Intercultural Relationships in Everyday Life

I enjoyed reading chapter 9 in our text. It was interesting to read about relationships, both intercultural and not, on both friendship and romantic levels. It is interesting the circumstances that draw people together. Circumstances including work and school put us in close proximity to other individuals. These circumstances are when and where many people form relationships. People are drawn to one another based on their similarities and differences. The similarity principle says that we tend to be drawn to people who hold similar beliefs and attitudes to our own (Martin & Nakayama, 244). I believe that circumstances and similarities bring people together. I met my fiancé at work, and we hold similar political, religious, and personality traits.

I know other individuals who have been brought together because of similar circumstances, but they are very different from one another. The idea that people seek out those who have different personality and physical traits to try to find balance is called complementarity. My brother and his girlfriend are examples of this. He is very conservative, Catholic, and has blonde hair and a fair complexion. His girlfriend is liberal, does not practice a specific religion, and is of Latin background with dark hair and an olive complexion. They have learned a lot from one another because of their cultural and physical differences. I think their complementarity is a wonderful thing in terms of learning about different cultures.