It is said that love can be found at every corner – also on the Radboud campus. Every year, Radboud students from all over the world find someone that they cannot stop thinking about, and in some cases that love even crosses borders and nationalities. For a Valentine’s Day special, Vox talked with three international couples about how they found love at Radboud.

Romane Fleury from France and Leonardo Battaglia from Italy both moved to Nijmegen in August 2021. Shortly after, the Arts and Culture and Biology students found each other. Like many couples, they met through a mutual friend. ‘Leo lived in the same hallway as my friend and I met him when I visited her. He was easy to be around,’ says Romane. Leonardo smiles: ‘I liked Romane’s energy and her smile. It made me happy.’

Every year, students from all over the world come to study at Radboud University – either for a semester as Erasmus students or for an entire degree. And like Romane and Leonardo, some of them find love along the way. Even though meeting in the first place can be somewhat of a chance event.

Lucky coincidence

For Eleni Manias, who grew up in South Africa and moved to Nijmegen to study Biology, and Jakob Jung, a Comparative European History student from Germany, finding each other was somewhat of a lucky coincidence: ‘We met at a party at the beginning of the study year in 2020. Neither of us wanted to go out that evening and I was actually supposed to go to another party, so we met very much by chance,’ says Jakob.

‘We just had this eye contact during class, and I ended up packing my backpack very slowly that day’

At least for Eleni, it wasn’t love at first sight: ‘Seeing him from a distance, I first thought he was a player, but he ended up being really sweet.’ Jakob laughs: ‘You looked like a cute version of Steve Jobs, with your mom jeans, turtleneck, tied-up hair, and glasses.’ Both are now in the final year of their bachelor’s.

The love story of Janek Peters from Germany and Dagmara Kolakowska from Poland did not start at a party but in a lecture hall. The couple met while they were both taking their course Neurophysiology of Cognition and Behavior in 2017. ‘Dagmara and I were both very interested and engaged in the course, so we ended up noticing each other,’ tells Janek. ‘At the end of the lecture, I realized that I would probably never see her again, so I asked for her number. I was so nervous.’

‘I knew he would come through,’ laughs Dagmara, ‘We just had this eye contact during class, and I ended up packing my backpack very slowly that day.’ Dagmara had just come to Radboud as an Erasmus student and for her, time was running out: she originally planned to stay only for a semester, but meeting Janek ended up changing that. After a few months, Dagmara decided to stay at Radboud for the remainder of her master’s degree. Both still live in the Netherlands now.

Lost in translation

Despite their relationships starting in different ways, there are some things all the couples can relate to. ‘It is a bit of the same dynamic as having international friends,’ says Leonardo. Romane agrees: ‘It gives you access to a different culture, and you learn a lot.’ Cultural misunderstandings included – at least for Jakob and Eleni.

‘When we first started texting, Jakob said something to me and I responded with: it’s starting to snow,’ says Eleni. ‘He was very confused and I had to explain to him that, in South Africa, when something rare or uncommon happens, people use that expression because it never snows there.’

According to Eleni, this language barrier can also be difficult: ‘Sometimes I do wish I could speak German to Jakob. For example, when he is yelling at the TV in German during football or when I am with his family. I think we would have an even closer relationship then.’

Family

While the couples’ own language barriers can usually be bridged with English, talking to each other’s families can be a bit more complicated. ‘Our families don’t speak English that well so we have some problems talking,’ says Dagmara. Lucky are those who speak each other’s language.

Romane and Leonardo can easily switch to French when their families are involved. Romane jokes: ‘Leo is better at French than I am, and I am French.’ And Romane’s Italian skills? Not comparable to Leo’s French, according to the 19-year-old: ‘Leo can definitely speak behind my back in Italian.’

But at least for the international couples, it is true that love crosses all boundaries – even linguistic ones. And, as Janek sees it, language is not the only way to connect: ‘You can cook together, go on walks, and teach each other things. All that doesn’t necessarily require a single word.’