Learning the Ropes of intercultural relationships & interracial dating
When you go outside of “the box” and date people from other races or cultural traditions, there is a lot to learn. Many of the things that you can take for granted with someone from your own cultural tradition, you simply cannot in this context. Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to learn the ropes of these kinds of dating situations without endless, painful trial and error.
Drama Knows No Bounds
For most people, there is at least a phase of their relationship where there is a fair amount of drama. This keeps things interesting, and gets the people involved more emotionally invested into one another. Without any drama at all, a relationship will tend to stagnate. However, the level of drama that a single culture couple goes through is nothing compared to the level of drama that an interracial or intercultural couple faces on a daily basis.
When you go out in public holding hands or kiss publicly, do you get stared at? Do you get cutting remarks thrown your way? Are there even people who are outright hostile to you, despite you doing nothing to them? If you are part of an interracial couple, this happens to the point where you almost get used to it. This can be shocking if you have only ever dated your own race, though.
Cultural Relations and the Lifetime of Learning
On the outside, there is plenty of drama when you date interracially. But even when you are of the same race, being from different cultures means that there are going to be a lot of differences between the two of you. These differences can be subtle, or they can be pretty extreme. In any case, you are going to have to either retreat back into dating your own culture, or learn to navigate the differences.
This can be simple things, such as how people greet each other and how closely they stand to one another. It can even be as supposedly basic as chopsticks versus forks. But to some people, these are important parts of culture, and being able to understand one another by having some kind of common ground to stand on.
You are going to run into interpersonal conflicts when you date someone from another culture. What you say meaning one thing can sound completely different to someone whose culture would interpret it differently. Actions you consider romantic might be taken completely out of context, and by extension you might also miss a set of signals that your partner is trying to send your way.
The best way to realize how much your culture has influenced you is to meet someone who did not grow up in that culture. You will quickly learn that any rebelliousness you thought you had against your upbringing pales in comparison to having a completely different culture crashing up against it.
With the online world being what it is, you can easily learn the ropes of Learning the Ropes of intercultural relationships & interracial dating
When you go outside of “the box” and date people from other races or cultural traditions, there is a lot to learn. Many of the things that you can take for granted with someone from your own cultural tradition, you simply cannot in this context. Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to learn the ropes of these kinds of dating situations without endless, painful trial and error.
Drama Knows No Bounds
For most people, there is at least a phase of their relationship where there is a fair amount of drama. This keeps things interesting and gets the people involved more emotionally invested into one another. Without any drama at all, a relationship will tend to stagnate. However, the level of excitement that a single culture couple goes through is nothing compared to the level of drama that an interracial or intercultural couple faces on a daily basis.
When you go out in public holding hands or kiss publicly, do you get stared at? Do you get cutting remarks thrown your way? Are there even people who are outright hostile to you, despite you doing nothing to them? If you are part of an interracial couple, this happens to the point where you almost get used to it. This can be shocking if you have only ever dated your own race, though.
Cultural Relations and the Lifetime of Learning
On the outside, there is plenty of drama when you date interracially. But even when you are of the same race, being from different cultures means that there are going to be a lot of differences between the two of you. These differences can be subtle, or they can be pretty extreme. In any case, you are going to have to either retreat back into dating your own culture or learn to navigate the differences.
This can be simple things, such as how people greet each other and how close they stand to one another. It can even be as supposedly basic as chopsticks versus forks. But to some people, these are essential parts of culture, and being able to understand one another by having some kind of common ground to stand on.
You are going to run into interpersonal conflicts when you date someone from another culture. What you say meaning one thing can sound entirely different for someone whose culture would interpret it differently. Actions you consider romantic might be taken entirely out of context, and by extension, you might also miss a set of signals that your partner is trying to send your way.
The best way to realize how much your culture has influenced you is to meet someone who did not grow up in that culture. You will quickly learn that any rebelliousness you thought you had against your upbringing pales in comparison to having a completely different culture crashing up against it.
With the online world being what it is, you can quickly learn the ropes of intercultural relationships & interracial dating just by doing your research.
