I am a graduate student in China, and over the last few weeks I have become friends with Earl, a Western student who is studying Chinese at my university. We have a number of friends in common, so often see each other at various social gatherings. We enjoy talking to each other, and have gotten to know each other fairly well. Last weekend Earl asked me if I would like to go see a movie with him. I said yes, so we had dinner and saw the movie together. After the movie we talked a long time as we walked home. When it was time to say goodnight, he first took my hand and then he kissed me. I was a little surprised when he kissed me, but I was not unhappy because I like him quite a bit. Now, I have started to tell people Earl is my boyfriend. However, when I told one of my Chinese girlfriends about all of this, she said that Westerners are very casual about relationships between men and women. She said I should be careful about letting him kiss me because he probably wasn't very serious about his interest in me. What do you think?
I am a graduate student in China, and over the last few weeks I have become friends with Earl, a Western student who is studying Chinese at my university. We have a number of friends in common, so often see each other at various social gatherings. We enjoy talking to each other, and have gotten to know each other fairly well. Last weekend Earl asked me if I would like to go see a movie with him. I said yes, so we had dinner and saw the movie together. After the movie we talked a long time as we walked home. When it was time to say goodnight, he first took my hand and then he kissed me. I was a little surprised when he kissed me, but I was not unhappy because I like him quite a bit. Now, I have started to tell people Earl is my boyfriend. However, when I told one of my Chinese girlfriends about all of this, she said that Westerners are very casual about relationships between men and women. She said I should be careful about letting him kiss me because he probably wasn't very serious about his interest in me. What do you think?