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Q: When parents meet parents-in-law
My parents are going to visit me here in China, and for the first time, they are going to meet my wife's parents. My wife and myself think it's good that both sides of the family get to know each other a bit, despite the distance. I'm not particularly stressed over this, both my parents and wife parents are simple, easy-going folks. But my in-laws speak only Mandarin, my parents speak only French with a fair English for my Dad. I understand Mandarin but I can't talk much. I've no idea of things will roll. The cultural gap is as large as the geographical one.
Did you guys and gals had such an experience ? How did it go ?
10 years 7 weeks ago in Family & Kids - China
Hahahaha....man, I feel for you. I had the same experience when I brought my gf to meet my family. She speaks, I translate. My family speaks, I translate. In between, I laughed my head off because it was so comical. You know, laughter has no divides. So long as everyone is happy at the end, all will be well. Go on man, don't sweat it. You'll enjoy it cos it can be very funny.
I just had my dad speak to her dad on Skype. Neither could understand the other and her dad was drunk off his ass. Highly amusing.
We've done that. My parents visited us for a couple of weeks and about half the time spent time with my mother in law. My parents speak an understandable English, and my mother in law can make herself understandable but with a limited vocabulary.
During their stay, my wife and me were with them most of the time, but we did also send them out just with the in-law and one of her friends - all 4 had a blast that day.
One thing to keep in mind. It will be very tough for your wife as she will be a translator all the time.
Another thing, make sure everyone has working phones so they can call your wife for translation help.
Hi,
It's great to know about visiting China.
Don't take it too hard..
Yourself and your wife should be comfortable with translating for each other's parents.
i know the feeling is little hard, but it's nice feeling when all family meet together.
You are already married so don't need to worry about any culture talk, because it can be handled by your wife.
thefidu881:
Probably his parents are back home by now 
. The post is quite old and contextual.
Late to answerPost-mortem of the story : it went very well. The 5 first minutes were a bit awkward. Then we opened a bottle of red wine from home, we talked, and we had a good time. The uncles were fine too. The villagers were a bit annoying, acting like spooked zombies when we walked in the street, pointing fingers, and shouting "laowai !". The most annoyed by this were the in-laws 
Robk:
LoL...
I feel like I should do something when they point and shout "laowai"... being put on the spot constantly is annoying as hell.
It makes me want to scare them silly. Like start waving my hands wildly screaming... HIIII WO SHI LAO WAI.. HELLOOOOOOOOO! and then run full speed at them while making car racing noises.
Something completely random that leaves them scarred for life. Glad the meeting went well.
jatin143:
Well.. It's nice to know.
I posted my last Question, about the same.
But some people misunderstood by thinking it's asking about myself personally. hehe..
It's good feeling to be around local Chinese people sometimes.
