China Agencies - is this normal?

[Figmo]

OK - so I met this nice lady from Nanning, China on match.com.   I have read about scams and have been keeping an eye out for any red flags.  I have not really found any.  She has a very good job and has not even so much as hinted as to any money problems with her or her family.  From the start, she let me know that her emails were being translated for her.  Not long after that I found out the translator was an agency she had joined.  

I have no problem with this.  I think they are an honest agency because at one point I wanted to setup a web chat with her and have them translating for me, and I emailed the translator and said if there was an additional fee for this service I would be happy to pay it.  They emailed back saying it was covered under the fee that my lady has already paid for this.

This meant a lot to me since if they were scammers you'd think they would have jumped on the chance for some extra cash.

I found out that the way they get paid is kind of odd, however.  My lady contracted with them and the terms of the contract are that she paid them 6000 RMB up front for up to a year's worth of their services.  If she is successful in finding a man with their service, she then owes them another 25000 RMB.  If my conversion is correct that is around $700 up front, with $3000 due on successful completion (USD)

So what's bothering me?   Call me a cynic, but well, I am thinking that this may create a slight conflict of interest.  Since they are doing all the translations between us - and they have 25000 RMB riding on a successful outcome - I am starting to wonder if all the "lovey dovey" talk I get in emails is really from my lady, or the translator.   I can just picture in my mind my lady telling them in Chinese to say "tell him I think he is OK" and that getting translated to "you are the most woderful man in the world".

I really dig this lady.  She is just a sweetheart.  But after hearing about the baloon payment at the end I'm starting to wonder if I'm falling for her, or for the translator?

Anybody been through this before?  Any advice?  I'd really like to find an independent translator to handle at least some of our communications.  This way I can compare what is being translated and see if there are any discrepencies.  

And on a related note: I have a trip to China I am planning coming up, and it would be great if I could have somebody (other than the agency) lined up to hang out with us for a day or two and be an interpreter.  This would help put my mind at ease that the words I have heard in emails were really her own.  Anybody know of a good interpreter in Nanning?

[doombug]

So what's bothering me?   Call me a cynic, but well, I am thinking that this may create a slight conflict of interest.  Since they are doing all the translations between us - and they have 25000 RMB riding on a successful outcome - I am starting to wonder if all the "lovey dovey" talk I get in emails is really from my lady, or the translator.   I can just picture in my mind my lady telling them in Chinese to say "tell him I think he is OK" and that getting translated to "you are the most woderful man in the world".

I really dig this lady.  She is just a sweetheart.  But after hearing about the baloon payment at the end I'm starting to wonder if I'm falling for her, or for the translator?

Anybody been through this before?  Any advice?  I'd really like to find an independent translator to handle at least some of our communications.  This way I can compare what is being translated and see if there are any discrepencies.  

Wow, scary situation.  

Can you email her any "test" questions using a free online translator such as Babel Fish (http://world.altavista.com/tr) to see if her translator is being sincere?

Have you already used an online translator?  If you do, translate short sentence fragments rather than whole paragraphs.  The meaning gets lost/mistranslated when translating big blocks of text.

Also, Cherryblossoms.com has a live chat feature and, at times, you'll find English-speaking Chinese women online in their forum waiting for a chap like you to come along and start up a conversation.

[Figmo]

I've tried that, Doom.  But the agency that does the translation is also the person who checks her email.  She does not have internet access.
 They receive my emails to her, translate them for her, listen to her response and type in the reply.

So when I've sent Bablefish translated messages to her it really was no different than sending english messsages.  The agency gets my message first and whatever response I get comes through the translator at the agency.

I don't see this as a MAJOR red-flag.  Like I said, the agency appears to be on the up and up.  I even have my ladies personal cell phone number and have called her (of course - the language barrier meant that the call was just one or two phrases we could understand repeated over and over again - laughs).    It's not like the agency is keeping me from talking to her directly.  It's just that they are the only contact I have that is able to translate for us.

Mostly my worries are - not that they are an evil scam artist agency - but that the agency might be "embelishing" on what she really has to say to me.   Or perhaps hiding things that she might not like about me.  

I want to be sure I am up front with this woman about who I am and how I live - but I'm worried that since the agency has a stake in all this, my honesty might be being filtered.   I don't want to end up a few years from now with a Chinese bride who is looking at her life thinking "hey, this ain't the guy I got to know.  He lied to me!!"  Not fair to me.  Not fair to her.

I'll give cherryblossoms a try. Haven't been to that site yet.  Thanks!

[jm21]

Couldn't embellishing be a good thing in some ways? If one of you aren't particularly romantic writers, or unknowingly writes something which is culturally offensive to the other person, the agency might give a bit of a helping hand, keeping things alive.

Why not just concentrate more on the content than the tone of the letters? It seems like you think they are a reputable agency, so they probably wouldn't lie about the facts. If they leave out too much information, people would meet up and figure it out and not get married, so they'd be out their reward and would have put in a lot of time. In a lot of ways, aside from reputability, it's more to their benefit to translate honestly and let the relationship die.

Also, any woman willing to fork over that kind of dough is probably very serious about the process, whereas a woman at a place like cherryblossoms might be less serious and more fickle.

Mind if I ask what agency?

[jm21]

Could you set up a three-way conference call with a translator?

[Beattledog]

excellent idea

beattledog

[Figmo]

The 3way call is an idea I've already considered.  But not sure where to find a translator for this.   I've looked at a site called Keen, but only found one Chinese translator there and when I emailed her I got an autoreply saying she's not checking email.  Advice on this anyone?

Oh and JM....I don't know the name of the agency.  I know it's located in Nanning and quite small from what I gather (just a couple people working it).   I met her via match.com and found out about the agency afterward - but I never got the name.

[jm21]

The 3way call is an idea I've already considered.  But not sure where to find a translator for this.   I've looked at a site called Keen, but only found one Chinese translator there and when I emailed her I got an autoreply saying she's not checking email.  Advice on this anyone?

Oh and JM....I don't know the name of the agency.  I know it's located in Nanning and quite small from what I gather (just a couple people working it).   I met her via match.com and found out about the agency afterward - but I never got the name.

Just google chinese interpreter. I found a few sites, but some seemed pretty steep...

http://www.ringsurf.com/forum/answers-English_to_chinese_interpreter_in_Guangzhou_China/

There are some postings from interpreters from China there, their prices are probably less than Americans.


this looked promising as well:
http://www.telelanguage.com/interpreteraccess.cfm

[Bubba]

Contact Tim a long time poster here that married a lady from Hong Kong, I know he could connect you with someone for a 3-way call.  I'll try and send him this link.

[szexpat]

You can PM me, I'll try to help you, I am an American living and working in China as a Matchmaker.  I also have chat and a cpu based stateside phone #.

Yes, there are tons of scams here and Chinese agents that charge the girls tons of money.  I work for the men only and can assure you my fee is within everyones budget.

[ReptilesBlade]

Out of curiosity, what is your fee?

[krystallos]

as a Chinese girl in China,i don't understand,why she couldn't get internet by herself,but need an agency?get internet is pretty easy and cheap even if you live in countryside of China.and if she cannot speak English,how come she wants to find a western guy?

[flipflop]

Thats a good question Krystallos and probably the reason alot of the activity on the Asian board is related to the Philippines.