12 Challenges of Dating a Foreigner
- Last updated:
Did you get a “Heartbreak WARNING” on our quiz or just curious to find out more about the challenges of dating a foreigner? Ok, let’s dive right into it!
If you are dating someone with a different dating style from your own, you will have two big differences:
- Dating stages
- Mindsets & beliefs
In certain cases, the differences in our dating styles can also trigger a change in our personalities!
However, in this article we are going to focus on the first two.
Differences in Dating Stages
Around the world our dating stages (or steps) are very different. However, as we believe we “know how to date” we often believe the other person follows the same steps as we do. This then triggers a lot of misunderstandings and frustrations. In some cultures the steps are so blur, that unless you grew up in that culture, it is close to impossible to understand it.
These differences in dating stages can cause a lot of frustration, to the point that:
- Dating feels discouraging (a lot more than it normally would in your own culture!)
- Can scare the other person off (if your stages of dating and timeline is faster than theirs is)
- Cause trust issues (if they behave contradictory in their culture than what you are used to and you don’t even suspect it is cultural)
- You might label them as a “player” based on their behavior – while in their culture that behavior is totally normal and accepted
- Experience many awkward situations – e.g. calling them your girlfriend or boyfriend when for them, based on their dating culture, you are not.
- Countless misunderstandings – including whether you’ve cheated, or whether you are engaged!!! (Non of which are easy to rectify!)
Differences in Mindset & Beliefs
What most people don’t realize is that not only our dating stages are different but our deep-rooted mindsets and beliefs also. This influences our behavior, which amplifies the challenges of dating a foreigner.
Differences in mindsets and beliefs will cause:
- Communication issues – including reading their intentions wrong (you might not want to come across as needy, but they will read it as you are wasting their time)
- Conflicting “dating etiquettes” – including who should message first and what it means
- Feeling lack of respect – partially due to the conflicting dating etiquettes
- Conflicting approaches to giving up our freedom (to date the other person)
- Differences in “playing hard to get”
- The “roles” of men and women can turn where to woman is chasing the man (also hard to rectify)!
These are some of the main challenges of dating a foreigner.
You only need to get one of these wrong to completely ruin your chances!
Understanding cultural differences in dating is very easy if you know some of the key differences.
They are learnable!