'Love & Translation' on TLC Breaks Down the Borders of Reality Romance

'Love and Translation' on TLC puts a unique twist on reality romance. Star Tripp and host Sangita explain what sets it apart.

Can you speak someone’s love language without speaking their actual language?

That’s the question at the center of TLC’s newest reality romance, Love & Translation. The show brings together three American men and a dozen international women, none of whom speak a foreign language. Although we have technology that allows for instant translation, the men and women in the show are not allowed to use it (with one another, at least). Can couples find a way to make a deep connection without understanding their partner’s words? According to one of the men on the show, the answer might surprise you.

“I thought that words—speaking and listening to words—was it,” Tripp Bromley, a 30-year-old personal trainer who is one of the three men appearing on the show, told Sling in an interview. “That’s communicating, that’s always been communicating, that was how my mind operated. So you take that out of the equation and it sends you into these uncharted waters where you have to learn about yourself, you have to pay attention to little things. Little tiny things, any indication you can as to what message they might be getting across. So this was wild but an amazing experience.”

Although the women (who hail from nine different countries) and host Sangita Patel were given state-of-the-art translators to understand one another, they were not allowed to use them with the men. Instead, Patel says she put the potential couples, “through the ringer with all of these experiments.”

“From the eye-gazing, to the tone of their voice, to [laughs]...the smell challenge was really crazy, to touch...Without the language barrier, for me to watch them try to connect with these women, it’s pretty spectacular, because your strength is shown in a different way.” Sangita said.

Love & Translation’s language-barrier premise isn’t the only thing that sets it apart from other reality romance shows.

“Something different about this show is that the women are empowered,” Sangita says. “They have control. They can leave anytime they want. They can decide if they want to go on a date. And that’s what makes it so unique, aside from all this translation part, is that the women do have a lot of say.”

Without spoiling the premiere, the men quickly discover just how much autonomy the women have, and that they’re not shy about flexing it. And beyond the communication, there’s the risk for unintentional cultural misunderstandings and faux pas.

“There were a lot of cultures I had never experienced before, and was really thrown off by something that I certainly did not mean to [cause offense] in any way. It turns out you just ruined this person’s day,” Tripp said. “But when you have language out of the equation and you’ve got cultures of all different kinds, you do one thing and you don’t even realize it, and that may be very offensive to somebody. So you’ll see a lot of misunderstandings.”

Between the unintended gaffes and the inability to speak clearly, Sangita often found herself in the middle of the men and women. It’s a role she embraced.

“I almost felt like a mother on set,” Sangita says. “One for the girls, who would come to me — I’ve been married for 20 years — and ask, ‘What makes it work?’ And I tell them what it is, it’s about touch, it’s about that smile, it’s about connection. And I was explaining all that to them. But also the frustration on the guys' side, where I got to sit down with them, and it’s the same thing.”

https://www.youtube.com/embed/O47sy61jf74?si=rgSu-FocnsNRi0eY

Despite the culture clash, missed communication, and drama seen in the trailer above, it sounds like Love & Translation will feature some happy endings.

“Through the storm, when the storm finally passes, things become very clear, you start to see clear pictures,” Tripp says, while being careful to avoid specifics. “And lots of positive experiences start to manifest.”

Love & Translation premiers Sunday, January 21st at 10pm ET on TLC. To watch live and on-demand, use the link below to subscribe to Sling Orange, Sling Blue, or Orange + Blue. To watch commercial-free, add discovery+ to your subscription.

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