Romantic French, sentimental Chinese, earnest Americans

When discussing cultural differences in love, a friend (who has ample experience) once summed it up nicely: "The French are romantic while the Chinese are sentimental."

I can't think of a better way to put it. When I was 16, studying in France for the summer, I fell in love with my 19-year-old French neighbor. Actually I fell in "like", but his sweeping romantic gestures and dramatic language - tossing "amour, amour" around all the time - whirled me up in my first French "love" affair.

His English was patchy and my French was only slightly better, but I could comprehend that the flowery lines of poetry he scribbled and the phrases he breathed while looking into my eyes intensely and managing to keep a straight face were things that would be simplycheesy in any other language.