Study reveals East of England’s attitudes towards romance

270 million adults reportedly used dating apps worldwide in 2020 – paired with the
thousands of dating apps/websites available today, the journey to finding love sounds like an
easy one. However, if you ask the average singleton, they’ll most likely disagree.

Of the 68 million people living in the UK, an estimated one third are single and with
approximately 10 million of the UK population being foreign-born, singletons in the UK have
the chance of finding love with people from all over the world. But what are Brits’ attitudes
towards dating outside their first language? In an attempt to discover how love and language
barriers mix (or don’t mix), language learning app and e-learning platform Preply have
surveyed 2,000 Brits to find out.

The key reactions
Contrary to common anglophone stereotypes, 4 in 5 of those polled in the East of England
(82%) said that they would be willing to learn their partner’s native language or at least
learn the basics.

However, the results also prove that dating with language barriers isn’t without it’s own
challenges, as two thirds of the region (65%) said they would be open to the possibility
but would foresee some issues. As for those of opposing opinions, 22% said they would not
find a language barrier to be an issue (pink flag) or dealbreaker.

Of those remaining, 1 in 10 say they would dump someone because of a language barrier,
making those in the East of England the most likely to “call it quits” over such an obstacle. Of
those who deemed a language barrier a dealbreaker, one quarter have revealed that this is
because they’d most likely feel inadequate and/or patronised.

The top challenges and the top highlights

Whilst all relationships face challenges, throwing two languages in the mix, can open things
up to another kind of bump in the road. These include not sharing a similar sense of humour
(something Brits presumably hold so dear) or overcoming cultural differences.
When asked about which aspects of a relationship with language barriers would be the most
challenging, ‘getting constantly lost in translation’ came top as most daunting for those
in the East of England (30%). “Meeting and socialising with a partner’s family” (21%) and
“cultural differences” (21%) placed second and third respectively and “lack of a strong
connection” placed fourth (9%).

When it comes to sharing a similar sense of humour, 8% said they deem this a vital part of a
relationship, whilst 7% stated “watching TV/movies with subtitles” as their biggest worry.
Dating someone with a different native country can come with its challenges but best of all, it can
also come with its advantages. Asking about what their top highlight would be, half of those in
the East of England (45%) say the top highlight of dating someone from a different country
would be getting to learn about a new culture. The second best, with 17% agreeing, would
be the prospect of raising multilingual children.

Whilst frequent holidays to their partner’s country (14%) and “ learning about a new language
for free” (8%) follow as the East of England’s third and fourth highlights respectively, only 11%
of respondents chose the prospect of stronger physical connection as their highlight.

The prospect of moving country for love

With most dating apps offering singles the option to extend their ‘match’ location radius to
practically cover anywhere in the world, this expands the dating pool opening up the chance
of matching singles around the world. So what happens when cupid strikes from across the
globe?
A resonating 73% of the East of England’s singletons revealed that they would be open to
the idea of moving country for love, however only 1 in 5 are sure they’d make the move
without any doubts. Whilst the majority would be open to the idea of relocation, 17% would
refuse to move country and the remaining 9% said they would rather make their partner
move.

Other insights

– In asking which languages found to be the hardest languages to understand,
Mandarin, Arabic, German and Portuguese ranked top in the East of England

– A 2020 Preply heart-rate driven study confirmed Italian, Portuguese, French and Greek
as top most ‘sensual’ languages for Brits. Dutch, German and Japanese were the
languages that got participants least excited.

– North East are the most likely to “call it quits” over a language barrier – 1 in 5 of those in
the region admit that they would dump someone if there was too much of a language
barrier.

– Yorkshire and the Humber are most likely to worry about a potential partner not
having the same sense of humour

– South West are the least likely to learn a new language for a partner – A quarter of
those in the region, say it’d either be highly unlikely or would never happen

– Londoners are the most likely to find cultural differences a challenge, with 27% of the
capital’s singletons citing this as their biggest worry

Prepare to speak confidently with the best online tutors. Visit the Preply website today.