Struggles of Being in an Interracial Relationship

My boyfriend had visited me twice. The first time he came for a month, then he recently came again for about three months. So, here are a few problems that I/we face.

1. Language barrier

My boyfriend is from Bosnia, and I am from Malaysia. We communicate in English. Apart from him, I usually speak mandarin with my family, because some of them can't speak English, or some of them are not fluent. The language barrier actually makes my boyfriend feel left out, because it is hard for me to translate every single sentence throughout the whole day. Usually, when I'm driving with my cousin, we always talk a lot, and we will be laughing in the front seat. Sad to say my boyfriend will be in the backseat feeling all lost and minding his own business. Besides that, sometimes jokes in your own mother tongue are hard to translate into another language. Hence, sometimes it is a little awkward for my boyfriend at the dinner table with my family.

2. Food culture

Well by now you all should know I am an Asian, and when you see the word Asian, the first thing that will come to your mind is probably RICE. I personally am not a huge fan of rice, I am that Asian that can live without rice. At one point I even hated eating rice, but surprisingly my boyfriend had taught me how to love rice in three months. Not to mention that I am a huge fan of cheese and fries, but unfortunately these three months made me have enough, I am so sick of it now. Although on and off we still get Chinese food, which is not enough to satisfy me. It just makes me feel like I've been eating Western food for three years.

On the other hand, my boyfriend is always craving burgers, pizza, steak, fast food, Mexican food, and many more. And I figured he is starting to get really sick of eating rice, so I had to agree with him despite me getting sick of Western food. Even when we decide to cook at home it will always be pasta. I still remember that he confessed to me saying: "When I see rice, I want to throw up." I actually found it amusing when he said that. Despite him being sick of rice, he still always lets me pick what/where to eat, so he is a loving person after all.

3. Value system

Lastly, because we were raised so differently, our value system is also pretty contrasting. Growing up as a Chinese person, I was taught to respect the food I have on my plate for every meal, and I think having enough money to buy food that you want is really a great thing to be thankful about. Hence, I really don't like to waste food. Nonetheless my boyfriend is the type of person that orders about 3 or 4 meals when there's only 2 of us, and every single time he can't finish all his food, which makes me kind of mad because at the end I have to stuff myself because I will feel bad if I don't finish the food. I try to tell him the concept of "respecting" food and he found it funny and weird... He asked, "food is for you to respect?" He just doesn't get the concept of "don't waste food." Hence, it is very hard to communicate sometimes. What I stated here was only just one example; I can write a whole essay about all the contrast in our value system.

I hope y'all liked this article. Thank you for reading!