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Getting married in a different culture can have serious domestic repercussions. Being a partner in a cross-cultural marriage, you might take your time to adjust in this relationship. However, there are times when both you and your partner might face cultural clash. In this scenario, you have to take a constructive approach in order to make your relationship work and take it to the next level.

So, if you need relationship advice on dealing with cross-cultural marriage without seekign a professional marriage counselor, you need to work on the following guidelines:

1.    Expose Your Spouse to Your Culture
Exposing your spouse to your culture will help you both in a marriage. It will enable your spouse to understand your society and people. Make it a point to expose your spouse to different places of interests where s/he can have a first-hand experience of your culture. Show your spouse different facets of your society through movies, literature and music. The more s/he penetrates into your culture, the easier will it be for him/her to adjust in your society.

2.    Show Interesting Aspects of Your Society
To develop a sound relationship, it is first important that you show all interesting things about your culture to your spouse. Rather than making her feel insecure by sharing bad things of your society, you should highlight things that your spouse would find appealing. This will make your spouse inquisitive of facets that make your culture special and s/he will want to learn more about your society.

3.    Inform Your Spouse About Norms of Your Culture
Make your spouse familiarized with values of your culture. You need to inform her about social behaviors that are considered acceptable and unacceptable in your culture. Educate your spouse about sensitive issues and taboos that define norms of your society. This will allow your spouse to know cultural norms in your culture and s/he will quickly mingle with people in your society.

4.    Empathize With Your Spouse
Having a cross-cultural marriage can make your spouse prone to certain behaviors. S/he might feel homesick or show signs of frustration as a result of cultural shock. So, you need to give time and space to recuperate from aftereffects of settling in a new country. As s/he is away from her family and friends, s/he might go through bouts of homesickness for some time. In such scenario, you need to become the strongest support to your spouse in order to help her overcome these issues and adapt a new lifestyle.

5.    Take It as an Opportunity
Marrying someone from different culture means you can learn about their culture, society and lifestyle. So, you should take the whole thing more as a learning opportunity to get familiarized with things of a different society. Ask your spouse about society, lifestyle, food, sport, literature and cinema of him/her culture.

6.    Give Your Spouse Love and Affection
Your family support will be the strongest support in ensuring that your spouse feels at home. As s/he has sacrificed everything behind for your sake, s/he deserves your emotional support. Provide her with everything that makes her happy and give her quality time so that s/he feels connected with you. Let her mingle with your family so that s/he does not miss love and affection of her family.

Hope, the above-mentioned relationship advice will enable you to deal your cross-cultural marriage in a smart way and help you get closer to your spouse without needing help of a marriage counselor.