Foreign Relations: How To Score A Date Around the World

A globe-trotting guide to hooking up, hanging out and sexting around the world, with the must-have dating apps, must-know pickup lines and expert tips that will break any language barrier.

- Eric Klinenberg

The swipe right on Tinder. The double tap on Instagram. The Facebook like. Flirting in America is a well-oiled, wi-fi-connected machine fueled by a handful of apps instead of old-school barside meet-and-greets. But if you think your—let’s be real—lazy emoji use will impress singles overseas, it’s time to up your game. Tech makes it easier than ever to meet strangers around the world, and a little knowledge of cultural traditions will help you hook up on a global scale. So grab your passport as we give you a primer on foreign relations.

ARGENTINA

Getting on the Scene

Believe it or not, Argentina, the first country in Latin America to legalize gay marriage, in 2010, still stigmatizes online dating. That’s because Argentineans respect tradition, including that of organizing romance through family, school and church (70 to 90 percent of the population identifies as Catholic). “Although people here are meeting online, they aren’t admitting it,” says Valeria Schapira, a Match.com consultant and author of Tangled: Sex, Humor and Love on the Web. But hope is in sight for the digitally devoted: Match.com is gaining thousands of new users in the region every month, and Argentina is quickly becoming one of the largest online dating markets in Latin America, along with Brazil and Mexico. “There is still some fear, especially among women, that online dating will make him or her look desperate,” says Schapira. “But it’s better than it was a decade ago, when I’d tell people I was dating online and they’d look at me like I’d gone mad.”

Download This