I'm an American dating a French guy who lives abroad — here's why you shouldn't be afraid to do the same

• I'm an American who's dating a French man.
• I've learned a lot about his culture, my culture, and myself by dating him.
• We introduce each other to new food, music, customs, and expressions.
• I've also done a lot of traveling as a result of our relationship.

They say you can't help who you fall in love with, and in my case, I fell in love with a tall, shy French guy who thinks cream and butter should be added to every dish.

(I'm a short, outspoken, lactose intolerant American, by the way.)

And although we have our issues like every normal relationship, being with someone from a different culture has taught me so much.

When an outsider examines the minutiae of your everyday life, you begin to see your daily grind in a whole different light. The things you've always done without question sometimes become more than just an afterthought.

I'm discovering so much about myself, my culture, and about the world around me.

Here are some of my favorite things about falling in love with someone from a different culture

I've learned to appreciate accents and different ways of speaking.

Not to reinforce stereotypes (we'll get to that later), but everything does actually sound more beautiful when it comes from a foreign tongue. Sure, there are moments where we get lost in translation  —i.e. the French don't pronounce hard "r" or "t" at the end of words, so the city of Detroit becomes… DE-TWA in French — but everyday errands like creating a grocery list has a bit more pizzazz to it when an accent is thrown in.

And although there are moments of frustration, I try and remember that learning to speak and communicate in another language is no easy task, and accents are part of someone else's culture.

I get to enjoy all the foods — and booze.

Dating someone from a different culture means getting to try out all the delicious delicacies from wherever they're from, and vice versa. Although French cuisine, and wine, are renowned worldwide, it's been fun to eat lesser-known dishes from my boyfriend's particular region in Northern France (all the seafood).

It's also been amazing to share traditional Indonesian foods —my background — with him, which are often spicy and have a complex combination of sweet, salty, sour and bitter all in one dish. And while our palettes may be different, we can always appreciate delicious food made with love.

I've picked up new expressions.

There are some inexplicable emotions that no English word can describe, but luckily, other languages can. For example, "Flâner" in French is the art of wandering a city's streets with no goal or final destination but for the pleasure of soaking up the ambiance.

"Saudade" refers to a melancholic longing or yearning in Portuguese.  Gezellig is a Dutch wordthat literally means cozy, quaint, or nice, but can also connote time spent with loved ones, seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness. It's nice to finally have a word to describe these emotions.