English. I lived in Leeds in 1994/95 just for 6 month and i hated it, i made my husband to go back to Wales.

Still the place were i live is zero latinos just one Colombian friend lives about 45 minutes away from me, we are having lots of middle eastern now

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kat1 (Moderator) says on Jan 7, 2008, 08:54:

chorizo, I live in a town call Hay On Wye
http://www.hay-on-wye.co.uk/

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craigyvane says on Jan 7, 2008, 08:54:

and if she goes to college for 4 hours per day, how long could it take before she can speak pretty good, and would it be advisable, if i helped also?

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kat1 (Moderator) says on Jan 7, 2008, 08:55:

We are in the border between England and Wales
I do travel a lot to Hereford and Cardiff where I do Flamenco Dancing

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kalder says on Jan 7, 2008, 08:56:

Is your wife religious at all? A Catholic perhaps? If so, I think you'll find that most Catholic churches have at least a couple of Latino families in the congregation. If your wife is up for a bit of church going, she might meet one or two friendly individuals, who in turn could introduce her to others. And, if she's a Christian, I'm sure a similar thing would happen in a Protestant church.

I'm sorry I'm only qualified to speak about the London situation- there are plenty of Colombians here (60,000 is a conservative estimate of the Colombians who are here legally- the real figure is reckoned to be much higher) but I'm sure they'll be at least a couple of thousand in a place of Manchester's size.

And, as Kat rightly points out, your wife'll certainly make a wide range of international friends at college.

Good luck to you both.

"kalder- have you ever had a woman?"--Sam Salmon

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kat1 (Moderator) says on Jan 7, 2008, 08:59:

Craig, that depends of her, but if she avoids talking Spanish most of the time, watch just English TV and interact with just English people, that will help her a lot.

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Andy S says on Jan 7, 2008, 10:14:

Hi Craig, you can also get Skype, a programme for your computer. It means you can make free phone calls through your computer to anywhere in the world....it's kinda like msn messenger and I use it to talk to people in Sydney, Colombia and dominican republic......its absolutely amazing.......and if you have a webcam installed and so does the person you are talking to, you can do everythin in "real time".....you can see them, they can see you...and you can talk to each other all free of charge

It does mean that the people she is talking to would need to be online too though, but seriously all you need is an online computer and a microphone.

If she gets a myspace profile she can can't search by "colombians in manchester" but she can search members by ethnicity and so can enter in latino/hispanic, you can then search by postcode to get how many members there are which are latino within 5,10,20,50,100 miles of your postcode. Obviously they are not all going to be colombians but some of them might be, or know colombians. A quick search in myspace of that age group found 488 hispanic people within 50 miles of manchester city centre, and 127 within 20. You never know your luck

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ingles says on Jan 7, 2008, 10:49:

Poor girl living in Wigan!!!!! Only joking, I am from St Helens a step down in my book! Get her into the Rugby League and take her to the Saints -Wigan game on Good Friday for a taste of real northern life and a good ol' Pooles Pie should see her right and a bit of lancashire black pudding to remind her of morcilla!

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wendell13 says on Jan 7, 2008, 11:20:

what do they call rednecks in England?

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miamimike says on Jan 7, 2008, 12:44:

Hey Craig, too bad you aren't here in Miami, I could introduce you to just a "Few" Colombians",,,

"Wait a minute. What did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon gas? That's interesting. I hadn't heard that." -- Feb. 28, 2008 --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C.

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rocinante says on Jan 7, 2008, 20:52:

Speak to your wife slowly and clearly in proper english. No Slang. You want to interact with her in english just a hair over her level.

If she doesn't need to learn to read or write than picking up the language on the hearing/speaking is easy when immersed AND with a school.

The big hurdle in English is laziness of native speakers (contractions, lazy pronunciation) AND the fact that there are so many ways to spell and pronounce what is written.

Be patient and encouraging with her and remember it ain't easy.

What I would do? Take Spanish classes, you ; after work one or two nights a week. This will speak volumes to your new Mrs.

"World economic indicators point to a democrat winning 2008. It will surely be Obama. Peso 1400 by November" Feb 5, 2008

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de pronto says on Jan 8, 2008, 05:25:

Hey chorizo nice avatar =)

... y viaje a Macondo todo pagado

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