dating. it's hard. nobody likes doing it. everybody likes complaining about it. i-m gonna do a one-up and say that i have it harder than most people...
i-m doing it in a foreign country, in another language, in a totally different culture. beat THAT!
my first couple of relationship attempts were nothing less than excruciatingly painful. nowdays things are alot better. i have a boyfriend who is really nice and has a retarded amount of patience with me. language is generally not an issue, but sometimes he will inform me that what i have said is rude. almost always, it-s a cultural thing (people here think it-s rude to say xyz, but in the u.s. it-s okay).
but still, it isn-t easy. you don-t realize how many things are NOT universal til you move to foreign country and then it really hits home when you start dating, cause probably... you-re spending ALOT of freaking time together.
the thing is, alot of times, the other person-s point of view makes total sense and sometimes you even think... wow, my culture got this totally wrong. we should be doing it like THAT. but that doesn-t mean that you can internalize it.
it-s funny... i hadn-t thought about writing about dating until a friend of mine recently contacted me for dating advice. he is latino, living in the u.s. and dating a gringa. and he was like 'what the fuck is happening. i am so confused.' it's the first time i-ve had a chance to talk to someone in the same shoes as me, but from the exact opposite perspective. i feel like i-m finally starting to understand. not just to identify and observe the differences, but to understand them.
so i-m gonna write a set of posts addressing some very specific issues about dating in a latin country and he is gonna write from the exact opposite perspective.
i-m excited! i think it-s gonna be super fun!
i-m doing it in a foreign country, in another language, in a totally different culture. beat THAT!
my first couple of relationship attempts were nothing less than excruciatingly painful. nowdays things are alot better. i have a boyfriend who is really nice and has a retarded amount of patience with me. language is generally not an issue, but sometimes he will inform me that what i have said is rude. almost always, it-s a cultural thing (people here think it-s rude to say xyz, but in the u.s. it-s okay).
but still, it isn-t easy. you don-t realize how many things are NOT universal til you move to foreign country and then it really hits home when you start dating, cause probably... you-re spending ALOT of freaking time together.
the thing is, alot of times, the other person-s point of view makes total sense and sometimes you even think... wow, my culture got this totally wrong. we should be doing it like THAT. but that doesn-t mean that you can internalize it.
it-s funny... i hadn-t thought about writing about dating until a friend of mine recently contacted me for dating advice. he is latino, living in the u.s. and dating a gringa. and he was like 'what the fuck is happening. i am so confused.' it's the first time i-ve had a chance to talk to someone in the same shoes as me, but from the exact opposite perspective. i feel like i-m finally starting to understand. not just to identify and observe the differences, but to understand them.
so i-m gonna write a set of posts addressing some very specific issues about dating in a latin country and he is gonna write from the exact opposite perspective.
i-m excited! i think it-s gonna be super fun!
you have a picture of this man?--I miss you Jennifer!
ReplyDeleteThat is really interesting. I've never thought about how our common expressions would translate into something rude in other cultures, but I can easily see how that would be the case. Keep up the blog. I love reading it! And, yeah, do you have a picture? Now I'm curious! I want to see this hombre.
ReplyDeletejessica, i miss you too!
ReplyDeletephyllis, that happens all the time. however, normally it-s opposite because chileans are very direct. something i never realized about americans is that we are very polite and we are non-verbal communicators. when we do communicate with words, it takes very little to speak volumes. that-s my experience anyway.
sorry ladies. i do not have pics right now. he has some pics on his phone. i will try to get them.