The act of falling in love with someone from outside our original environment is not a trivial one, whatever one might say. It’s not just an encounter, but a “deliberate deviation”, an exhortation to get off the beaten track and indulge in the unknown world of another. At the opposite end of the spectrum from obstacles of various kinds, intercultural love feels like a harmony of dissimilarities. In such a context, it’s the thrill of the feeling and the drumming of the heart that guide our steps. In this article, discover how this unique and enriching alchemy is forged.
The charm of dissimilarity
Otherness is an important driver of excitement in the intimate life of an intercultural couple. Even the most banal habits or attitudes can arouse attraction in the other. For example, the tone of voice, certain gestures inherited from another culture, or the way hair is groomed.
It’s in situations like these that words have less meaning than the universal language of caresses, sighs and silence all at once. Love is not born in spite of difference, but rather thanks to it. And for good reason, difference creates a certain distance that intensifies curiosity and lights the fuse of love ever more brightly.
Intermediate culture: building your own universe
Being in love beyond all cultural considerations implies moving away from the idea of choosing sides, in favor of inventiveness. In concrete terms, the couple gradually disregard their respective dogmas and givens to build a hybrid universe. It’s a timeless, mixed-race place where bodies and thoughts learn to move towards each other.
It’s a place that has no geographical allegiance beyond the mix of partners who shape it. We build it by tenderly negotiating and delicately proposing, transforming each arrangement into a phase of poetic creation. It’s at this precise moment, in the whirlpool of fusion, that the partners discover their true identity: an immutable combination of two cultures.
Beyond the mother tongue
One of the fundamental beauties of the intercultural couple is the effort to understand each other beyond words. Clearly, in intercultural couples, the language barrier, generally seen as an obstacle to discussion, can be transformed into an anti-banality shield. And for good reason: in such a situation, you have to listen to the other person with total commitment.
Better still, it calls for concentration at all times, prioritizing the emotion in the eyes to the detriment of sentence structure. We learn to guess each other’s wishes, to see silence as a moment of shared sighing. This approach fosters the couple’s solidity and lends a special cachet to every sentimental revelation.
The indispensable persistence of “We” despite the pitfalls
To say that being an intercultural couple is a long, quiet river would be an outright lie. Indeed, our partner can often change his or her appearance in our eyes, reflecting a complete rethinking of systems of thought that we thought were inherent to ourselves. It’s precisely this kind of upheaval that we can turn into a source of solidifying alchemy.
In fact, the intercultural couple par excellence is the one who can create an indefatigable “we” in the face of outside misunderstandings and/or judgments. All the challenges they have overcome (social, family, administrative) have the effect of strengthening their unity. This will make them more complicit and radiant at the same time.
Love: erasing borders
Throughintercultural alchemy, we learn that the best sense of belonging is the one we claim as our own, once we’ve united with our beloved. Accepting otherness and building a hybrid culture are the keys to this unity.
Through the paths of love, we discover a not-so-strange elsewhere; we learn a great deal about ourselves, detached from the biases linked to our origins. This kind of choice results in constant enchantment, especially when we are curious about the world around us, in the broadest sense of the word.
