Monday, August 08, 2005

E-mail from a Spanish chassidishe girl who wants to arrange a shidduch.


I joined a new religious dating site which seems to be a free version of what Frumster.com used to be and what jdate.com once aspired to become. Frumster used to be a dating site which religious people went to. They didn't charge money, and for a while, it seemed like their goal was to facilitate shidduchim in some form. Recently, like most other things, it seems as if the owners have wet their appetites for money, so now they are charging for the service.

The original goal was to put my profile up, and if anyone wrote me, I would have them call my shadchan (matchmaker). Unfortunately, the result of that was that my shadchan got upset at me because non-religious girls were calling her at all hours of the night looking for a good time with me. When the rebbitsen told them I was frum, they said "sorry, not interested."

Anyway, this spanish woman has been writing me these past few days on the new frum dating site. I answered her because she wrote the letter to me in Spanish, and I speak Spanish from High School. I suppose it was one of the few things that stuck with me. I never forgot my languages. She seemed like a very nice girl so I wrote her back to find out if she spoke English, and if she has ever been to the United States, because her profile said she was learning in Argentina.

She wrote back a heartfelt e-mail where even through the language barrier, I got a sense as to what kind of character she was. I even could hear and feel her voice through her words. I suppose I'm intuitive like that; I have always been able to sense a person through either seeing their picture or seeing their written words.

I was sad to write the response that I have attached below in italics. As you can see, it is written in Spanish, but it is obvious [from the mistakes] that I am not proficient enough to have a lifelong relationship with a person who doesn't speak English. [Between you and me, it would take me a very short time (weeks or months) to become fluent again, but I can't imagine having a relationship with someone that doesn't speak English. It would be an amazing adventure, but it would be weird not having the English. Below is what I wrote back, and I hope she got the message that I can't imagine it working out.

Entiendo. Tambien, en mi corazon y en mi acciones, estoy una jasidishe bojer con todo de la energencia que tengo. Por muchas anos soy una Lubavicher y estudio jasidut. Pero, mi lengua es el Ingles. A Ud puede ver, mi Espanol es similar de un chico que aprende en una Universidad Secundario por menos de seis anos. Hace muchas anos que hablo Espanol con gente. Y la primera cosa es que estoy en las Estados Unidos en Florida.

G-d must have had a sense of humor if he made my bashert to speak another language.

- [Zoe]


I think she'll get the message that it won't work out after reading this response.

3 comments:

Pragmatician said...

I'm not saying it's not an inconvenience but a language you speak albeit not fluently could be could be good basis for a good date.

Rowan said...

ummm, what's it say? I speak french here in the north, not spanish....help?

Pragmatician said...

He Salut Rowan, ou astu appris le Francais?