Intercultural Marriage
Jade Jesslyn
Arthur Hui
ESL 185
17 April 2013
Challenges of an Intercultural Marriage Just as some of Asian women are eager to have a Western life-partner, which is known as a romantic partner, some of Western men also desired an Asian life partner because they thought an Asian wife is responsible to their future family. Things are perfect in our imagination, yet it changes when we confront reality. Marriage is not only unification between a male and female who love each other, but also a commitment between two people to appreciate and to encourage one another no matter in joy or sorrow. Before there were only minor couples that had courage to take an intercultural marriage because its too risky. Nevertheless, nowadays the number of intercultural marriages have been increased due to the easiness of immigration. There are many difficulties of an intercultural marriage, such as living environment (style), communication and way to bring children up. The first difficulty of an intercultural marriage is the living environment. Marrying someone from a different culture is absolutely not the same as marrying someone from same culture. Every country possesses its own living style and different habits as well. People who grow up in a different culture have different backgrounds and views concerning family. Some cultures consider their family important while some cultures don't. For instance, Asian people are taught to respect their parents even though they already got married. On the contrary, Western teenagers usually leave their house and prefer to live with their lovers at their 20s. Sometimes, these individuals' families demand too much on their son/daughter in law which is uncomfortable. For instance, when the Chinese New Year comes, the family from the wife and husband will assemble together. It's already a tradition that the oldest son's wife has to prepare everything like cooking for the big family, cleaning and setting the house and etc, which is tiring and
Arthur Hui
ESL 185
17 April 2013
Challenges of an Intercultural Marriage Just as some of Asian women are eager to have a Western life-partner, which is known as a romantic partner, some of Western men also desired an Asian life partner because they thought an Asian wife is responsible to their future family. Things are perfect in our imagination, yet it changes when we confront reality. Marriage is not only unification between a male and female who love each other, but also a commitment between two people to appreciate and to encourage one another no matter in joy or sorrow. Before there were only minor couples that had courage to take an intercultural marriage because its too risky. Nevertheless, nowadays the number of intercultural marriages have been increased due to the easiness of immigration. There are many difficulties of an intercultural marriage, such as living environment (style), communication and way to bring children up. The first difficulty of an intercultural marriage is the living environment. Marrying someone from a different culture is absolutely not the same as marrying someone from same culture. Every country possesses its own living style and different habits as well. People who grow up in a different culture have different backgrounds and views concerning family. Some cultures consider their family important while some cultures don't. For instance, Asian people are taught to respect their parents even though they already got married. On the contrary, Western teenagers usually leave their house and prefer to live with their lovers at their 20s. Sometimes, these individuals' families demand too much on their son/daughter in law which is uncomfortable. For instance, when the Chinese New Year comes, the family from the wife and husband will assemble together. It's already a tradition that the oldest son's wife has to prepare everything like cooking for the big family, cleaning and setting the house and etc, which is tiring and