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The Cost of Cross-Cultural Marriage

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The Cost of Cross-Cultural Marriage
Marrying someone from another nation can be exciting! There are so many things that are new and different, interesting and challenging. These same things can be a source of frustration and conflict, misunderstanding and hurt. Before you marry someone from another nation, take a look at this list. Perhaps you will see some things here that you have not considered.
We are not trying to convince you that marrying someone from another culture is right or wrong. That is something you will have to determine for yourself. But the Word does say that a wise man calculates the cost before beginning construction on a house. Hopefully this will help you consider the cost of cross-cultural marriage.
Marrying someone from another culture [could] mean that one of you will be living outside of your home nation permanently—which means that you will not be able to see your family very often. That means your children will see very little of one set of parents (their grandparents).
[The following are a few questions to ask yourselves before you go any further in considering marrying someone from another culture.]
• Are you willing for your children to not really know your parents?
Not only will your children not have the opportunity to know one set of grandparents very well, if there is a language barrier, one set of parents will not be able to really communicate well with your children.
• Are you willing for your family members to not be able communicate well with your children?
Marrying someone from another culture means that you will have a hard time understanding each other’s humor. Things that are funny to one will not be funny to the other. You will have to explain the humor to one another. (Example: Jokes from TV shows, childhood games, comic strips)
• Are you willing to take the time to explain why something is funny to you?
• Have you considered that you might get tired of having to explain jokes to one another?
• Are you ready to just accept the fact that you

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