Need help. Thinking of approaching a girl

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tgCvuu
Emu Egg
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Joined: 14 Feb 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 1

15 Feb 2014, 9:31 am

Short version if you don't want to read it all:
1) I run a song lyric+English translation website dedicated to songs in a particular foreign language, but I'm only a beginner at that language. So I need help with adding translations.
2) I met a girl who is a native speaker of that language
3) I want to go back and ask her to help me with the translations. Need advice on how to do it.
4) We're not "complete strangers" - we did exchange names.

Longer:
The other night I was going through the mall to get to the bus stop and for some reason I always convince myself that I'm going to miss my bus/train. Even though it was around 20 minutes away I started jogging and I must have had a concerned look on my face because a girl who works at a cafe there asked me if I needed help because I was running from someone xD. I told her I was fine but I noticed she had an accent and it turns out she is a native speaker of the language that I started learning years ago (but gave up because I didn't think I'd get anywhere without actually being able to speak it with anyone.)

But the thing is, and I didn't know how to bring this up naturally into the short conversation: I run a website dedicated to song lyrics in that language + the English translations of them. I know it sounds stupid to run a foreign language song website if you don't speak the language, but whatever. It was one of my obsessions/special interests.

Since I don't even really know the language, I need help with fixing up and adding more translations, so.. I was imagining that I could maybe go back to that cafe and approach her and ask her for some help with them.

Questions:
1) Do you think I should do this?
2) If so, how? Got a step-by-step or any tips for me? Because I think that this is going to be extremely difficult for me. It's not just the approach - I also have no idea how I'm going to casually tell her about the website... And now as I think about it I'm basically asking a stranger for free translation work. This sounds like a terrible idea.

If it helps, we did exchange names. So if you imagine that there's different "levels" of relationship you can have with someone, e.g. if there's a spectrum that goes from not knowing the person at all to knowing them extremely well, I'm at the part where we know each others' names, xD.

Thank you!



snowylullaby
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Joined: 14 Feb 2014
Gender: Female
Posts: 11

19 Feb 2014, 8:49 pm

Is the foreign language pretty obscure? Most people get excited when they meet someone who speaks their language or is interested in learning their language. Does this girl speak perfect English? If not she might be willing to help you if you are willing to help her learn English. Also, are you interested in her romantically, as a friend, or as a "business" relationship...someone to help you translate your website? The type of relationship you are interested in will help determine how to approach her and what you might say.



Short version if you don't want to read it all:
1) I run a song lyric+English translation website dedicated to songs in a particular foreign language, but I'm only a beginner at that language. So I need help with adding translations.
2) I met a girl who is a native speaker of that language
3) I want to go back and ask her to help me with the translations. Need advice on how to do it.
4) We're not "complete strangers" - we did exchange names.

Longer:
The other night I was going through the mall to get to the bus stop and for some reason I always convince myself that I'm going to miss my bus/train. Even though it was around 20 minutes away I started jogging and I must have had a concerned look on my face because a girl who works at a cafe there asked me if I needed help because I was running from someone xD. I told her I was fine but I noticed she had an accent and it turns out she is a native speaker of the language that I started learning years ago (but gave up because I didn't think I'd get anywhere without actually being able to speak it with anyone.)

But the thing is, and I didn't know how to bring this up naturally into the short conversation: I run a website dedicated to song lyrics in that language + the English translations of them. I know it sounds stupid to run a foreign language song website if you don't speak the language, but whatever. It was one of my obsessions/special interests.

Since I don't even really know the language, I need help with fixing up and adding more translations, so.. I was imagining that I could maybe go back to that cafe and approach her and ask her for some help with them.

Questions:
1) Do you think I should do this?
2) If so, how? Got a step-by-step or any tips for me? Because I think that this is going to be extremely difficult for me. It's not just the approach - I also have no idea how I'm going to casually tell her about the website... And now as I think about it I'm basically asking a stranger for free translation work. This sounds like a terrible idea.

If it helps, we did exchange names. So if you imagine that there's different "levels" of relationship you can have with someone, e.g. if there's a spectrum that goes from not knowing the person at all to knowing them extremely well, I'm at the part where we know each others' names, xD.

Thank you!



Erwin
Snowy Owl
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User avatar

Joined: 19 Feb 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 161

22 Feb 2014, 2:21 am

tgCvuu wrote:
Short version if you don't want to read it all:
1) I run a song lyric+English translation website dedicated to songs in a particular foreign language, but I'm only a beginner at that language. So I need help with adding translations.
2) I met a girl who is a native speaker of that language
3) I want to go back and ask her to help me with the translations. Need advice on how to do it.
4) We're not "complete strangers" - we did exchange names.

Longer:
The other night I was going through the mall to get to the bus stop and for some reason I always convince myself that I'm going to miss my bus/train. Even though it was around 20 minutes away I started jogging and I must have had a concerned look on my face because a girl who works at a cafe there asked me if I needed help because I was running from someone xD. I told her I was fine but I noticed she had an accent and it turns out she is a native speaker of the language that I started learning years ago (but gave up because I didn't think I'd get anywhere without actually being able to speak it with anyone.)

But the thing is, and I didn't know how to bring this up naturally into the short conversation: I run a website dedicated to song lyrics in that language + the English translations of them. I know it sounds stupid to run a foreign language song website if you don't speak the language, but whatever. It was one of my obsessions/special interests.

Since I don't even really know the language, I need help with fixing up and adding more translations, so.. I was imagining that I could maybe go back to that cafe and approach her and ask her for some help with them.

Questions:
1) Do you think I should do this?
2) If so, how? Got a step-by-step or any tips for me? Because I think that this is going to be extremely difficult for me. It's not just the approach - I also have no idea how I'm going to casually tell her about the website... And now as I think about it I'm basically asking a stranger for free translation work. This sounds like a terrible idea.

If it helps, we did exchange names. So if you imagine that there's different "levels" of relationship you can have with someone, e.g. if there's a spectrum that goes from not knowing the person at all to knowing them extremely well, I'm at the part where we know each others' names, xD.

Thank you!

If you feel anxiety, it isn't true love, don't worry about it that much.