Ah! Oui, the French are indeed romantic. "You missed me!" is what my sweetheart proclaims after having been parted from my side. With amazement at his ability to guess my thoughts, I dreamily glance up at his charming face and say,"I did???" This is but a small example of how the nuances of language differ. The English words for the emotions in his French heart often fall backwards on my American ears. In French, he would have said "you were missed by me", which places my person as the point of interest in the sentence. In English, however, we put ourselves as the focal point by saying "I missed you". Ah, but with such loving affection, what does one need with words?
Even though the emotional and silent language of love is intoxicating and romantic, couples who speak separate languages often have the additional burden of expressing themselves more precisely to be understood properly. The unspoken understandings that people of similar cultures share are not there to be relied upon. Personal frames of references may be completely different. Methods of thinking and communicating vary. Nothing can be assumed or taken for granted in a cross-cultural relationship. It is a whole new world - yet one worth exploring!
Beyond the dreamy glances over dinner and hand-holding in the park, there are bills to be paid, decisions to be made and all the details of everyday life to be discussed. How do you go about doing this? There are many books on this topic which may be more general or specific to your personal situation. What I intend to share here are a few things I have personally learned in my Franco-American couple.  Look to the top menu bar for my examples!