How to Talk to your Asian Date on Her Terms and Master the art of Cross-Cultural Communication.

Published in

OE Match

3 min readJun 12, 2019

We live in a time where the distance between people and cultures is ever shrinking. Soon companies like Space X and Virgin Galatic will have us flying across the Pacific in the time it takes most people to commute to work, but this erosion of the distance between us is not the only barrier to communication that we face. When you’ve reached out and connected with someone from another culture, you’ve entered new territory in terms of shared experiences and values. And in the world of online dating as international dating becomes a more popular option to finding love in the sea of singles, then we must become increasingly aware of how we communicate and how to find common ground with international singles on their terms.

OE Dating focuses on introducing Asian singles to international men, and so we’ve decided to discuss interpersonal communication from this viewpoint. As some of our employees are currently in international relationships and even married to citizens of other countries, this is an issue that we passionately believe should be discussed more often.

When Western men marry an Asian woman they may sometimes hear “Our Cultures are too different, we don’t have things in common to talk about” often this sentence may come up during a heated conversation. However, many of the root causes of these discussions stem from how we respond to conflict in our relationships.

For many Chinese couples, conflicts are handled with silence or by very careful and planned hints at the solutions to the issues. So a potential situation which could occur is that a woman sees her husband coming home late every night without providing any explanations, in response she either says nothing or casually drops a hint. This situation could continue for many months without either party opening up a real discussion. However, most western couples would have already had a serious conversation where the concerns were laid out and discussed by both parties to find a solution. The western approach is, therefore, a very direct approach to communication.

Being aware of this difference in communication styles, direct and indirect, can help you to find a happy medium in your relationships and developer stronger connections with international dates. In the end, communication is something that takes effort, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution to being a great communicator. Every relationship you have will be a new experience, and we would love to hear your thoughts on how to make cross-cultural conversations even better in the comments section.