It’s the month of love and SA PROMO Magazine did some investigation into South Africans dating non-South Africans.

Monique is dating a guy from France.

Quite recently, I was searching the internet and asking mom’s advice on boerewors recipes, thinking up ways to ‘cook South African’ for my boyfriend. I started to think pap and wors, boerie roll, boerewors and mash, boerewors and curtain? Boerewors curtain! Two words I’ve not heard said together in context for a long time. Two words that provoke many a cliché about English v Afrikaans speaking South Africans. Along with various other consequences of this assumption, dating rules are prescribed.

Living and working in the UK exposes us to all kinds of new experiences, sounds, tastes, languages, cultures and people, obviously. Away from suburban safety and dating laws – of who to date, where to go, when to introduce them to the family/ friends - it’s a whole new ball game.

The rules of which I’ve learnt, snugly (not smugly, mind) inside my own relationship bubble! Two years now, I’ve been living, loving and learning the French way with my prince. My frog prince if you will. Not because he is French but rather because his appearance – and role – in my life was so unexpected.

He came into my world quietly, with a few poorly written emails, an invite for coffee ‘if I agree’ and when the time was right – he swept me off my feet – not with the sartorial French gallantry one might expect, but rather with his kindness, his desire to be part of my life and his ability to always make me smile, and laugh!

So without divulging too much about our ‘couple life’ (his phrase) below are some of our more visible kinks:

- Mixed metaphors and malapropisms aside, the linguistic barrier does not present a problem, probably less than if he were a boykie from Calvinia.

- We argue happily that our cultures define our actions, though I’m not so sold on this idea. Sometimes think I’m a lot more open minded despite having been exposed to a smaller world, and he, for all his savoir-faire, can be quite judgmental.

- Planning holidays can also be a little tricky – as he has travelled throughout Europe, I haven’t. So I let him choose. Last time he chose Sicily and my passport ended up stolen (You might be familiar with this story from the October 2009 issue of SA PROMO Magazine)

- To cuisine or not to cuisine is not really a question chez Nous. We both have lusty appetites, because I eat-first-ask-questions later, it took me a while to appreciate that he studies a meal – the presentation, ingredients and method – before tucking in.

And so, reading this one might think that our couple life isn’t too different from any one else’s and that it’s hardly a love-across-the-language-barrier-story. And of course life could have been quite different had I not sojourned to the UK, and found this universal love. But one thing definitely remains the same, the way to any man’s heart is a boerie roll, beer and a good game of rugby.

Look out for SA PROMO Magazine's 'Saffa dating a xxx' series from now til the end of February

For the rest of the month, in the spirit of all things Valentine, we interviewed a selection of South Africans who are dating a variety of mixed nationalities, to gain insight into the cultural differences and best bits.

From Mimi’s insights into a European relationship, to what its like to date a Scandinavian, as well as people from the UK, both British and Irish, as well as getting the lowdown on dating other southern hemispherers, New Zealand and Brazil.