Culture
The differences that matter, and the ones that don't
Ana Lucía Reyes8 min read
Contributing writer, culture
Ana Lucía Reyes
Writes on cross-cultural family and courtship norms
Ana Lucía writes about courtship and family expectation across Latin America and southern Europe. She is unusually allergic to national generalisation, and most of her drafts get shorter in the edit because a claim could not be supported for a whole country. She contributes to the country guides and the culture section.
Articles by Ana Lucía Reyes
CountriesBrazil
Dating in Brazil
There is a stage before dating that English has no word for, and most of the confusion foreigners report traces straight back to it. Start with ficar and work forwards.
Ana Lucía Reyes10 min read
Culture
21 questions to ask before it gets serious
Twenty-one questions on money, family, faith, children and geography — with a note on what each one is really testing and what avoidance sounds like.
Ana Lucía Reyes6 min read
Talking
Dating Across a Language Barrier
What translation tools handle well, the four things they mangle, and how couples build a working private language — plus the quiet cost nobody warns you about.
Ana Lucía Reyes8 min read
Dates
What travels, what lands badly, and how to recover
Family, politics, money and exes are ordinary small talk somewhere and an interrogation somewhere else. What travels, what doesn't, and how to recover fast.
Ana Lucía Reyes9 min read
CountriesItaly
Dating in Italy
The romance the world imports is largely a tourist-facing performance. What actually shapes dating here is the friend group, the family calendar, and who is paying the rent.
Ana Lucía Reyes9 min read
Talking
How to Have Hard Conversations Across Cultures
Direct and indirect styles without the national stereotypes: choosing the moment and the medium, opening well, repairing badly handled ones, and knowing what is unfixable.
Ana Lucía Reyes9 min read
Commitment
Meeting Your Partner's Family Abroad
Gifts, forms of address, whether to help in the kitchen, and what to do when it goes badly — plus the trip nobody writes about, when their family comes to you.
Ana Lucía Reyes9 min read