what does intercultural communication mean to you essay

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8.3 Intercultural Communication

Learning objectives.

• Define intercultural communication.
• List and summarize the six dialectics of intercultural communication.
• Discuss how intercultural communication affects interpersonal relationships.

It is through intercultural communication that we come to create, understand, and transform culture and identity. Intercultural communication is communication between people with differing cultural identities. One reason we should study intercultural communication is to foster greater self-awareness (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). Our thought process regarding culture is often “other focused,” meaning that the culture of the other person or group is what stands out in our perception. However, the old adage “know thyself” is appropriate, as we become more aware of our own culture by better understanding other cultures and perspectives. Intercultural communication can allow us to step outside of our comfortable, usual frame of reference and see our culture through a different lens. Additionally, as we become more self-aware, we may also become more ethical communicators as we challenge our ethnocentrism , or our tendency to view our own culture as superior to other cultures.

As was noted earlier, difference matters, and studying intercultural communication can help us better negotiate our changing world. Changing economies and technologies intersect with culture in meaningful ways (Martin & Nakayama). As was noted earlier, technology has created for some a global village where vast distances are now much shorter due to new technology that make travel and communication more accessible and convenient (McLuhan, 1967). However, as the following “Getting Plugged In” box indicates, there is also a digital divide , which refers to the unequal access to technology and related skills that exists in much of the world. People in most fields will be more successful if they are prepared to work in a globalized world. Obviously, the global market sets up the need to have intercultural competence for employees who travel between locations of a multinational corporation. Perhaps less obvious may be the need for teachers to work with students who do not speak English as their first language and for police officers, lawyers, managers, and medical personnel to be able to work with people who have various cultural identities.

“Getting Plugged In”

The Digital Divide

Many people who are now college age struggle to imagine a time without cell phones and the Internet. As “digital natives” it is probably also surprising to realize the number of people who do not have access to certain technologies. The digital divide was a term that initially referred to gaps in access to computers. The term expanded to include access to the Internet since it exploded onto the technology scene and is now connected to virtually all computing (van Deursen & van Dijk, 2010). Approximately two billion people around the world now access the Internet regularly, and those who don’t face several disadvantages (Smith, 2011). Discussions of the digital divide are now turning more specifically to high-speed Internet access, and the discussion is moving beyond the physical access divide to include the skills divide, the economic opportunity divide, and the democratic divide. This divide doesn’t just exist in developing countries; it has become an increasing concern in the United States. This is relevant to cultural identities because there are already inequalities in terms of access to technology based on age, race, and class (Sylvester & McGlynn, 2010). Scholars argue that these continued gaps will only serve to exacerbate existing cultural and social inequalities. From an international perspective, the United States is falling behind other countries in terms of access to high-speed Internet. South Korea, Japan, Sweden, and Germany now all have faster average connection speeds than the United States (Smith, 2011). And Finland in 2010 became the first country in the world to declare that all its citizens have a legal right to broadband Internet access (ben-Aaron, 2010). People in rural areas in the United States are especially disconnected from broadband service, with about 11 million rural Americans unable to get the service at home. As so much of our daily lives go online, it puts those who aren’t connected at a disadvantage. From paying bills online, to interacting with government services, to applying for jobs, to taking online college classes, to researching and participating in political and social causes, the Internet connects to education, money, and politics.

• What do you think of Finland’s inclusion of broadband access as a legal right? Is this something that should be done in other countries? Why or why not?
• How does the digital divide affect the notion of the global village?
• How might limited access to technology negatively affect various nondominant groups?

Intercultural Communication: A Dialectical Approach

Intercultural communication is complicated, messy, and at times contradictory. Therefore it is not always easy to conceptualize or study. Taking a dialectical approach allows us to capture the dynamism of intercultural communication. A dialectic is a relationship between two opposing concepts that constantly push and pull one another (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). To put it another way, thinking dialectically helps us realize that our experiences often occur in between two different phenomena. This perspective is especially useful for interpersonal and intercultural communication, because when we think dialectically, we think relationally. This means we look at the relationship between aspects of intercultural communication rather than viewing them in isolation. Intercultural communication occurs as a dynamic in-betweenness that, while connected to the individuals in an encounter, goes beyond the individuals, creating something unique. Holding a dialectical perspective may be challenging for some Westerners, as it asks us to hold two contradictory ideas simultaneously, which goes against much of what we are taught in our formal education. Thinking dialectically helps us see the complexity in culture and identity because it doesn’t allow for dichotomies. Dichotomies are dualistic ways of thinking that highlight opposites, reducing the ability to see gradations that exist in between concepts. Dichotomies such as good/evil, wrong/right, objective/subjective, male/female, in-group/out-group, black/white, and so on form the basis of much of our thoughts on ethics, culture, and general philosophy, but this isn’t the only way of thinking (Marin & Nakayama, 1999). Many Eastern cultures acknowledge that the world isn’t dualistic. Rather, they accept as part of their reality that things that seem opposite are actually interdependent and complement each other. I argue that a dialectical approach is useful in studying intercultural communication because it gets us out of our comfortable and familiar ways of thinking. Since so much of understanding culture and identity is understanding ourselves, having an unfamiliar lens through which to view culture can offer us insights that our familiar lenses will not. Specifically, we can better understand intercultural communication by examining six dialectics (see Figure 8.1 “Dialectics of Intercultural Communication” ) (Martin & Nakayama, 1999).

Figure 8.1 Dialectics of Intercultural Communication

Source: Adapted from Judith N. Martin and Thomas K. Nakayama, “Thinking Dialectically about Culture and Communication,” Communication Theory 9, no. 1 (1999): 1–25.

The cultural-individual dialectic captures the interplay between patterned behaviors learned from a cultural group and individual behaviors that may be variations on or counter to those of the larger culture. This dialectic is useful because it helps us account for exceptions to cultural norms. For example, earlier we learned that the United States is said to be a low-context culture, which means that we value verbal communication as our primary, meaning-rich form of communication. Conversely, Japan is said to be a high-context culture, which means they often look for nonverbal clues like tone, silence, or what is not said for meaning. However, you can find people in the United States who intentionally put much meaning into how they say things, perhaps because they are not as comfortable speaking directly what’s on their mind. We often do this in situations where we may hurt someone’s feelings or damage a relationship. Does that mean we come from a high-context culture? Does the Japanese man who speaks more than is socially acceptable come from a low-context culture? The answer to both questions is no. Neither the behaviors of a small percentage of individuals nor occasional situational choices constitute a cultural pattern.

The personal-contextual dialectic highlights the connection between our personal patterns of and preferences for communicating and how various contexts influence the personal. In some cases, our communication patterns and preferences will stay the same across many contexts. In other cases, a context shift may lead us to alter our communication and adapt. For example, an American businesswoman may prefer to communicate with her employees in an informal and laid-back manner. When she is promoted to manage a department in her company’s office in Malaysia, she may again prefer to communicate with her new Malaysian employees the same way she did with those in the United States. In the United States, we know that there are some accepted norms that communication in work contexts is more formal than in personal contexts. However, we also know that individual managers often adapt these expectations to suit their own personal tastes. This type of managerial discretion would likely not go over as well in Malaysia where there is a greater emphasis put on power distance (Hofstede, 1991). So while the American manager may not know to adapt to the new context unless she has a high degree of intercultural communication competence, Malaysian managers would realize that this is an instance where the context likely influences communication more than personal preferences.

The differences-similarities dialectic allows us to examine how we are simultaneously similar to and different from others. As was noted earlier, it’s easy to fall into a view of intercultural communication as “other oriented” and set up dichotomies between “us” and “them.” When we overfocus on differences, we can end up polarizing groups that actually have things in common. When we overfocus on similarities, we essentialize , or reduce/overlook important variations within a group. This tendency is evident in most of the popular, and some of the academic, conversations regarding “gender differences.” The book Men Are from Mars and Women Are from Venus makes it seem like men and women aren’t even species that hail from the same planet. The media is quick to include a blurb from a research study indicating again how men and women are “wired” to communicate differently. However, the overwhelming majority of current research on gender and communication finds that while there are differences between how men and women communicate, there are far more similarities (Allen, 2011). Even the language we use to describe the genders sets up dichotomies. That’s why I suggest that my students use the term other gender instead of the commonly used opposite sex . I have a mom, a sister, and plenty of female friends, and I don’t feel like any of them are the opposite of me. Perhaps a better title for a book would be Women and Men Are Both from Earth .

The static-dynamic dialectic suggests that culture and communication change over time yet often appear to be and are experienced as stable. Although it is true that our cultural beliefs and practices are rooted in the past, we have already discussed how cultural categories that most of us assume to be stable, like race and gender, have changed dramatically in just the past fifty years. Some cultural values remain relatively consistent over time, which allows us to make some generalizations about a culture. For example, cultures have different orientations to time. The Chinese have a longer-term orientation to time than do Europeans (Lustig & Koester, 2006). This is evidenced in something that dates back as far as astrology. The Chinese zodiac is done annually (The Year of the Monkey, etc.), while European astrology was organized by month (Taurus, etc.). While this cultural orientation to time has been around for generations, as China becomes more Westernized in terms of technology, business, and commerce, it could also adopt some views on time that are more short term.

The history/past-present/future dialectic reminds us to understand that while current cultural conditions are important and that our actions now will inevitably affect our future, those conditions are not without a history. We always view history through the lens of the present. Perhaps no example is more entrenched in our past and avoided in our present as the history of slavery in the United States. Where I grew up in the Southern United States, race was something that came up frequently. The high school I attended was 30 percent minorities (mostly African American) and also had a noticeable number of white teens (mostly male) who proudly displayed Confederate flags on their clothing or vehicles.

There has been controversy over whether the Confederate flag is a symbol of hatred or a historical symbol that acknowledges the time of the Civil War.

Jim Surkamp – Confederate Rebel Flag – CC BY-NC 2.0.

I remember an instance in a history class where we were discussing slavery and the subject of repatriation, or compensation for descendants of slaves, came up. A white male student in the class proclaimed, “I’ve never owned slaves. Why should I have to care about this now?” While his statement about not owning slaves is valid, it doesn’t acknowledge that effects of slavery still linger today and that the repercussions of such a long and unjust period of our history don’t disappear over the course of a few generations.

The privileges-disadvantages dialectic captures the complex interrelation of unearned, systemic advantages and disadvantages that operate among our various identities. As was discussed earlier, our society consists of dominant and nondominant groups. Our cultures and identities have certain privileges and/or disadvantages. To understand this dialectic, we must view culture and identity through a lens of intersectionality , which asks us to acknowledge that we each have multiple cultures and identities that intersect with each other. Because our identities are complex, no one is completely privileged and no one is completely disadvantaged. For example, while we may think of a white, heterosexual male as being very privileged, he may also have a disability that leaves him without the able-bodied privilege that a Latina woman has. This is often a difficult dialectic for my students to understand, because they are quick to point out exceptions that they think challenge this notion. For example, many people like to point out Oprah Winfrey as a powerful African American woman. While she is definitely now quite privileged despite her disadvantaged identities, her trajectory isn’t the norm. When we view privilege and disadvantage at the cultural level, we cannot let individual exceptions distract from the systemic and institutionalized ways in which some people in our society are disadvantaged while others are privileged.

As these dialectics reiterate, culture and communication are complex systems that intersect with and diverge from many contexts. A better understanding of all these dialectics helps us be more critical thinkers and competent communicators in a changing world.

“Getting Critical”

Immigration, Laws, and Religion

France, like the United States, has a constitutional separation between church and state. As many countries in Europe, including France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, have experienced influxes of immigrants, many of them Muslim, there have been growing tensions among immigration, laws, and religion. In 2011, France passed a law banning the wearing of a niqab (pronounced knee-cobb ), which is an Islamic facial covering worn by some women that only exposes the eyes. This law was aimed at “assimilating its Muslim population” of more than five million people and “defending French values and women’s rights” (De La Baume & Goodman, 2011). Women found wearing the veil can now be cited and fined $150 euros. Although the law went into effect in April of 2011, the first fines were issued in late September of 2011. Hind Ahmas, a woman who was fined, says she welcomes the punishment because she wants to challenge the law in the European Court of Human Rights. She also stated that she respects French laws but cannot abide by this one. Her choice to wear the veil has been met with more than a fine. She recounts how she has been denied access to banks and other public buildings and was verbally harassed by a woman on the street and then punched in the face by the woman’s husband. Another Muslim woman named Kenza Drider, who can be seen in Video Clip 8.2, announced that she will run for the presidency of France in order to challenge the law. The bill that contained the law was broadly supported by politicians and the public in France, and similar laws are already in place in Belgium and are being proposed in Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, and Switzerland (Fraser, 2011).

• Some people who support the law argue that part of integrating into Western society is showing your face. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
• Part of the argument for the law is to aid in the assimilation of Muslim immigrants into French society. What are some positives and negatives of this type of assimilation?
• Identify which of the previously discussed dialectics can be seen in this case. How do these dialectics capture the tensions involved?

Video Clip 8.2

Veiled Woman Eyes French Presidency

(click to see video)

Intercultural Communication and Relationships

Intercultural relationships are formed between people with different cultural identities and include friends, romantic partners, family, and coworkers. Intercultural relationships have benefits and drawbacks. Some of the benefits include increasing cultural knowledge, challenging previously held stereotypes, and learning new skills (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). For example, I learned about the Vietnamese New Year celebration Tet from a friend I made in graduate school. This same friend also taught me how to make some delicious Vietnamese foods that I continue to cook today. I likely would not have gained this cultural knowledge or skill without the benefits of my intercultural friendship. Intercultural relationships also present challenges, however.

The dialectics discussed earlier affect our intercultural relationships. The similarities-differences dialectic in particular may present challenges to relationship formation (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). While differences between people’s cultural identities may be obvious, it takes some effort to uncover commonalities that can form the basis of a relationship. Perceived differences in general also create anxiety and uncertainty that is not as present in intracultural relationships. Once some similarities are found, the tension within the dialectic begins to balance out and uncertainty and anxiety lessen. Negative stereotypes may also hinder progress toward relational development, especially if the individuals are not open to adjusting their preexisting beliefs. Intercultural relationships may also take more work to nurture and maintain. The benefit of increased cultural awareness is often achieved, because the relational partners explain their cultures to each other. This type of explaining requires time, effort, and patience and may be an extra burden that some are not willing to carry. Last, engaging in intercultural relationships can lead to questioning or even backlash from one’s own group. I experienced this type of backlash from my white classmates in middle school who teased me for hanging out with the African American kids on my bus. While these challenges range from mild inconveniences to more serious repercussions, they are important to be aware of. As noted earlier, intercultural relationships can take many forms. The focus of this section is on friendships and romantic relationships, but much of the following discussion can be extended to other relationship types.

Intercultural Friendships

Even within the United States, views of friendship vary based on cultural identities. Research on friendship has shown that Latinos/as value relational support and positive feedback, Asian Americans emphasize exchanges of ideas like offering feedback or asking for guidance, African Americans value respect and mutual acceptance, and European Americans value recognition of each other as individuals (Coller, 1996). Despite the differences in emphasis, research also shows that the overall definition of a close friend is similar across cultures. A close friend is thought of as someone who is helpful and nonjudgmental, who you enjoy spending time with but can also be independent, and who shares similar interests and personality traits (Lee, 2006).

Intercultural friendship formation may face challenges that other friendships do not. Prior intercultural experience and overcoming language barriers increase the likelihood of intercultural friendship formation (Sias et al., 2008). In some cases, previous intercultural experience, like studying abroad in college or living in a diverse place, may motivate someone to pursue intercultural friendships once they are no longer in that context. When friendships cross nationality, it may be necessary to invest more time in common understanding, due to language barriers. With sufficient motivation and language skills, communication exchanges through self-disclosure can then further relational formation. Research has shown that individuals from different countries in intercultural friendships differ in terms of the topics and depth of self-disclosure, but that as the friendship progresses, self-disclosure increases in depth and breadth (Chen & Nakazawa, 2009). Further, as people overcome initial challenges to initiating an intercultural friendship and move toward mutual self-disclosure, the relationship becomes more intimate, which helps friends work through and move beyond their cultural differences to focus on maintaining their relationship. In this sense, intercultural friendships can be just as strong and enduring as other friendships (Lee, 2006).

The potential for broadening one’s perspective and learning more about cultural identities is not always balanced, however. In some instances, members of a dominant culture may be more interested in sharing their culture with their intercultural friend than they are in learning about their friend’s culture, which illustrates how context and power influence friendships (Lee, 2006). A research study found a similar power dynamic, as European Americans in intercultural friendships stated they were open to exploring everyone’s culture but also communicated that culture wasn’t a big part of their intercultural friendships, as they just saw their friends as people. As the researcher states, “These types of responses may demonstrate that it is easiest for the group with the most socioeconomic and socio-cultural power to ignore the rules, assume they have the power as individuals to change the rules, or assume that no rules exist, since others are adapting to them rather than vice versa” (Collier, 1996). Again, intercultural friendships illustrate the complexity of culture and the importance of remaining mindful of your communication and the contexts in which it occurs.

Culture and Romantic Relationships

Romantic relationships are influenced by society and culture, and still today some people face discrimination based on who they love. Specifically, sexual orientation and race affect societal views of romantic relationships. Although the United States, as a whole, is becoming more accepting of gay and lesbian relationships, there is still a climate of prejudice and discrimination that individuals in same-gender romantic relationships must face. Despite some physical and virtual meeting places for gay and lesbian people, there are challenges for meeting and starting romantic relationships that are not experienced for most heterosexual people (Peplau & Spalding, 2000).

As we’ve already discussed, romantic relationships are likely to begin due to merely being exposed to another person at work, through a friend, and so on. But some gay and lesbian people may feel pressured into or just feel more comfortable not disclosing or displaying their sexual orientation at work or perhaps even to some family and friends, which closes off important social networks through which most romantic relationships begin. This pressure to refrain from disclosing one’s gay or lesbian sexual orientation in the workplace is not unfounded, as it is still legal in twenty-nine states (as of November 2012) to fire someone for being gay or lesbian (Human Rights Campaign, 2012). There are also some challenges faced by gay and lesbian partners regarding relationship termination. Gay and lesbian couples do not have the same legal and societal resources to manage their relationships as heterosexual couples; for example, gay and lesbian relationships are not legally recognized in most states, it is more difficult for a gay or lesbian couple to jointly own property or share custody of children than heterosexual couples, and there is little public funding for relationship counseling or couples therapy for gay and lesbian couples.

While this lack of barriers may make it easier for gay and lesbian partners to break out of an unhappy or unhealthy relationship, it could also lead couples to termination who may have been helped by the sociolegal support systems available to heterosexuals (Peplau & Spalding, 2000).

Despite these challenges, relationships between gay and lesbian people are similar in other ways to those between heterosexuals. Gay, lesbian, and heterosexual people seek similar qualities in a potential mate, and once relationships are established, all these groups experience similar degrees of relational satisfaction (Peplau & Spalding, 2000). Despite the myth that one person plays the man and one plays the woman in a relationship, gay and lesbian partners do not have set preferences in terms of gender role. In fact, research shows that while women in heterosexual relationships tend to do more of the housework, gay and lesbian couples were more likely to divide tasks so that each person has an equal share of responsibility (Peplau & Spalding, 2000). A gay or lesbian couple doesn’t necessarily constitute an intercultural relationship, but as we have already discussed, sexuality is an important part of an individual’s identity and connects to larger social and cultural systems. Keeping in mind that identity and culture are complex, we can see that gay and lesbian relationships can also be intercultural if the partners are of different racial or ethnic backgrounds.

While interracial relationships have occurred throughout history, there have been more historical taboos in the United States regarding relationships between African Americans and white people than other racial groups. Antimiscegenation laws were common in states and made it illegal for people of different racial/ethnic groups to marry. It wasn’t until 1967 that the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Loving versus Virginia , declaring these laws to be unconstitutional (Pratt, 1995). It wasn’t until 1998 and 2000, however, that South Carolina and Alabama removed such language from their state constitutions (Lovingday.org, 2011). The organization and website lovingday.org commemorates the landmark case and works to end racial prejudice through education.

Even after these changes, there were more Asian-white and Latino/a-white relationships than there were African American–white relationships (Gaines Jr. & Brennan, 2011). Having already discussed the importance of similarity in attraction to mates, it’s important to note that partners in an interracial relationship, although culturally different, tend to be similar in occupation and income. This can likely be explained by the situational influences on our relationship formation we discussed earlier—namely, that work tends to be a starting ground for many of our relationships, and we usually work with people who have similar backgrounds to us.

There has been much research on interracial couples that counters the popular notion that partners may be less satisfied in their relationships due to cultural differences. In fact, relational satisfaction isn’t significantly different for interracial partners, although the challenges they may face in finding acceptance from other people could lead to stressors that are not as strong for intracultural partners (Gaines Jr. & Brennan, 2011). Although partners in interracial relationships certainly face challenges, there are positives. For example, some mention that they’ve experienced personal growth by learning about their partner’s cultural background, which helps them gain alternative perspectives. Specifically, white people in interracial relationships have cited an awareness of and empathy for racism that still exists, which they may not have been aware of before (Gaines Jr. & Liu, 2000).

The Supreme Court ruled in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia case that states could not enforce laws banning interracial marriages.

Bahai.us – CC BY-NC 2.0.

Key Takeaways

• Studying intercultural communication, communication between people with differing cultural identities, can help us gain more self-awareness and be better able to communicate in a world with changing demographics and technologies.
• A dialectical approach to studying intercultural communication is useful because it allows us to think about culture and identity in complex ways, avoiding dichotomies and acknowledging the tensions that must be negotiated.
• Intercultural relationships face some challenges in negotiating the dialectic between similarities and differences but can also produce rewards in terms of fostering self- and other awareness.
• Why is the phrase “Know thyself” relevant to the study of intercultural communication?
• Apply at least one of the six dialectics to a recent intercultural interaction that you had. How does this dialectic help you understand or analyze the situation?
• Do some research on your state’s laws by answering the following questions: Did your state have antimiscegenation laws? If so, when were they repealed? Does your state legally recognize gay and lesbian relationships? If so, how?

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Peplau, L. A. and Leah R. Spalding, “The Close Relationships of Lesbians, Gay Men, and Bisexuals,” in Close Relationships: A Sourcebook , eds. Clyde Hendrick and Susan S. Hendrick (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2000), 113.

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Communication in the Real World Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Essay on Intercultural Communication

Students are often asked to write an essay on Intercultural Communication in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Intercultural Communication

What is intercultural communication.

Intercultural communication is when people from different cultures talk and share ideas. It’s like when friends from different countries chat and learn from each other. It’s important because it helps us understand people who are not like us.

Why It Matters

When we talk to someone from another place, we can sometimes get confused because we do things differently. But by talking and listening, we learn new things and make new friends. It’s good for peace and working together.

Sometimes, talking with someone from a different culture can be hard. We might not speak the same language well, or we might have different ways of showing respect. It’s like learning a new game with different rules.

Learning and Growing

When we keep trying to communicate with people who are different from us, we get better at it. We start to see the world in new ways and understand that there are many ways to live and think.

250 Words Essay on Intercultural Communication

Intercultural communication is when people from different cultures talk to each other. Each culture has its own way of seeing the world, and this can make talking to each other both interesting and sometimes hard. It’s like each culture has its own set of rules for playing a game, and when we talk to someone from a different culture, we’re trying to play the same game, but with a different set of rules.

Why It’s Important

As our world becomes more connected, we meet more people from other places. If we learn how to talk to them well, we can make new friends, do business, and learn new things. It helps us to understand people who are not like us and to live together peacefully.

Sometimes, we might not understand what someone means because their culture uses words differently. Or we might do something that is polite in our culture but rude in theirs. This can lead to misunderstandings. But if we pay attention and try to learn from each other, we can get past these problems.

The best part about talking to people from other cultures is that we can learn so much. We find out about new foods, music, and ways of thinking. It’s like adding more colors to our box of crayons. The more we learn, the better we get at communicating and the more friends we can make all over the world.

Intercultural communication is not just about talking; it’s about understanding and sharing. It makes our world a more exciting and friendly place.

500 Words Essay on Intercultural Communication

Intercultural communication is when people from different cultures talk to each other and share ideas. Imagine you have friends from countries all around the world. When you chat with them, you’re practicing intercultural communication. It’s not just about speaking different languages but also understanding each other’s traditions, behaviors, and ways of thinking.

Why is it Important?

Our world is like a big, colorful quilt with each piece representing a different culture. When these pieces fit well together, the quilt looks beautiful. That’s why learning how to talk and understand people from other cultures is very important. It helps us make friends, work better with others, and live peacefully in our shared world. With good intercultural communication, we can learn a lot from each other and solve problems together.

Understanding Cultural Differences

Different cultures have their own rules for what is polite or not. For example, in some places, making direct eye contact is a good thing, while in others, it might be seen as rude. Also, a thumbs-up can mean something is good in one country but can be an insult in another. To communicate well across cultures, we need to learn about these differences and respect them.

Language Barriers

One big challenge in intercultural communication is the language barrier. When people don’t speak the same language well, it can lead to misunderstandings. That’s why it’s helpful to learn other languages or find other ways to share our thoughts, like with pictures or hand signs. Sometimes, just trying to speak a little bit of someone else’s language can show that you respect their culture, and they might appreciate your effort.

Non-Verbal Communication

A lot of what we say doesn’t come from our mouths but from our bodies. This is called non-verbal communication, like smiling, waving, or nodding. These signs can mean different things in different cultures. For example, a nod might mean “yes” in one place but “no” in another. So, it’s important to learn about these non-verbal cues to avoid confusion.

Listening and Empathy

Good communication is not just about talking; it’s also about listening. When we listen carefully to what others say, we show that we care about their thoughts. Being empathetic means trying to understand how others feel. When we listen and try to feel what others are feeling, we can get along better with people from all over the world.

Intercultural communication is like a bridge that connects people from different cultures. It’s not always easy, but it’s very rewarding. By being curious, respectful, and patient, we can learn to communicate well with anyone, no matter where they come from. This helps us make new friends, work well with others, and live happily in our big, diverse world. So next time you meet someone from a different culture, remember these tips, and you’ll be on your way to being a great intercultural communicator!

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What is Intercultural Communication and Why is it Important?

Intercultural Communication is a mammoth topic.

It has so many facets, angles and sub-topics that doing it any real justice requires lengthy and considered research.

So, rather than try to give some sort of all-encompassing guide to Intercultural Communication , with all its ins and outs, we’re going to keep it simple.

We’re going to focus on 10 answers to 10 commonly asked questions about Intercultural Communication that will offer some great initial insights and answer the question posed, “ What is Intercultural Communication and why is it important?”

You’ll find plenty of links to further reading along the way if you want to take your learning to the next level.

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• What is the Definition of Intercultural Communication?
• What is Intercultural Communication in Simple Terms?
• What are Some Examples of Intercultural Communication?
• What is the Purpose of Intercultural Communication?
• What Makes Intercultural Communication Important?
• What are Intercultural Communication Skills?
• What is the Role of Intercultural Communication in Work Life?
• What is Intercultural Business Communication?
• What Can I Do to Improve My Intercultural Communication Skills?
• What are Some Essential Books About Intercultural Communication?

1. What is the Definition of Intercultural Communication?

“‘Intercultural Communication’ is one of those terms that everybody uses, and in many different and not necessarily compatible ways. ” (Intercultural Communication: A Critical Introduction. Ingrid Piller. 2017)

“Loosely, an umbrella term for interaction between people from different cultural or subcultural backgrounds intended to lead to shared understandings of messages.” (Oxford Reference)

“Intercultural communication is a discipline that studies communication across different cultures and social groups, or how culture affects communication.” (Wikipedia)

“Intercultural communication is the study and practice of communication across cultural contexts.” (Milton J. Bennett, Ph.D. Intercultural Development Research Institute)

There is no formal definition of ‘Intercultural Communication’.

As you can see from the quotes above, there is a fuzzy agreement as to what it does and what it looks like , but there are also differences in definitions, meanings and assumptions.

As training practitioners within the Intercultural field, we define Intercultural Communication as the study, research, awareness, training, skills, and practicalities of communicating across cultures – whether those cultures be foreign cultures, i.e. American culture vs. Indian culture , or some other sort of culture, such as organizational culture, i.e. Military Culture vs. Private Sector Culture .

Cultural differences exist between many types of cultures, including generational. We can see this expressed in lots of ways including differences in the way they dress, walk and, of course, communicate. Photo by Benjamin Ranger

2. What is Intercultural Communication in Simple Terms?

Simply put, Intercultural Communication is about understanding what happens when people communicate with one another when they come from different cultures.

It’s about an awareness of many different factors such as how messages are delivered (e.g. listening and speaking ), differences in areas such body language (e.g. eye contact , touch, gestures, etc.) and non-verbal communication (e.g. silence, proxemics, social cues, etc.).

Intercultural Communication, as well as being its own discipline, overlaps with many others including sociology, psychology, anthropology , biology, political science, economics, and public policy.

An easy way to think about Intercultural Communication is that it tries to teach us about ourselves, as individuals and as a species, by using the concept of ‘culture’ to analyze how we create meaning and express that with other cultures.

“Intercultural communication is a symbolic, interpretive, transactional, contextual process, in which people from different cultures create shared meanings.” (Lustig & Koester, Intercultural competence 2007)

At its most basic, as the above quote illustrates, Intercultural Communication is as simple as a conversation or an interaction between two or more people from different cultures.

Intercultural Communication also covers the ways in which we, as cultures, meet and greet people. Learning how other cultures do it, teaches us about our similarities and differences. Photo by Bob Brewer

3. What are Some Examples of Intercultural Communication?

Let’s look at some examples of Intercultural Communication to help consolidate our understanding of the definition and meanings associated with it.

We mentioned above the example of communication differences between national cultures . Well, let’s explore that further.

American and Indian cultures share certain cultural traits when it comes to communication. For example, they both tend to value politeness and friendliness. However, they also have differences. For example:

• Americans tend to communicate explicitly whereas Indians to be implicit.
• Americans are comfortable with dealing with conflict openly whereas in Indian culture it requires subtlety.
• In the USA, “yes” may have very limited interpretations whereas in India, “yes” can mean many things.
• Strong eye contact is a positive behavior in the USA whereas in India it can be disrespectful or aggressive.
• Personal space is expected in the USA whereas in India keeping your distance from someone could be interpreted as rude or cold.

The key learning point here is that different national cultures communicate in slightly different ways.

This is also true within countries themselves – you often find subtle regional differences within a country or culture in terms of communication styles.

For example, in the UK , the people of the North are widely recognized as being much more open and friendly than their guarded countrymen in the South and London. In the USA, you will also see differences between the East and West coasts as well as the South.

The other example we mentioned above was between Military Culture and Private Sector Culture . Again, as with national cultures, we can also see different communication styles between organizations within a country.

Military organizations are highly hierarchical, conservative and formal. This is reflected in the communication style where seniors are spoken to according to protocols, where messages are transactional and the language, tone and vocabulary are highly regimented.

This starkly contradicts the communication style of the Private sector where organizations are more egalitarian, open to change and informal. As a result, the communication style is much more informal, messages are personalized and people are allowed to express themselves.

Such differences, created by different cultures, can even be found within an organization itself. For example, salespeople generally tend to have a very different communication style to their colleagues working in accounts or at leadership levels. The reason behind the difference is cultural and also due to values .

Organizations, like countries, develop their own cultures due to many factors such as the environment, threat, philosophy, leadership and history. Culture is a complex patchwork of influences. Photo by Bao Menglong

4. What is the Purpose of Intercultural Communication?

Well, there isn’t one single purpose. Intercultural Communication is something that is researched, read about and taught for many reasons.

For starters, understanding how culture impacts communication helps us understand more about the areas of culture and communication. On top of that, it helps us understand more about ourselves as people and as a species.

On a personal level , Intercultural Communication can help us understand our own preferences, strengths and weaknesses when it comes to communicating and how these can help or hinder us when communicating across cultures.

On a wider level, Intercultural Communication can help us understand all manner of things about ourselves as human beings from how we create meaning to the mechanics of the brain (neuroscience) to the use of language(s) for social cohesion.

As practitioners of Intercultural Communication Training , ‘the purpose’ for us is to help professionals understand how culture impacts their effectiveness when working abroad or in a multicultural workplace.

For example, when we train an executive moving to the UAE , we will help them appreciate their own way of communicating, what they like and don’t like as well as possible biases they may hold. On top of this, they would also learn about the communication style in the UAE and potential areas of culture clash.

So, in this context, the purpose of Intercultural Communication is to try and prevent miscommunication and a mismatch of communication styles . Through raising awareness of this through training, it helps promote more successful communication.

Another example would be of a multicultural team we provide training for. In such a training course we would help the different team members understand the various communication styles within the team. Through creating an awareness of the difference, and the reasoning behind it, we help colleagues overcome issues and put into place different ways of doing things.

So, in this context, Intercultural Communication is about understanding how to effectively navigate various communication styles found in the various cultures you work with.

With more and more of us working remotely with people around the world, learning about Intercultural Communication has become necessary for both personal and organizational success. Photo by Katsiaryna Endruszkiewicz

 5. What Makes Intercultural Communication Important?

A few reasons why Intercultural Communication is important have already been covered; namely, it helps people understand each other and avoid confusion.

Let’s give this a bit more context by looking at why Intercultural Communication is so important for many people in the workplace.

a. Intercultural Communication and Teamwork

Many of today’s companies and organizations are multicultural. Employees come from around the world. This is not only the case with global and international brands but also domestic companies and organizations (including the Third Sector) which have culturally diverse employees. Learning to communicate and work with people from different cultures is essential if these organizations want to be successful. So, in this regard, Intercultural Communication is important because it helps teamwork .

b. Intercultural Communication and the Military

Believe it or not, many militaries spend a lot of money on teaching their troops Intercultural Communication. Why? Because when they spend time in foreign countries, they must learn to adapt their communication style in order to ingratiate themselves with the locals, or at least, in order to gain intelligence . In the USA, for example, the Army , Navy and Marine Corps (plus others) all offer training in Intercultural Communication or similar. I n this context, Intercultural Communication is important as it could be the difference between life or death.

c. Intercultural Communication and Healthcare

Another field in which Intercultural Communication can mean life or death is in healthcare. Doctors, nurses and medical professionals are now given training in Cultural Competence in order to improve healthcare for all patients . An ignorance of someone’s culture and how they communicate can lead to poor care, misdiagnosis and potential damage to health. For example, if a doctor doesn’t understand that in some cultures the elderly won’t divulge intimate details in front of family members, that Doctor is not going to get the information they need when a son or daughter brings in an elderly parent. They need to understand this and ask the child to leave so a private conversation can be had. So, in this example, Intercultural Communication is important as it ensures good care.

d. Intercultural Communication and Teaching

For teaching professionals working in multicultural schools, learning about Intercultural Communication is essential as it otherwise can lead to discrimination, bias and alienation of children from different backgrounds. Some cultures teach their kids to be quiet and respect authority, others to be expressive and challenge ideas. Some cultures wait to be asked to speak, others speak when they have something to say. The point is, as a teacher if you don’t understand the different ways your students communicate , you can make some bad judgement calls. In the context of school and education, Intercultural Communication is important because it prevents bad teaching.

e. Intercultural Communication and Marketing/Advertising

A final example of the importance of Intercultural Communication is the marketing and advertising industry. A failure to understand differences in communication around the world can lead to all sorts of marketing fails and PR disasters. A lack of awareness over cultural issues can even lead to claims of cultural appropriation and similar. Today the industry is much more culture-savvy, understanding that to run a successful ad or marketing campaign, it has to be in tune with the target audience and their values. So, in this regard, Intercultural Communication is important because it helps brands reach their audiences.

So, as you can see, Intercultural Communication is important for lots of reasons; probably too many to count.

Pretty much every facet of modern-day life needs some awareness of Intercultural Communication , whether that’s for tourists travelling abroad on vacation, businesspeople negotiating a merger or a lecturer with students from around the world.

Self-reflection is critical for those who want to improve their Intercultural Communication skills. Photo by Laurenz Kleinheider

6. What are Intercultural Communication Skills?

Intercultural Communication requires multiple skills, some of which can be learned, others that all of us possess and just need working on.

Let’s examine a few of the most important Intercultural Communication Skills that focus more on personal competencies rather than communication skills such as listening, speaking, body language, etc.

a. Self-Awareness

The key to understanding how other cultures communicate is to understand how you, yourself communicate and how your culture has shaped you. Once you are more aware of your own preferences, habits and possible biases and stereotypes, then it’s much easier to understand how you may influence or impact a conversation or communication. Intercultural Communication is not only about being aware of ‘the other’ but also yourself .

Appreciating that you have been shaped by your culture and other influences, helps create understanding, compassion, mindfulness and empathy . Empathy is critical to Intercultural Communication as it helps you put yourself in someone else’s shoes and understand what they may be going through. Intercultural Communication relies on empathy as it creates a two-way street as opposed to being dominated by one or the other party.

With understanding and empathy, respect should be the natural logical progression. Respect means that you may not agree or like everything about someone else or their culture, but that you acknowledge their right to express themselves, their culture or values. Also, without showing respect it is also hard to receive it. Intercultural Communication can only ever be effective if respect is the foundation.

d. Emotional Intelligence

Working across cultures means learning to tune yourself into much of the unseen, intangible and subtle aspects of communication. It’s about using all your senses and engaging your self-awareness and empathy to understand what’s being communicated, or not. The Japanese have a great term for this, ‘Reading the air’ ( kuuki o yomu in Japanese) which brilliantly captures the mindset needed. Intercultural Communication requires intuition and the ability to move beyond words.

e. Adaptability

In some ways, the essence of Intercultural Communication is to help people adjust their communication styles to promote clarity, harmony and collaboration in exchange for confusion, weak relationships and competition. Therefore, we need to be adaptable – adaptable not only in how we talk and listen and use body language but adaptable in how we think, react and engage with people. Intercultural Communication gives us the insights and tools we need to be flexible and adapt our ways.

f. Patience

“Acquaintance without patience is like a candle with no light,” is a Persian proverb that perfectly captures why this is such an important skill when it comes to communicating across cultures . Things work slightly differently around the world; this means things might take more time than you’re used to, or less! Whichever end of the stick you’re dealing with, patience is necessary for effective Intercultural Communication as it moderates expectations and emotions.

g. Positivity

When engaging with people from different cultures, it’s always important to keep things positive. 99% of the time when miscommunication happens it’s not because anyone purposefully tried to confuse someone else. Most people are just trying to do what’s right. Sometimes, if we lack cultural awareness , we misread what’s being communicated. That’s why we need to always frame any sort of intercultural interaction positively. To be fruitful, Intercultural Communication must come with positive intentions.

There are of course many other skills that are an important part of Intercultural Communication but hopefully, this has given you some solid points to consider.

So, to quickly recap, 7 important Intercultural Communication skills are:

• Self-Awareness
• Emotional Intelligence
• Adaptability

Many workplaces today are culturally diverse, making Intercultural Communication skills essential. Photo by Arlington Research

7. What is the Role of Intercultural Communication in Work Life?

The answer to this question really depends on what ‘work’ you’re thinking about. We like to speak from experience, so let’s look at some examples of Intercultural Training we have provided for clients .

These will give you an idea of some of the common challenges professionals in various contexts have to deal with in the workplace and how learning about Intercultural Communication helps them.

a. Intercultural Communication and Meetings

We did some training for a global fashion brand and its team of international managers. Various members of the team were frustrated with the way online virtual meetings were being run. For example: “The Americans give you zero time to think and move onto the next point.” vs. “The Chinese never give their opinions which is really frustrating.”

This came down to cultural differences around expectations of meetings. The Americans wanted frank, open discussions whereas the Chinese preferred non-confrontational meetings that focused on face. Due to a lack of awareness, the team meetings were not working. By raising awareness through training, the team learned to find a balance that worked for all.

So, the role of Intercultural Communication here was to help people understand their differences and find common ground.

b. Intercultural Communication and Management

Another example that shows how communication styles differ across cultures and why it’s necessary to be adaptable, is some Intercultural Training we did for a German organization. With staff all over the globe, German managers were consistently receiving positive feedback from some countries and terrible feedback from others. In many parts of the world, they were seen as ‘distant’ and ‘impersonal’.

What the managers needed to learn to do was become a bit more relationship-focused in their communication as opposed to focusing on tasks and agendas. In some parts of the world, ‘getting down to business' is not dealt with positively and people expect a bit more ‘warmth’. The managers just needed to be shown what was happening and they learned to adapt their communication style accordingly.

So, the role of Intercultural Communication here was to help managers communicate more effectively with their staff and get more positive feedback.

c. Intercultural Communication and Working Abroad

A final example would be one of the many training courses we provide for professionals relocating to a foreign country for work. Moving to another county means learning a new culture and if you fail to appreciate cultural differences, it can result in some bad decisions. For example, one manager from Europe working in Saudi Arabia nearly got the sack for berating his staff!

Professionals who fail to invest some time and energy in understanding the new host culture can take longer to settle in, make more initial mistakes and generally don’t’ make a great first impression. The statistics show that this is also one of the key reasons why relocations fail, i.e. why people return ‘home’ quicker.

So, the role of Intercultural Communication here is to give people the tools they need to navigate a new culture and to help them settle into a country or job.

By way of summarizing, the role of Intercultural Communication in work life is in helping people understand how culture shapes the different ways we communicate, collaborate and coordinate.

We can use this understanding to help us recognize what is being communicated to us and how we communicate with others.

Doing business successfully across the globe requires the ability to communicate and convince effectively. Photo by Cytonn Photography

8. What is Intercultural Business Communication?

‘Intercultural Business Communication’ refers specifically to interpersonal and structural communication within a professional business context.

The examples above from our Intercultural Training courses were all focused on Intercultural Business Communication as opposed to communication taking place within social services, the military, diplomatic services or healthcare.

Different industries and sectors have very different needs. Yes, there may be some overlap between the needs of a surgeon, a taxi driver , a police officer and a politician, however, when it comes to the specifics, you need focus.

Therefore, Intercultural Business Communication is treated separately as the needs of people within business are specific to the way trade, commerce and enterprise are conducted around the world.

Business as a whole understands that they have their own challenges when it comes to the 'culture question' . This is being reflected in the number of University Degrees now entitled “Intercultural Business Communication” which have been developed to fill the need of global businesses looking to hire people with the skills they need.

Courses focus on key business areas to prepare learners for international careers including topics such as:

• Human Resource Management
• Developing Intercultural Competence
• Global Marketing
• Business Communication
• International Business Event Management
• Organizational Change and Management
• Understanding Language in the Global Workplace

‘Intercultural Business Communication’ covers everything from the big (such as how to launch retail products in a foreign market ) to the small (such as how to avoid using humor inappropriately ) and everything in between.

If you're looking for a good book on Intercultural Communication for your next vacation, we've got plenty to recommend! Photo by Dan Dumitriu

9. What are Some Essential Books About Intercultural Business Communication?

If you’re looking for good books on Intercultural Business Communication, you’re spoilt for choice! There are many tens of books published on the subject looking at it from lots of different angles.

If there’s something you’re specifically interested in, then we recommend you do a search to see what books come up. You can also do a search for academic publications, for example with JSTOR .

If you want a decent overview of some of the important books on Intercultural Communication, then we recommend this list by Good Reads which is very comprehensive.

If you want our opinion on some essential books about Intercultural Business Communication , then here’s our top 5 (in no particular order or rank).

• Basic Concepts of Intercultural Communication: Paradigms, Principles, & Practices . Bennett, Milton Boston, Intercultural Press 2013
• The Silent Language . Hall, Edward T. Garden City: Doubleday 1959
• Understanding Intercultural Communication . Ting-Toomey, Stella & Chung, Leeva., Oxford University Press 2011
• Intercultural Business Communication. Robert Gibson, Oxford University Press 2000
• Use Your Difference to Make a Difference: How to Connect and Communicate in a Cross-Cultural World . Tayo Rockson, Wiley 2019

Improving your Intercultural Communication skills means you need to be culturally curious. Photo by Yingchou Han

10. What Can I Do to Improve My Intercultural Communication Skills?

If you want to improve your Intercultural Communication skills, then there are several things you can do to get started.

Obviously travelling abroad , learning a language and mixing with people from different cultures are all excellent ways of improving your Intercultural Communication skills, however, these aren’t very easy for most people. Plus, it takes a lot of time.

So, we’re going to focus on giving you some more simple and tangible things you can do instead.

a. Learn about Culture

Learning about other cultures, their values and their communication preferences will offer a lot of insight into differences around the world. There are plenty of websites that offer cultural overviews which you can find online, including our award-winning culture guides . As well as learning about other cultures , it’s also a good idea to learn about some of the basics of Intercultural Communication. A good place to start is this self-study guide to intercultural communication.

b. Watch TV Shows

Most of us like to watch TV shows, so why not watch TV and learn about different cultures at the same time? Rather than listen to a poorly dubbed foreign movie in English, listen to it in its native language so you can hear how people from that country communicate. Streaming services today such as Netflix have TV series from around the world, so if you want to learn about Indian culture , Turkish culture or Chinese culture, it’s all there!

c. Ask People

If you work with people from different countries or have neighbours from abroad, you have excellent untapped resources. Speaking to people about their cultures and about any ‘culture shock’ they may have experienced living in your country, can give you all sorts of rich information and insights. As long as it’s done with respect, most people around the world love to share their opinions and thoughts.

d. Listen & Observe

When it comes to actual communication, there are all sorts of tips to help you improve your Intercultural Skills. For example, learning to ask open and closed questions where needed or avoiding humor. Here’s a list of 10 simple tips if you want to read more . Perhaps the two most important tips when it comes to communication are to listen more than you normally would and also actively observe what others are doing . 

e. Take a Course

Finally, if you want to start peeling away your own cultural make-up, address your own cultural biases and preferences, plus start to learn more about Intercultural Communication, then why not take a course? There are plenty of courses available online which looks at various aspects, however, to get you started you can watch the free video from our eLearning course on Cultural Awareness. It’s a fantastic introduction to the topic of cultural differences, communicating across cultures and working with cultural diversity.

You can watch it below or if you visit the course page you can also access some free course resources and find out more about the contents .

THANKS FOR READING OUR INTRO TO INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION! WE HOPE YOU FOUND IT USEFUL.

IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OTHER CULTURES, THEN CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT ALL OUR FREE RESOURCES !

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Intercultural Communication — Intercultural Communication: Understanding, Challenges, and Importance

Intercultural Communication: Understanding, Challenges, and Importance

• Categories: Intercultural Communication

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11 min read

Published: Aug 14, 2023

Words: 2184 | Pages: 5 | 11 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, the meaning of culture, communication as a part of intercultural communication, intercultural communication defined, the importance of studying intercultural communication, barriers to intercultural communication.

• Understanding your own identity.
• Enhancing personal and social interactions.Solving misunderstandings, miscommunications & mistrust.
• Enhancing and enriching the quality of civilization.
• Becoming effective citizens of our national communities
• Ethnocentrism
• Stereotyping
• Discrimination

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Language Learning: Why Is Intercultural Communication Important?

March 24, 2023

Thanks to fast transportation, global media, and the world wide web, we are now more connected than ever to other people worldwide. 

Working with the international community for economic survival means countries and cultures can no longer operate in a vacuum. Because of this, intercultural communication is no longer a choice but a must .

In addition, misunderstandings resulting from a lack of familiarity with another culture are often embarrassing. Blunders like these can make it difficult, if not impossible, to reach an agreement with another country or close a business contract with a foreign partner. For travelers, a faux pas can also make interactions more awkward. In this article, we’ll be discussing the importance of intercultural communication.

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Intercultural Communication Definition

The capacity to communicate with people from diverse cultures is referred to as intercultural communication. Interacting effectively across cultural lines requires perseverance and sensitivity to one another’s differences. This encompasses language skills, customs, ways of thinking, social norms, and habits.

There are many ways in which people all around the world are similar, yet it is our differences that truly define us. To put it simply, communication is the exchange of ideas and information between individuals by any means, verbal or otherwise. Sharing knowledge with others requires familiarity with social norms, body language, and etiquette.

Having the ability to communicate effectively across cultural boundaries is critical for the success of any intercultural or multinational endeavor. Additionally, it helps improve relationships by facilitating two-way conversations, which in turn foster mutual understanding between people of diverse backgrounds.

Intercultural Communication Examples

There are several facets to intercultural communication competence, from language skills to knowledge of social practices and cultural norms. These capabilities are constantly used throughout organizations and in all forms of communication. Here are a few examples of intercultural communication in action:

It can be challenging for multinational corporations to find appropriate product names that will not offend customers in their target markets due to linguistic differences. For instance, Coca-Cola initially considered renaming its brand KeKou-KeLa for the Chinese market. However, they didn’t take into account that this cute moniker means “female horse stuffed with wax” or “bite the wax tadpole.” Unsurprisingly, a rebrand was necessary. Coke then looked up 40,000 Chinese characters to get a phonetic equivalent and came up with “ko-kou-ko-le,” which roughly translates to “happiness in the mouth.”

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Business Relationships

Respecting the social norms of another culture requires an understanding that practices may vary. While Americans value making small talk with potential business partners, the British may try humor, while the Germans may jump right to the point.

In contrast, people from Thailand don’t bat an eye when asked what may be seen as intrusive questions in the West, such as whether you’re married or what you do for a living. Similarly, Americans prefer first names, but in Austria, titles are used to prevent coming off as disrespectful.

Advertising

You may have heard the popular myth that the Chevrolet Nova of the 1970s was a resounding flop in Latin America due to its name, since “no va” translates to “no go” in Spanish . The car was a smashing success since the name “nova” also means “new.” Nevertheless, there are innumerable examples of poorly translated advertisements across cultures that led to more severe outcomes.

For example, the Spanish equivalent of the American “Got Milk?” campaign featured the phrase “Tienes leche?” which translates as “Are you lactating?” The campaign completely bombed, ruining the brand’s reputation in that area. This mishap could have been avoided with more thorough focus group testing of intercultural communication.

LEARN SPANISH !

Public Relations and Media Events

Executives from the United States frequently interview international media and publicly appear in other countries. Working knowledge of the language is obviously necessary for such work, but words alone can’t account for how people will interpret things like tone of voice, the pace of speech, gestures, and facial expressions. In Japan, for instance, it’s rude to point out. Instead, you should wave politely in that direction. Similarly, the Indian equivalents of “please” and “thank you” are sometimes seen as overly formal and even disrespectful.

The Importance of Intercultural Communication

When we investigate the cultural influences on communication, we gain a deeper understanding of both areas. Additionally, it aids in expanding our knowledge of who we are as individuals and as a society.

Understanding our communication styles, habits, and tendencies and how they may serve or work against us when interacting with others from other cultural backgrounds is a valuable personal benefit of studying intercultural communication.

When seen in a broader context, intercultural communication can shed light on a wide range of human experiences, from the process of defining the workings of the brain to the power of languages in bringing people together.

As the world gets more interconnected, the ability to communicate successfully across cultural boundaries is becoming more and more vital. Since we are now able to travel to more places, we are exposed to other cultures and ways of living.

The ability to communicate effectively across cultural boundaries is crucial for the successful collaboration and relationship-building of multiethnic and international communities. It is also essential for avoiding and resolving conflicts. If you want to learn about other people and their customs and find common ground around the world, this is how to do it.

Intercultural Communication Competence

There are a variety of skills that are necessary for effective intercultural communication; some of them may be taught, while others are inherent and just require practice. Let’s take a look at some of the most crucial personal competencies for intercultural communication, as opposed to just linguistic ones like speaking, listening, and body language.

• Self-awareness: Recognizing how your personal views, behaviors, and possible prejudices and stereotypes might affect a conversation is a massive step in improving your ability to have meaningful interactions with others.
• Empathy: Intercultural communication relies heavily on empathizing with others and gaining insight into their experiences.
• Respect: Even if you don’t agree with or appreciate every aspect of another person’s or group’s culture, you may still respect them by recognizing their right to do so.
• Emotional intelligence: Learning to pick up on the subtleties of communication is essential when working with people from other cultures. Whether you get what is being communicated or not depends on how well you use your senses, how well you know yourself, and how well you can empathize with others.
• Adaptability: One of the goals of intercultural communication is to teach people how to modify their way of speaking to replace ambiguity, conflict, and antagonism with clarity, harmony, and cooperation. That’s why it’s important to be adaptable in our thinking, reactions, and interactions with others, as well as in our speech, listening, and body language.
• Patience: Effective communication across cultural boundaries doesn’t happen immediately. That’s why you need to have patience. Don’t rush through the process of becoming well-versed in best practices; instead, take your time and make them part of your routine. Due to cultural differences, it may take more or less time than usual to absorb new information.
• Positivity: Maintaining an optimistic attitude when interacting with people of other cultures is crucial. Misunderstandings occur all the time, and in most cases, it’s not because someone was trying to be deliberately unclear. Those of us who aren’t well-versed in other cultures often fail to grasp the intended meaning of a message. This is why it’s essential to look at every intercultural exchange in a constructive light.

Improving Your Intercultural Communication Skills

Here are some steps you can take to begin improving your intercultural communication skills:

Acquire Cultural Knowledge

Discovering the world through the lens of other people’s beliefs, values, and ways of expression is a fascinating and eye-opening experience. Educating yourself on the fundamentals of intercultural communication, such as language and gestures, is just as important as expanding your knowledge of the world’s diverse cultures.

Watch International Shows

To truly immerse oneself in the nuances of a different culture, indulging in international films in their original language proves far more rewarding than enduring subpar English dubs. It’s akin to embarking on a sensory journey, where the cadence of speech, the inflections, and the expressions hold the essence of the culture itself. Delving into Indian, Turkish, or Chinese cinema unveils a tapestry of traditions, values, and societal dynamics that might otherwise remain obscured in translation.

Enhancing this experience can be as simple as grabbing a beverage from the drinks fridge , settling comfortably, and letting the cinematic journey unfold. Modern streaming platforms offer a treasure trove of international TV shows and films, granting viewers a window into distant cultures from the comfort of their homes.

Speak to People

When you have coworkers or neighbors from other countries, you gain access to a wealth of undiscovered possibilities. In-depth conversations with people about their backgrounds and the culture shock they may have felt upon arriving in your country can yield a great deal of valuable knowledge and perspective. If they are treated with respect and dignity, people all around the world are happy to have their voices heard.

Take in What You Hear and See

There are a wide variety of ways to enhance your intercultural communication competence. Among these are learning when to ask open-ended questions, stick to yes/no answers, and decide when to use humor. The two most crucial pieces of advice for improving your communication skills are to listen attentively and to watch what others do.

ENROLL NOW !

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re a tourist taking a trip overseas, a businessperson negotiating a merger, or a professor teaching a classroom full of international students, you need to be aware of the importance of effective intercultural communication.

In today’s interconnected world, the ability to communicate across cultural boundaries is more important than ever. It facilitates communication across linguistic and cultural boundaries, leading to more tolerance, acceptance, and, ultimately, stronger relationships amongst people of diverse backgrounds.

Enrolling in a language program is an excellent first step if you’re interested in learning more about intercultural communication and identifying and overcoming your own cultural biases. You can improve your language skills and your ability to communicate across cultures by enrolling in one of the Middlebury Language Schools’ immersion programs . Teaching both beginners and more advanced students, our immersion and graduate programs cover a wide range of languages.

When you need help learning a new language, Middlebury Language Schools is here to guide you. Contact us today !

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Worldview in Intercultural Communication

Introduction, general overviews.

• Intercultural Worldview and Cultural Elements
• Intercultural Worldview and Interpersonal Relations
• Intercultural Worldview Influencing Intercultural Communication Theory
• Intercultural Worldview and Professional Practices in Health and in Education
• Intercultural Worldview Differences in Cultures and Organizations
• Intercultural Worldview Measurements

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Worldview in Intercultural Communication by Carley Dodd LAST REVIEWED: 26 May 2021 LAST MODIFIED: 26 May 2021 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756841-0256

Worldview in intercultural communication represents an intercultural adaptation of worldview research originally from the humanities, theology, philosophy, and social sciences, particularly anthropology and linguistics. The concept refers to cognitive structures and holistic belief systems often shared by members of a culture perceived to influence one’s life space intersecting with deeply held assumptions on topics such as events, relationships, natural forces, deity, power, social hierarchy, and change that explain not only one’s cognitive map but also communication regarding current experiences and future event predictions. The notion can be said to inform the deepest layers of a culture’s experience. Some scholars trace the modern use of the concept to the 19th century with Humboldt’s application of the terms Weltanschauung and Weltbegriff , referring to beliefs defining how a culture or an individual interprets and interacts with the world. In sum, intercultural worldview is a quasi-metaphysical mental map influencing one’s thinking, doing, communicating, and discernment of others, nature, and self.

Worldview in intercultural communication has early roots in linguistics, such as from Wilhelm von Humboldt’s 19th-century underpinnings, as thoroughly reviewed in Underhill 2012 . Lucy 1997 articulates additional developments in early language and culture research and theory, captured in the well-known Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Anthropologists noting worldview were highly influenced in the early 20th century by Ruth Benedict’s holistic culture and functionality, as Redfield 1953 , Hall 1976 , and Kearney 1984 describe. Philosophical interests persist in understanding orientations and practices, as Note, et al. 2009 states. In texts focused on intercultural communication, intercultural worldview was specifically addressed in Sarbaugh 1979 , with an early emphasis on identifying control over nature, as multiple cognitive orientations, and as religious outlooks such as those in Kraft 1978 reveal. Gudykunst and Kim 1997 emphasizes the need to deepen our understanding of worldview. According to Dodd 2017 , intercultural worldview research identifies numerous elements, or underlying factors, in new developments of assessing worldview in intercultural communication. Overall, intercultural communication researchers appear to consider worldview as a deeply structured, fundamental cultural model functioning to interpret communication and understanding among cultures.

Dodd, C. H. 2017. Worldview in intercultural communication. In The international encyclopedia of intercultural communication . Edited by Y. Y. Kim. John Wiley & Sons.

DOI: 10.1002/9781118783665.ieicc0077

This chapter traces worldview trajectory from Weltanschauung (world perception or world view) in anthropology and linguistics to current meanings for the field of intercultural communication and intercultural worldview measurements. The essay summarizes many of the common elements, such as meaning of life, time orientation, deity, luck, spiritual forces, self-value, nature, and fatalism and presents developments in theory and in assessing intercultural worldview.

Gudykunst, W. B., and Y. Y. Kim. 1997. Communicating with strangers: An approach to intercultural communication . 3d ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

This work presents a holistic view of intercultural communication and its multiple topics, along with early definitions of intercultural worldview.

Hall, E. T. 1976. Beyond culture . New York: Anchor.

This book, and the other numerous works by Hall, embody classic reading in underlying, hidden assumptions about culture, which is composed of many nonverbal elements, especially cultural information such as direct-indirect (low context is direct, high context is indirect) and linear-nonlinear time orientation (monochronic-polychronic).

Kearney, M. 1984. World view . Novato, CA: Chandler & Sharp.

Kearney’s earlier articles and this book reflect worldview studies not only associated with language and culture, but also including worldview as a part of cognitive anthropology, including nonverbal studies and a broad taxonomy of a culture’s implicit assumptions. The text also traces shifts in anthropological paradigms and emphases.

Kraft, E. 1978. Worldview in intercultural communication. In International and intercultural communication . Edited by F. Casmir, 47. Washington, DC: Univ. Press of America.

This work asserts that a culture’s worldview is mostly an unconscious set of patterned perceptions of reality categorizing actuality, what should be, and what is possible and impossible. Kraft identifies features such as control over nature, multiple cognitive orientations, and religious outlooks.

Lucy, J. A. 1997. Linguistic relativity. Annual Review of Anthropology 26:291–312.

DOI: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.26.1.291

This article analyzes the important contributions of Benjamin Whorf and Edward Sapir and the development of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, or linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism, which influenced the theory that language influences how people perceive reality.

Note N., R. Fornet-Betancourt, J. Estermann, and D. Aerts. 2009. Worldview and cultures: Philosophical reflections from an intercultural perspective: An introduction. In An introduction in worldviews and cultures . Edited by N. Note, R. Fornet-Betancourt, J. Estermann, and D. Aerts, 1–9. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-5754-0_1

This work defines the cognitive nature of intercultural worldview with concepts like basic beliefs, truth, cultural categories, and being. The authors apply worldview as an orienting and comprehending function and point out how worldview can be used as a political or other ideology rather than a fundamental understanding of cultures. Key presuppositions behind worldviews and culture are articulated.

Redfield, R. 1953. The Primitive world and its transformations . Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.

This work represents early efforts by a group of University of Chicago scholars interested in understanding traditions and cultural beliefs that appear to influence interactions, particularly differences and misunderstandings between Native American cultures and a larger culture. Redfield was influenced by Franz Boas’s work in language and culture and saw parallels in his work with Ruth Benedict’s theory of culture involving a holistic set of patterns.

Sarbaugh, Larry A. 1979. Intercultural communication . Rochelle Park, NJ: Hayden Press.

This book presents a significant framework offering an early and brief assessment to measure three positions of the human-nature control continuum (humans control nature, humans in harmony with nature, nature not meant to be controlled). More importantly, this work extends implications for explaining cultural differences and how communities react to cultural differences, such as in crafting public policy.

Underhill, J. W. 2012. Humboldt, worldview, and language . Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh Univ. Press.

Underhill reviews early worldview conceptualizations from Wilhelm von Humboldt’s comparative linguistics organizing thought and worldview as cultural mindset, personal world, perspective, world-perceiving, and world-conceiving. Von Humboldt employed the word Weltanschauung (used by Kant and promoted by Hegel), referring to a system of thought or ideology illustrated as political, ideological, or religious worldviews). He further applied the term Weltbegriff to how speech and writing express shared worldview.

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Intercultural Communication

(14 reviews)

Shannon Ahrndt, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Copyright Year: 2020

Publisher: University of Missouri - St. Louis

Language: English

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Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Christi Masters, Clinical Associate Professor, Purdue University on 12/19/23

This covers a fairly wide range of topics in regard to intercultural learning. For an introductory course (especially geared towards freshmen), this will provide a nice overview of topics. Given the title, I was expecting to see more comprehensive... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This covers a fairly wide range of topics in regard to intercultural learning. For an introductory course (especially geared towards freshmen), this will provide a nice overview of topics. Given the title, I was expecting to see more comprehensive information about culture and communication (e.g., how to communicate more effectively). Chapter 1 covered this more comprehensively than the remaining chapters.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Overall the information is accurate and sources are cited. Writing about this topic can be tricky as we often view this from our own experiences in life, but the author appropriately references material discussed.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The overall topic and broad information is quite relevant. While there are a few examples that are recent, many of the examples (including video clips) were often quite old (and not clearly related to how it is relevant to current times).

Clarity rating: 5

The clarity is excellent. I appreciated how each chapter provides clear learning objectives before getting started. The key terms at the start of each chapter (and being able to click on them for more information) was helpful, especially when thinking of the student perspective.

Consistency rating: 4

Consistency with terminology throughout the text was noted. The consistent start of each chapter with learning objectives and key terminology was helpful. All of the chapters ended with "key takeaways", but two chapters did not include "exercises" at the end of the chapter.

Modularity rating: 5

Although chapter 1 was long and contained more information than others, there were still clear sections and subheadings that aided modularity. Although some of the information builds off previous content/chapters, it would still be feasible to assign a chapter or section and still make sense to the reader and allow for learning based on that specific assignment/chapter.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The text was organized and flowed well while reading. As mentioned previously, the organization of each chapter was helpful (starting with learning objectives and key terms, and ending with key takeaways and exercises).

Interface rating: 5

The images and charts were clear. The key terms and videos were easy to click on and find. There were no distracting features noted.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

A few minor errors but nothing that hindered content or readability.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

Given this is the focus of the text, it covers a range of cultural topics. Again, some of the information/examples are older and it would benefit from more recent examples.

There were many things I appreciated about this text. For example, noting the importance of reflection and reflective practice when it comes to intercultural learning. I wish there was more focus and an explicit statement about intercultural communication competence being a life-long journey - you don't just one day become "competent". While I am sure the author knows that, I think an undergraduate student could read the section on ICC and think there is an "endpoint" where you are finally competent.

Reviewed by Kay L. Colley, Professor of Mass Communication, Texas Wesleyan University on 7/31/23

This book is a comprehensive yet concise read allowing students to really understand the basics of intercultural communication. The glossary provides a great resource for students and anyone who wants to understand how to more effectively... read more

This book is a comprehensive yet concise read allowing students to really understand the basics of intercultural communication. The glossary provides a great resource for students and anyone who wants to understand how to more effectively communicate across cultures.

Most intercultural communication texts are written through a lens, so examples veer toward a focus on one area, usually the area of specialization of the author. This text provides a good depth of examples that seem to go beyond your traditional examples in such a text.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The basic theories and concepts of intercultural communication are tackled effectively in this text, and content is fairly up-to-date. As this topic changes so quickly, it is difficult to keep intercultural communications up-to-date, but examples and issues are relevant to today.

This text is well-written and more accessible to students than several other texts I have reviewed. A limit on jargon and clear explanations of complicated topics make the text one that students will use.

Consistency rating: 5

Consistent use of terminology and phrasing is clear throughout the book.

Modularity rating: 4

The first two chapters are a bit long, especially chapter 1. Breaking the chapter into a bite-sized portion would be helpful.

Clear flow and logic are present in this text.

I was impressed by how the text looked. It is clear, attractive and written in a font that makes reading easier.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

There are a few grammatical errors, which is common in most texts today. Nothing is glaring, in terms of grammar, but there are some S-V agreement issues.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The topics that this textbook covers are sometimes hot button. There are some graphics that may be jarring, but that is the nature of intercultural communications. In studying how to communicate effectively across cultures, there are times when issues must be addressed that are uncomfortable.

This textbook is far more accessible to my students than the previous textbook in terms of writing, tone and style. I really believe my students will understand the subject better as they use this text, which is integral to understanding how to communication effectively across cultures.

Reviewed by Marc Pinheiro-Cadd, Associate Professor, Drake University on 12/15/22

While each chapter is of interest and potentially useful for an introductory course to intercultural communication, there is no index and no glossary. This could be addressed using ancillary materials, but it would not suffice as a stand-alone... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

While each chapter is of interest and potentially useful for an introductory course to intercultural communication, there is no index and no glossary. This could be addressed using ancillary materials, but it would not suffice as a stand-alone textbook.

The content is unbiased, taking a "neutral" stance on the various topics. The content is consistent with current research in the field, although there are some missing content that would be useful.

My primary motivation for reviewing the text was to find a better presentation of the chapter on gendered communication, i.e., something that addresses more the interaction between males and females. While the text discusses the LGBTQ+ movement and community, it lacks a thorough discussion of communication within the community and with other communities. While the research in this area has not been largely forthcoming, most instructors will want a text (or replacement chapter) that is more current. A chapter devoted to acculturation might be a useful addition.

The text is very clearly written and 100% appropriate for an introductory course. Studnets who wish for or need material that can be applied directly to their lives without difficult jargon, this would be an appropriate selection.

Assessing this is a little difficult given that there is no index or glossary, but based on my reading, it is consistent. The framework remains consistent in that it is a very user-friendly text.

I believe this is one of the strengths of the text. Individual chapters could be used to supplement or replace chapters of other texts. Alternatively, chapters of this text could be omitted and replaced by others more suitable to the instructor and their students. The divisions internally within each chapter have been well chosen.

The first three chapters of the text are the more "theoretical," although they are easily processed by a reader unfamiliar with the field. The remainder of the chapter address various aspects of human society that face some of the issues addressed in the first three chapters.

There were no interface issues to note. Every chart and image were clearly displayed and easily understood.

No grammatical errors were found.

Race, class, and gender were addressed in individual chapters. A discussion of communication between non-binary and binary/cis individuals would be an appropriate addition. No offensive material was detected.

Having known little about OER prior to the search that led me to this text, I was very pleasantly surprised to discover this text. It will be useful for future iterations of my courses.

Reviewed by Elissa Mitchell, Associate Professor, University of Southern Indiana on 11/18/22

This book covers many areas (e.g., stereotyping, beliefs and values, race and ethnicity, social class, gender and sexuality) so it's diverse enough to be used in a broad course, likely as a supplemental text/reading. Each chapter has a good... read more

This book covers many areas (e.g., stereotyping, beliefs and values, race and ethnicity, social class, gender and sexuality) so it's diverse enough to be used in a broad course, likely as a supplemental text/reading. Each chapter has a good overview of the topic. It doesn't not go in depth on any one topic, so would be best for an introductory course.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

While I am not expert in this field, it appears as though the information in this book is based on the appropriate literature and is supported by in-text citations and linked in the references.

This is an up-to-date discussion of intercultural communication, although I would have liked to have seen more of a discussion on nonverbal communication (an important factor). While language or preferred terms may evolve over time, this could easily be updated to reflect those changes. A list of key terms would be a nice addition to each chapter, perhaps included at the end with the key takeaways.

I found this to be a very well-written text. It is fairly informal, not including a lot of unnecessary jargon, and makes the text accessible (ideal for undergraduates). Personal examples and stories are included which engages the reader.

The text is consistent in terms of formatting, style of writing, and additional content (key takeaways, student exercises) throughout

This is a highly modular text and chapters could easily be used independently without assigning the whole text. Chapters on race or gender, for example, could be used as supplemental readings in courses addressing those topics. The chapters can be a bit long so one might even consider breaking up chapters into subsections.

The text is well-organized and flows well. While some chapters start differently than others, I think that helps break up the monotony of some texts. The book starts with an overview of the topic and then each subsequent chapter talks about a specific aspect of culture or identity.

The text is free of significant interface issues or navigation problems. The images/charts are clear and cited & I appreciate the linked in-text citations.

This is a well-written text with few grammatical issues. Those that are present do not detract from the topic or information being presented.

This is an appropriate book for intercultural communication from an American perspective. Those from other nations would likely have a different view. That being said, the U.S. has many cultures and subcultures and this book does a nice job of discussing potential issues and considerations.

Reviewed by Reslie Cortés, Assistnat Professor, James Madison University on 11/9/22

The information provided and the chapter organization is interesting and good but overall, I think this book is more about identity than culture. It covers very little ground to the extent that I would not be able to keep it as my main book and... read more

The information provided and the chapter organization is interesting and good but overall, I think this book is more about identity than culture. It covers very little ground to the extent that I would not be able to keep it as my main book and would only be able to use it to supplement a different text. It is also quite short at only 100 pages. So while it could be used as a helpful reference it’s not a stand-alone text.

Content Accuracy rating: 3

While the book often brings in widely accepted concepts regarding prejudice, there is insufficient/inaccurate discussion of how these function through colonialism. For example, in discussion of social class the author points to overpopulation in the global south. This is a myth borne out of colonial discourse which erases exploitation of these countries and has been widely disproven. We have also moved beyond considering oppression as an individual experience and much more structurally.

Does not extensively use “current events” to explain concepts so it feels very anachronistic. This could increase its longevity but also detaches it from everyday experiences.

Writing style is very clear, accessible, and personable. The author refers to themselves in the third person which I think student would like. Most students should be able to easily digest the reading.

The terminology is consistent, however there is an imbalance in paradigmatic coverage. There seems to be an implied assumption that all intercultural communication research has this critical approach which I feel is very inaccurate and limits the coverage on social scientific or interpretive perspectives in the field. In other words, presenting critical perspectives as the umbrella instead of one approach. I myself am I critical scholar, however in a survey course we must address the other paradigms as well.

Chapters are 25 pages or less with plenty of subsections

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The chapters are divided by different identities and while this contributes to a good flow, there is more to intercultural communication than identity. I fear this organization has excluded some important themes such as cultural space, identity performance, globalization and modern-day imperialism, the role of media, cultural practices, language, etc. Furthermore, while intersectionality is discussed, this organization hampers readers ability to see how these functions because the identities are all discussed separately.

Well placed headers, images, charts. Links work correctly.

None detected

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

There seems to be a hesitance address modern-day colonization and imperialism in this book. Additionally, I think it could be updated by using “enslavement” rather than “slavery”. It discusses important social inequalities at length but mostly at an individual level, leaving out explorations of more structural oppressions. There are also some red flags throughout that reveal internalized oppressive discourse of the author. For example the chapter on social class (only 10pgs or so) talks about criminal justice and uses a photograph of a black man being arrested with no contextualization or discussion of rates of arrest in different communities or police brutality. Literally choosing to include this without drawing its relevance to culture. What was their goal for discussing this topic? Out of touch and completely unacceptable.

Reviewed by Caleb Lamont, Adjunct Faculty in Communication Studies, Eastern Oregon University on 9/9/22

Various topics and theories are explored in the text and present them in a fun and engaging way. Everything is easy to understand throughout and students are able to see how one topic connects to another one. read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Various topics and theories are explored in the text and present them in a fun and engaging way. Everything is easy to understand throughout and students are able to see how one topic connects to another one.

Everything was accurate and relatable to the students.

Everything is very relevant and up-to-date. Granted, some things might need to be revised down the road in future editions to make things more relatable and current but as of today, everything was fine and relevant.

Everything was very easy to understand and flowed clearly from chapter to chapter.

The author was consistent throughout.

Overall, everything is easy to understand throughout and is a solid text the way it is today. Everything flows and builds off of previous chapters/topics.

The text is very well organized and everything flows from the first chapter to the last chapter.

No issues with this, no broken links were found.

While not a major issue, there were several typos and other grammatical errors in the text. Not a major issue at all though, and it did not take away from the material being presented to students.

The examples used were all current and relatable to students but it was more geared toward North American culture it seemed. Expanding the cultural examples being used is suggested for future revisions.

Overall, this is a solid text and does a great job presenting information to students.

Reviewed by Andrea (Ané) Pearman, Assistant Professor, Tidewater Community College on 7/28/22

Although the text covers a vast amount of content, there are foundational aspects of ICC that are not addressed as well as I would prefer. There appears to be a more sociological or cultural anthropology focus to this text and less of a focus on... read more

Although the text covers a vast amount of content, there are foundational aspects of ICC that are not addressed as well as I would prefer. There appears to be a more sociological or cultural anthropology focus to this text and less of a focus on the field of communication. For example, nonverbal communication was barely addressed yet it plays such a significant role in ICC.

I appreciate the listing of key terms at the beginning of each chapter as well as the direct links between the listing and the content within the chapter. I would recommend a well-structured glossary as an addition to this text or a detailed index to the entire text for reference; this would make content even more accessible for students. I appreciate the inclusion (which is not rather standard process) of learning objectives for each chapter but I do not always see the connection within the chapters.

Content, without copiously scrutinizing each chapters’ content and fact checking each and every single reference, appears to be accurate. The author cites sources at the end of each chapter and within the content of the chapters. Links to source citations are added within each chapter’s content for credibility and to enhance further research. I appreciated the links within the "References" section for each chapter to easily access original source content.

Overall, the language of the writing does not tend to “date” the content as the author has written with “timeless” language. The author includes both historical and current examples which may impact the long-term relevance of the text. The inclusion of incredibly current content (text written in 2020 with sources from 2020) may help this text stand the test of time. The language is current and there is a good inclusion of up-to-date examples of some concepts discussed within some of the content (particularly in the Ch. 7 Socialization and Human Sexuality). These examples could easily be updated to keep the content as current as possible.

Clarity rating: 4

The chapters are clearly written with the author’s writing style being very “readable” and I feel that this puts the readers at ease regarding the content. The author’s language is written at a level easily accessible for both higher and lower-level undergraduate course students. The author uses anecdotes and personal examples to make the content more “relatable” and the author tries to create connections with students, overall, with the language style of the writing. However, the somewhat heavy reliance on personal examples by the author can take away from the overall research value- for me, as a reader.

The chapters’ language, formatting and content follow a consistent pattern. I appreciate the use of key terms, learning objectives, photo boxes, “getting real” and “getting plugged in “sections, key takeaways, examples, video links and one level of sub-heading throughout each chapter. I would even value a further level of sub-heading, if possible, in future editions. The flow of content is logical and consistent, but some chapters are significantly longer or include more content than others which requires the professor to break down into addition reading sections for students.

In the text’s current organization, the chapters seem to flow logically into each other or lead logically to the next chapter’s content. Having said this, the chapters are structured in a manner that they can easily be rearranged for teaching style and timing. The subdivision of content with secondary headers within the chapters makes it easier to “pick and choose” if necessary, content to be addressed.

As previously noted, some chapters contain considerably more content than others and this could be modified with either adding more chapters OR more content to other chapters. The flow of content is logical and well-structured. There is consistency in the content included with the exception of some chapters including more pedagogical aids than others.

Interface rating: 4

Basic but, overall, easy to use. Downloadable pdf with links (but it’s easy to lose your original place of reading when using links). Although I appreciate the links for key words and source information, the “open in another tab” option is not available, but it would make the process easier to return to prior reading place.

I did not review the text as an editor nor run through editing software, but I did notice a few slight grammatical issues present; the errors were nominal and none that would impact the author’s credibility.

The examples were very current as well as relevant and, overall, would relate to, or at least interest, students. I found the book to be sensitive to a variety of aspects of culture but found it to be somewhat “American-centric” meaning it was more relevant to North America than subcultures of other geographic areas (like Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe).

I found the text to be an enjoyable read and I think students would find value in the content included. I appreciated the key term links and exercises for students as well as the personal anecdotes of the author. While the coverage of intercultural communication from a sociological perspective was quite thorough, I would not be able to use this as a “stand alone” source for my Intercultural Communication courses but would need to supplement with additional content regarding communication theories as well as more content from cultures outside of the United States.

Reviewed by Sweta Baniya, Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech on 4/1/22

The book is less comprehensive than I thought. Though it covers a variety of important topics, I wanted some comprehensive historical grounding of IC and its importance. read more

The book is less comprehensive than I thought. Though it covers a variety of important topics, I wanted some comprehensive historical grounding of IC and its importance.

All content seems accurate.

Content is very relevant

The language is really clear.

Information is very consistent. However, I think the history of IC is missing.

I think so! I like the format.

It seems like there are so many items within one page but those are easily identifiable.

No issues that I can think of

None that I can see.

I think the book is really good. However, I think I wanted a comprehensive history of intercultural communication that will help the students to understand the grounding of IC. I do think the book is really good. However, I am not so confident in using only this text as my major text for my class. The chapter on Race and Ethnicity is really important. I will definitely assign some chapters from the book to my future IC class because the book has important topics.

Reviewed by Gloria Wenman, Adjunct Instructor, English Language Acquisition, Kirkwood Community College on 12/15/21

The textbook covers a wide range of the American cultural landscape. It explains the history of certain issues with tact while also conveying the good and bad of historical figures and impactful decisions (historical as in the past few to many... read more

The textbook covers a wide range of the American cultural landscape. It explains the history of certain issues with tact while also conveying the good and bad of historical figures and impactful decisions (historical as in the past few to many years ago). Explanations are placed with the initiation of a concept. This is convenient as it alleviates the need to grab another book to find the meaning. At times, explanations are tied back to previous concepts to help with understanding, e.g., “the socializing institutions we discussed earlier…” The table of contents could be revised to include headings within each chapter. This would help the reader to see at a glance all that a chapter focuses on, rather than just the chapter's main thesis.

While most of the content consists of statements of fact, the author's opinions are obvious in the words used to examine different concepts. It is usually clear when the author's own viewpoint is being expressed. The content is well referenced with a discussion of the sourced information. In-text citations are linked to the reference page. Most of the references are linked to the originating document. This makes it easy to fact-check a discussed concept or approach. A random sampling showed that the author stayed true to the represented ideas of the linked articles.

Very few ‘currently trending’ words or phrases are used thus lessening the need for interpretation. This lends to the relevance of the material as it prevents ‘dating’ of the material. Much of the textbook is tied to the historical beginnings of certain outcomes. While the interpretation of these may change, hopefully, the facts won’t. When combined with common use words, this will keep the textbook from being outdated within the next decade (as is the case with many printed books).

The author's style of writing helps the reader understand the different approaches used. The contained concepts are well defined and considered from several perspectives. It is also written with good sentence structure and paragraph placement making for a clearer understanding of theories, opinions, and explanations. Headers, sub-headers, and highlighting help to simplify content and connections.

The style of writing is consistent throughout the textbook. Words, phrases, and concepts of the same level of proficiency are conveyed in a similar manner throughout. Chapters are laid out in the same pattern making it easy to pinpoint references, suggested learning outcomes, key terms, key takeaways, and student exercises. The flow of the chapters is similar without any jarring (or chaotic) changes. The call-backs to previous chapters or discussions help to connect the entirety of the communication concept between and within different American ideals, beliefs, and systems.

Moving through the book in a linear fashion allows certain aspects to bloom in a particular way. However, the author’s way of developing the textbook does allow for segmentation. Chapters could be subdivided with the extractions combined in different ways. This helps home in on certain facets that may be at the forefront of common thought, the news of the day, or the planned focus of a class. This makes it easier to pick and choose which portions to use in classroom discussions. While each chapter has a set focus, some of the concepts do overlap. This helps with flow and understanding but may make it more difficult to subdivide without seeming fragmentary.

The textbook is organized into overall categories then subdivided into specific areas of focus. This continuity of structure helps the reader move from one aspect, or focus, of the chapter to another. However, some chapters begin with a story of a recent event, others start with consideration of different research, and yet others begin with an expressed opinion. While this might lend an interesting diversity, it impacts the flow between chapters. This keeps the textbook from being as useful of a classroom tool as it could be. Some chapters have questions after the opening foray, but most do not. The questions are useful because they make the reader immediately question their own biases. They also provide a great starting point for discussion-based classes.

Interface rating: 3

Links within the document help with understanding. The links allow you to click on a keyword or reference and be taken to the definition or usage within the textbook. Getting back to your starting point is not as easy due to the necessity of scrolling back. Clicking on a picture byline or reference did not result in the same issue. Hitting the back button returns you to the exact place in the textbook you left. Perhaps the issue is only true of links within the document rather than those linked to outside sources. While this aspect is probably true of many online documents, having a link that goes backward and forwards could alleviate this.

There are some dropped words, such as indirect articles, and some awkward word usage. However, I didn’t read it with the intent of proofreading, and the meaning and intent appear clear.

The dynamics and inter-connectedness of the different aspects of American culture are well explored. The textbook is somewhat limited to those already in or wishing to integrate into, the existing stratified American culture or to better understand their place(s) in it. For those coming to this country with the wish to understand the culture, and not change their own, this is a great overall introduction. However, while there may be commonalities between cultures, the book doesn’t consider outside backgrounds and cultures.

The textbook is focused on the intersectionality within American culture. It is more intracultural than intercultural. I had looked at this textbook for possible use in an English Language Acquisitions’ Culture and Communication class. This is a high-level class, and in the next lowest (in a progression-based system) we discuss a person’s culture of familiarity in comparison with the American culture. When I first looked at this book, it seemed to be a possibility. After more in-depth consideration though, I don’t think it will work for helping students to understand the American culture as it relates to their own. Thanks to the decent modularity, there are many facets that I can use. I just can’t use it as a whole class. I think this textbook is great, and I certainly like it for its inclusivity of American’s varied cultures.

Reviewed by Kristen Livingston, Associate Instructional Professor, Pittsburg State University on 6/3/21

Very dense- all encompassing and dare I even say "loaded" with all of the connecting ideologies to sociological foundations. I worry that it is not effective in communication practices but may be helpful understanding people which is how... read more

Very dense- all encompassing and dare I even say "loaded" with all of the connecting ideologies to sociological foundations. I worry that it is not effective in communication practices but may be helpful understanding people which is how connections in communication may be made. I would reduce the overwhelming focus on descriptions and focus on what intercultural means in terms of communication. Intercultural communication can be an overwhelming subject and this may encourage more anxiety with the topic. The key terms would benefit including definitions at the beginning or the end of the chapters to help reiterate the importance of those in relation to intercultural communication. The exercises are helpful to generate discussion/reiteration of content.

The content, in accordance with best practices, theoretical framing, and academic acknowledgments, is referenced adequately. The citations at the end of each chapter clarify anything within the text that may encourage questioning. Intercultural communication is heavily reliant on experience as much as academics- I know this may not be a popular "opinion. Thus, this text does a good job collecting information to help further a classroom discussion.

Since intercultural is tangible and reliant on those individuals communicating, this book is relatively up to date but will not adjusted often. It is helpful to have the historical timelines, case studies, and the author's references to aid in the exploration of content. It will be up to the instructor to guide students through the text and engage them with approaches to understanding the content. It helps to know where we have come from to know where the discussion will allocate further in the classroom.

The seven chapters are clearly written, organized, and offer context for the terminology used throughout the text. It is easy to read, navigate, and connects the subject matter from chapter to chapter. I would appreciate a bit more connectivity to student learning and an understanding that this can be very overwhelming (which at times I felt was without during my reading).

The text is consistent, has a clear identity in reading, and flows from one subject to the next. Some chapters don't have the abundance of student inclusion (exercises) but that may be due to the subject matter in question. It does a good job in framing ideologies, given how the text pulls from a variety of resources, and condenses into a relatively unified voice.

The chapters can be divided easily throughout a semester or a summer course. Given the lengths of chapters, some information may need to be reduced by the instructor through picking and choosing the most important content (due to how much content there is overall). How each chapter is divided into sections is helpful to for discussions and assignments.

The textbook is organized in an easy "map" formation that will lend to understanding one topic to the next. The subject builds upon itself to help set tone, standards, and understanding before moving on.

Everything worked, links were not broken, and imagery was clear without pixelation.

There were some typos that I caught during my brief experience with the text (however, due to how dense the material is, I am not surprise).

This text is HIGHLY relevant and is inclusive by default of subject matter. However, all examples, case studies, and references help to monitor and recognize all aspects of intercultural exploration.

This is a well-written book that just needs some minor considerations as an adoption in class. I think an instructor can cherry pick the materials from this text OR ultimately will choose to create content themselves from OER resources. Overall, I would recommend but each instructor should recognize how much material is embodied in the text, the scope of the text in seven chapters, and what they would like their students to learn most importantly.

Reviewed by Noel Neptune, Lecturer/Clinical Education Coordinator, University of Southern Maine on 3/31/21

Covers the content expected. I appreciate all the works cited sections at the end of the chapters as well to see their references. I think a section at the beginning of each chapter defining key terms would be beneficial. I also like the... read more

Covers the content expected. I appreciate all the works cited sections at the end of the chapters as well to see their references. I think a section at the beginning of each chapter defining key terms would be beneficial. I also like the explanation of some of the exercises that have been used when looking at cultural awareness. It provides a lot of resources to look into to use for courses.

I believe the content is accurate and free of bias, but there are several points in the book that the author tells their own story. I think these would make better boxed out discussion or authors thoughts rather than in the middle of the text. The author also lists all of their references.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

The content is up to date but I think many of the sections and references will seem poorly written as time goes on (refers to things in recent history, etc...). I do like the historic timelines of important dates and those will be easy to update. But the in-text references will be harder to update.

Fairly clear but I think a chapter in the beginning that clearly defined key words, or having tabs off of the text to do so would be helpful. Some of the definitions of terms you had to read the whole section to decipher the authors definition. Also, lots of first person story telling. I like the stories, but think they should be separated from the researched information.

The author is consistent throughout the entire book.

The text is obviously divided but I think it may even be more beneficial to break into even smaller segments. I like books that make it easy to break up the reading into small segments with clear places you can stop and resume at later dates. This does have several subsections you can do this with in some chapters but others it doesn't work as well. Chapter 1 is a bit too long and reads dry.

Topics are all introduced but I find the flow of the book a bit choppy for some reason. It might be because the book jumps from personal story to research, then to definitions and back and forth.

I did not have any issues with interface with the online text.

No issues that I noticed but I will admit, this is not my strong point.

It is a book about Intercultural Communications. It can't get much more culturally relevant than that. The examples the text used are all relevant to evaluating cultural awareness and competence.

I like the exercises at the end of the chapters. I also enjoy the authors personal notes, just wish they were introduced outside of the chapter reading. I would also add a list of terms and definitions at the beginning of the chapter for quick reference. Overall a good text. My biggest concern is the amount of timely references made in the book and how they will hold up and read with time.

Reviewed by Cory Geraths, Visiting Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, Wabash College on 2/28/21

This book, unfortunately, is not comprehensive. The textbook proposes a focus on intercultural communication and, while this is a recurring theme throughout (particularly in the opening chapter), much of the content focuses more on the... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 2 see less

This book, unfortunately, is not comprehensive. The textbook proposes a focus on intercultural communication and, while this is a recurring theme throughout (particularly in the opening chapter), much of the content focuses more on the "intercultural" side of "intercultural communication." The selections compiled by the editor into this text stem largely from Sociology and, while this is helpful to a degree from the perspective of interdisciplinarity, Communication teachers looking to use this book in an Intercultural Communication course will find the book quite light in terms of explicit focus on communication theories, practices, and situations. The text does not include an index, though it does include highlighted key terms throughout. Such terms are also noted at the outset of each chapter alongside core learning objectives. Each chapter also ends with a bulleted summary of key themes and most chapters (there is an inconsistency here) also include some exercises for students. Unfortunately, the learning objectives and summaries are often quite lengthy; a more refined list of student goals and key takeaways would be helpful.

The book does not contain, to my eye, significant issues in accuracy of content. The primary issue, as noted elsewhere in this review, stems from the need for a richer focus on Communication Studies as a discipline, broadly, and Intercultural Communication as a rich subfield of that discipline, specifically. Of particular concern, in my view, is that multiple chapters (namely, Ch. 5 on class and Ch. 7 on sexuality) lack a rich engagement with scholarship and other evidence. Rather than drawing upon work by academics and others, these chapters rely primarily on Wiki sources. And, while such sources can be useful as sites for general information, they lack a needed rigor and richness in the context of a textbook to be assigned to students.

This textbook is inconsistent in terms of relevance. At times, examples are up-to-date (as in parts of Ch. 7 on sexuality). More often than not, however, the data marshaled and the examples proffered in this book lack a necessary recency. There are, for instance, multiple occasions where data is marshaled from the 1990s or 2000s. Such data is not explicitly connected to the present moment or even a more recent moment. It is, instead, used without sufficient context in a way that is troubling and would, in my view, lead a faculty member assigning this textbook to have to fill in the gaps on her own.

The seven chapters compiled by the editor into this text are, by and large, clearly written. Terms are clearly defined and highlighted, and the book appears as one would expect a textbook to appear. The prose is accessible was easy to follow. At times, however, I would have appreciated more explicit engagement with the student audience. It is not always clear that these chapters conceive of students as the primary audience; for instance, this is more common in Ch. 1 and Ch. 2 and much less so in later chapters.

By and large, the textbook has a clear flow and is consistent in terms of terminology and framework. Because the chapters are taken from a variety of original open-access sources, however, there are occasional repeats in key terms and the style of language/prose is not always as consistent as one would like. Moreover, as noted elsewhere in this review, there are a few chapters that lack exercises for students at the end.

The textbook can certainly be divided into modules over the arc of a semester, quarter, or other class. I wish, though, that the chapters were more even in length. Ch. 1 and Ch. 2 are quite dense, and would likely need to be split up over a few days (depending on the level of the course and one's students). The latter chapters, on the other hand, were quite short and, at times, led to me desiring more information, content, and examples. That said, chapters all contain helpful subheadings and would be easily assigned to students in this regard.

Yes. The textbook, as compiled, moves from overarching theory in the beginning chapters to more specific subject areas. This makes sense at a logical level.

Yes. I found no significant issues with the interface. Links (at least those I clicked, worked) and images, charts, and figures were clear on the pages.

There are a handful of grammatical errors in this text. I noticed a few typos, words missing or out of order, and so forth. By and large, however, this is not a distracting issue.

I found no significant issues here. The textbook works purposefully to cite examples across identity categories and life experiences.

I went into my reading of this text hopeful that I could assign it in a forthcoming upper-division Intercultural Communication course. I am, however, disappointed with the end product due to the reasons that I have noted above. And, for those reasons, I will look elsewhere for an open-access text on intercultural communication.

Reviewed by Kerric Harvey, Associate Professor, The George Washington University on 1/15/21

This is not just a comprehensive assemblage of material about the topic, but it actually stretches the conventional boundaries of "intercultural communications" in the best way possible -- and in a way that is long overdue. Intercultural... read more

This is not just a comprehensive assemblage of material about the topic, but it actually stretches the conventional boundaries of "intercultural communications" in the best way possible -- and in a way that is long overdue. Intercultural communication, as a field, has always been one of those subjects best approached as a "praxis," a vibrant, supple, dynamic combination of theory and practice that must react to changes in the "real world" just as nimbly as it responds to the development of new concepts and hypotheses. As such, any textbook in this discipline must be sensitive to shifting social values and cultural conventions to a degree that isn’t necessarily the case with other dimensions of communications studies, per se. Ahrndt’s text fulfils this requirement at the Olympic level. She not only covers the best and most enduring of the legacy material, but expands what “intercultural” means to include sub-divisions within the American “body cultural,” including LGBTQ+ populations, hearing impaired, differently-abled, gender fluid, religious, and other affinity groups not usually addressed in a text of this sort. She also addresses the “intercultural” communication dynamics among African-American, Native American, and Latinex, and several types of Asian, Arab, and Indian sub-continent populations whose immigrants and American-born descendants interact with Americans of European descent.

Interpreting the word “accuracy” to mean the degree to which the text presents without error the theories, concepts, specialized vocabularies, relevant canonical literatures, and real-world case studies used to create a teaching instrument, this text is remarkably accurate across a wide range of core and cognate fields and sub-fields of intercultural communication. The author also does an excellent job with the photograph captions that pepper the text, providing clear, concise, but comprehensive commentary for these illustrations that accurately capture the political context of the events, issues, and objects they depict without overt editorializing or, at the other extreme, falling back on such vapid, "pro forma" descriptions that the captions rob the photos of their cultural vibrancy. Not being able to fact-check the entire text, I can’t guarantee that single piece of information it contains is correct in all ways, but I didn’t see any conspicuous errors, or even anything that suggested less than scrupulous attention to factual detail.

This is an extra-ordinarily relevant text. It’s really the model for understanding what “culture” means in the 21st century, especially in pluralistic societies and taking into account the meta-societies created by the emerging acceptance of multiple identities on many dimensions. Even the case studies are contemporary to the moment (this review is being written in January 2021), including as they do references to the Marriage Equality Act, the Summer of Ferguson, Take Back the Night, the Parks 51 controversy, and on-going tensions about Confederate flags and statues. Although as time progresses and events continue to unfold, these “teaching examples” might diminish in terms of their immediacy, they will still provide emotionally accessible insights into tensions, topics, and events that will retain salience for a very long time to come. The text can also be easily amended to augment the current material with anecdotes and information that “brings it up to speed” in subsequent editions.

One of the real joys of reviewing this text was how easy it was to read. The author moves along at a lively rate without short-changing important concepts or down-grading important theories into superficial versions of themselves. Instead, she condenses material without diminishing it, and does so using clear, approachable language that is deftly crafted and judiciously punctuated. Ideas are presented in digestible form and linked concepts are explored without falling into cumbersome, complicated grammatical constructions. Every chapter begins with a list of “key words” and any technical language or specialty vocabulary is explained organically within the text as it flows from point to point.

This book is very consistent in terms of tone and authorial approach as well as structure and organization. Each chapter is organized the same way, utilizing the same elements, and the informational content itself is recognizably the same authorial “voice” all throughout the work. Terminology remains consistent throughout the entire text, as well.

This book would be very easy to use as a course text. It’s broken up into subject-specific chapters that make intuitive sense, and each chapter is well-organized in a way that would translate easily to classroom presentation. Chapters build on each other as the book unfolds, but not to the extent that would prohibit instructors from re-arranging the chapters according to a different course organization, or using some and not others. This useful modularity continues within each chapter itself, in that instructors can avail themselves of all that each chapter offers, or can extract chapter sub-sections that can still stand on their own as teaching tools.

This book is very well-organized, in a way that leverages its modularity while simultaneously making it easy to use as a fully intact text, in its entirety. Specifically, each chapter begins with information about the source of the material within it, followed by a list of keywords and the learning objectives for that chapter. This is followed by the central material, augmented along the way with exercises, illustrations, relevant tables and graphs, and magazine-style “sidebars” in which the author raises pertinent questions or provides a more granulated look at the chapter’s main issues through a short “case study-like” story. Each chapter concludes with an executive summary of “key takeaways,” a chapter bibliography, and more structured and elaborate student exercises.

As far as I can tell, there are no serious problems with the technological interfaces or the various links associated with this book. It’s an especially nice feature to be able to click on citations to add immediate texture and enhancement to what’s being covered in the text at hand.

I didn’t find any grammatical issues in the text. There were a few instances of odd spacing and of double-words, although I strongly suspect that’s a casualty of my own computer clunky “reading” of the pdf rather than something that’s actually there in the text itself. I did notice that the word “Dutch” was not capitalized in the caption for the photo of Tiger Woods.

This book is absolutely culturally sensitive – in fact, I’d call it an exemplary model of how to do that well and gracefully. It’s also wonderfully diverse in the author’s attention to breaking up monolithic labels for what are rightfully heterogeneous populations. For example, she writes eloquently and sensitively about the diverse as well as the shared immigration experiences of the variety of Spanish-speaking peoples in the United States today, noting contrasts among Mexican, Puerto Rican, Central American, and other Latino and Latina groups. She repeats this useful approach several times, even when discussing the social biographies and the residual communication environments for different types of European immigrants. In subsequent editions, I’d love to see her complexify her discussion of the Native American experience a little more, focusing perhaps on the meaningful linguistic differences as well as cultural norms among different tribal groups and addressing the special situations faced by reservations in the Far North, as well as those on which casinos are located, a challenging setting for intercultural communication if ever there was one. Another place where what she’s already doing well could be expanded would be a bit more material on the escalating presence of immigrants from the Indian sub-continent, especially the women who are making such remarkable contributions to American science and medicine.

This is a highly readable, deeply sensitive, excitingly contemporary text. It preserves the best of the field’s canon while simultaneously introducing culturally salient, socially relevant, and intellectually invigorating new material that is highly relatable for today’s students and easily adaptable to a wide range of courses. I’m so taken with it that I’m already trying to figure out how I can use it in the courses I already teach, or use it as a springboard into ones I’ve yet to develop.

Reviewed by Jackie Mosley, Associate Professor, University of Arkansas on 1/6/21, updated 2/2/21

I have yet to find a textbook that fits with my Cultural Competence course, and this might just be the one! This text covers various theories of cultural competence, without going into a "boring theories section", which is difficult to find. The... read more

I have yet to find a textbook that fits with my Cultural Competence course, and this might just be the one! This text covers various theories of cultural competence, without going into a "boring theories section", which is difficult to find. The material is presented in an easy way for my undergraduate students to comprehend with tangible examples, rather than larger concepts and ideas that are often boring or more difficult to understand.

Content is timely and accurate.

This book is super relevant right now, and could be utilized in so many different types of social sciences courses. This text was written in 2020, which is imperative, given the current climate in the United States and has timely topics related to cultural events.

Text is very easy to comprehend, especially for undergraduate students in introductory courses related to cultural competence.

Consistent terms and material.

I love that the Learning Objectives are very clear and then what major terms will be focused on in the module - very helpful for readers (students) and faculty who want to organize for their own class. I also enjoy the Takeaways at the end of the module that are bulleted - easier to read quickly vs. a large paragraph of a summary. I think students would enjoy this too.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 3

I feel that the material (especially in the 1st module) jumps around and covers a lot of material, that I'm not quite sure how I would adapt in my own classroom. It will make it difficult to specify which pages to read (or sections), but it is do-able. Just wish introductory terms were focused on first, and then go into more of the contextual issues later. But I also recognize, each curricula is organized by an Instructor's own preferences; and I may try to use the organization of this text for my class, is possible.

I enjoyed being able to click on citations or other images to discover more; very useful for an online textbook. I do wish there was a way to "highlight" specific things you like in the text that students can see, basically the Instructor telling students what is most important to read (I've seen this in other platforms and really enjoyed that).

No grammar issues.

Inclusive book to all types of identities and communities related to cultural competence in the United States in today's modern age.

Overall, this book is perfect for any course on cultural competence or diversity, equity and inclusion. It covers all the major groups/communities in the US; however, it could use more research and discussion on other diversity issues: ageism, body size issues and neuro-diversity.

Table of Contents

• CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Intercultural Communication
• CHAPTER 2: Social Categorization, Stereotyping, and Discrimination
• CHAPTER 3: Beliefs, Values, and Cultural Universals
• CHAPTER 4: Introduction to Race and Ethnicity
• CHAPTER 5: The Impacts of Social Class
• CHAPTER 6: Gender and Gender Inequality
• CHAPTER 7: Socialization and Human Sexuality

Ancillary Material

About the book.

Intercultural Communication examines culture as a variable in interpersonal and collective communication. It explores the opportunities and problems arising from similarities and differences in communication patterns, processes, and codes among various cultural groups. It explores cultural universals, social categorization, stereotyping and discrimination, with a focus on topics including race, ethnicity, social class, religion, gender and sexuality as they relate to communication.

About the Contributors

Shannon Ahrndt , University of Missouri-St. Louis

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Tips for Online Students , Tips for Students

What Is Intercultural Communication: Learning New Styles

Updated: July 15, 2022

Published: April 30, 2020

Intercultural communication is a necessary part of today’s world, whether in business, school, or everyday life. It is essential in being a part of the growing global community and knowing how to communicate cross-culturally is a skill you must have to succeed. But just what is intercultural communication? Let’s dive into what is intercultural communication, and how you can increase your intercultural communication skills to succeed in whatever you set your mind to.

Cultures Meet Communication

Everyone communicates, and everyone has a culture, whether it is highly defined or not. This means that inherently, we all must communicate with people of other cultures. That is what intercultural communication is all about.

Photo by  fauxels  from  Pexels

Defining culture.

Culture isn’t only about the language you speak, the foods you eat, and the way you dress. There are much more nuanced aspects of our everyday life that can be attributed to culture. Our lifestyle, including ways of personal life, family life, and social life are all part of our culture .

Introducing Intercultural Communication

If you are just beginning your journey of intercultural competence, it can be confusing where to start. One of the best ways to introduce yourself is to start with the concept of intercultural communication, discussed below.

What Is Intercultural Communication?

Intercultural communication is much more than just your typical types of communication such as verbal and nonverbal. It is about the broader exchange of ideas, beliefs, values, and views.

Cultural values impact how people speak, write, and act — all essential aspects of communication. Culture also has a lot to do with how people think about and judge other people. Being aware of our own cultural biases, and others’ biases goes a long way in being able to effectively communicate with anyone.

Other Intergroup Relations Terms

Other relevant terms when discussing intercultural communication are multicultural, diversity, and cross-cultural. While these all might seem to be the same, there are small differences that make each unique.

Multicultural means a group or organization that has multiple cultures within it, or is made up of several cultures. Cross-cultural means between multiple groups of different cultures, whereas intercultural means between members of those cultures.

To further clarify, a company might be multicultural, where it fosters many cross-cultural interactions, which means everyone has to be involved in intercultural communication.

Importance Of Intercultural Communication

Intercultural communication is an important part of intercultural competence — or the ability to effectively function across cultures , and with those from other cultures. As our world gets smaller and globalization gets stronger, intercultural competence and great intercultural communication become a necessity to be successful.

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Applying and managing intercultural communication.

Intercultural communication skills must be applied when you are in an intercultural exchange. Use these 7 tips when managing intercultural communication:

1. Common Traps And Problems

Every culture has their own gestures and ways of speaking. If you know in advance that you will be speaking to a person or group of another culture, it’s important to educate yourself on some common faux-pas of that culture.

For example, a handshake may not be the appropriate way of greeting in every culture. Similarly, Spanish speakers find that specific words can have either neutral or negative meanings depending on the country you are in.

2. Learn Phrases In Their Language

Learning a few common phrases in another language is an important part of intercultural communication. It shows that you recognize the cultural difference, respect their culture, and are willing to learn about it. Start with learning hello and thank you if you are meeting with someone you know speaks another language.

3. Adapt Your Behavior

When you enter in an intercultural communication exchange, there may be an expectation on both sides for the other party to adapt to the others’ cultures. If you stop expecting that, and start adapting your own behavior, you will find more willingness on both sides to understand one another.

4. Check Your Understanding

Listen carefully and check your own understanding regularly throughout the conversation. If you find you aren’t able to articulate back what the other person is saying, don’t be afraid to ask for clarification. It’s better to ask than to walk away with misunderstandings.

5. Apologize

If you realize you have offended someone, apologize promptly — don’t let it fester or become awkward. It’s better to apologize without needing to than leave someone feeling bad after your conversation.

6. Use Television

Watching series of other cultures can really aid you in intercultural understanding if you have no other way to access that culture. It will help you see cultural norms and how another culture lives, all which will help you effectively communicate with that culture.

7. Reflect On Experience

Try to take a few moments to reflect on previous intercultural exchanges — ones of your own or ones you have simply observed. What made them effective, or what made them not work out the way it was intended? Take note and adjust your future communication accordingly.

Communicating With People Of Different Cultures

Communication across cultures can be a challenge, especially if you’re not accustomed to working with people from other cultures.

Photo by  Magda Ehlers  from  Pexels

An understanding of difference.

First, in order to effectively communicate with people of other cultures, there is a fundamental aspect you must be aware of which is understanding differences. Different cultures have different standards, expectations, and norms, and you must realize that those differences shape individuals in some ways but they are not bound by those ways.

Developing Intercultural Sensitivity And Competence

By default, we automatically feel something different when we interact with someone from an unfamiliar culture, or one that is starkly different than our own. If you want to increase your intercultural communication abilities, it is up to you to work on your intercultural sensitivity.

It starts with the idea that as you begin to recognize and understand cultural differences and the more you interact with people of other cultures, the more competent you become and the more complex your ideas of culture become as well. Therefore, the more sensitive you will be each time you communicate interculturally.

Intercultural Communication At University Of The People

University of the People is an American accredited university that prides itself on its globality and accepting applicants from all countries, backgrounds, and cultures. It is a high priority of ours to maintain excellent intercultural communication, and to instill these skills into our students. No matter what degree program you choose, you can count on being able to use it in conversation across a range of cultures.

The Bottom Line

So, what is intercultural communication, and why should you improve your intercultural skills? Our world is only getting smaller, and the ability to competently communicate with other cultures is vital for success in all areas of life. Adapt your behavior, check your understanding, reflect on your experiences and follow our tips to foster excellent intercultural communication.

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Article contents

Intercultural competence.

• Lily A. Arasaratnam Lily A. Arasaratnam Director of Research, Department of Communication, Alphacrucis College
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.68
• Published online: 03 February 2016

The phrase “intercultural competence” typically describes one’s effective and appropriate engagement with cultural differences. Intercultural competence has been studied as residing within a person (i.e., encompassing cognitive, affective, and behavioral capabilities of a person) and as a product of a context (i.e., co-created by the people and contextual factors involved in a particular situation). Definitions of intercultural competence are as varied. There is, however, sufficient consensus amongst these variations to conclude that there is at least some collective understanding of what intercultural competence is. In “Conceptualizing Intercultural Competence,” Spitzberg and Chagnon define intercultural competence as, “the appropriate and effective management of interaction between people who, to some degree or another, represent different or divergent affective, cognitive, and behavioral orientations to the world” (p. 7). In the discipline of communication, intercultural communication competence (ICC) has been a subject of study for more than five decades. Over this time, many have identified a number of variables that contribute to ICC, theoretical models of ICC, and quantitative instruments to measure ICC. While research in the discipline of communication has made a significant contribution to our understanding of ICC, a well-rounded discussion of intercultural competence cannot ignore the contribution of other disciplines to this subject. Our present understanding of intercultural competence comes from a number of disciplines, such as communication, cross-cultural psychology, social psychology, linguistics, anthropology, and education, to name a few.

• intercultural competence
• intercultural communication
• appropriate

A Brief Introduction

With increasing global diversity, intercultural competence is a topic of immediate relevance. While some would question the use of the term “competence” as a Western concept, the ability to understand and interact with people of different cultures in authentic and positive ways is a topic worth discussing. Though several parts of the world do remain culturally homogenous, many major cities across the world have undergone significant transformation in their cultural and demographic landscape due to immigration. Advances in communication technologies have also facilitated intercultural communication without the prerequisite of geographic proximity. Hence educational, business, and other projects involving culturally diverse workgroups have become increasingly common. In such contexts the success of a group in accomplishing its goals might not depend only on the group members’ expertise in a particular topic or ability to work in a virtual environment but also on their intercultural competence (Zakaria, Amelinckx, & Wilemon, 2004 ). Cultural diversity in populations continues to keep intercultural competence (or cultural competence, as it is known in some disciplines) on the agenda of research in applied disciplines such as medicine (Bow, Woodward, Flynn, & Stevens, 2013 ; Charles, Hendrika, Abrams, Shea, Brand, & Nicol, 2014 ) and education (Blight, 2012 ; Tangen, Mercer, Spooner-Lane, & Hepple, 2011 ), for example.

As noted in the historiography section, early research in intercultural competence can be traced back to acculturation/adaptation studies. Labels such as cross-cultural adaptation and cross-cultural adjustment/effectiveness were used to describe what we now call intercultural competence, though adaptation and adjustment continue to remain unique concepts in the study of migrants. It is fair to say that today’s researchers would agree that, while intercultural competence is an important part of adapting to a new culture, it is conceptually distinct.

Although our current understanding of intercultural competence is (and continues to be) shaped by research in many disciplines, communication researchers can lay claim to the nomenclature of the phrase, particularly intercultural communication competence (ICC). Intercultural competence is defined by Spitzberg and Chagnon ( 2009 ) as “the appropriate and effective management of interaction between people who, to some degree or another, represent different or divergent affective, cognitive, and behavioral orientations to the world” (p. 7), which touches on a long history of intercultural competence being associated with effectiveness and appropriateness. This is echoed in several models of intercultural competence as well. The prevalent characterization of effectiveness as the successful achievement of one’s goals in a particular communication exchange is notably individualistic in its orientation. Appropriateness, however, views the communication exchange from the other person’s point of view, as to whether the communicator has communicated in a manner that is (contextually) expected and accepted.

Generally speaking, research findings support the view that intercultural competence is a combination of one’s personal abilities (such as flexibility, empathy, open-mindedness, self-awareness, adaptability, language skills, cultural knowledge, etc.) as well as relevant contextual variables (such as shared goals, incentives, perceptions of equality, perceptions of agency, etc.). In an early discussion of interpersonal competence, Argyris ( 1965 ) proposed that competence increases as “one’s awareness of relevant factors increases,” when one can solve problems with permanence, in a manner that has “minimal deterioration of the problem-solving process” (p. 59). This view of competence places it entirely on the abilities of the individual. Kim’s ( 2009 ) definition of intercultural competence as “an individual’s overall capacity to engage in behaviors and activities that foster cooperative relationships in all types of social and cultural contexts in which culturally or ethnically dissimilar others interface” (p. 62) further highlights the emphasis on the individual. Others, however, suggest that intercultural competence has an element of social judgment, to be assessed by others with whom one is interacting (Koester, Wiseman, & Sanders, 1993 ). A combination of self and other assessment is logical, given that the definition of intercultural competence encompasses effective (from self’s perspective) and appropriate (from other’s perspective) communication.

Before delving further into intercultural competence, some limitations to our current understanding of intercultural competence must be acknowledged. First, our present understanding of intercultural competence is strongly influenced by research emerging from economically developed parts of the world, such as the United States and parts of Europe and Oceania. Interpretivists would suggest that the (cultural) perspectives from which the topic is approached inevitably influence the outcomes of research. Second, there is a strong social scientific bias to the cumulative body of research in intercultural competence so far; as such, the findings are subject to the strengths and weaknesses of this epistemology. Third, because many of the current models of intercultural competence (or intercultural communication competence) focus on the individual, and because individual cultural identities are arguably becoming more blended in multicultural societies, we may be quickly approaching a point where traditional definitions of intercultural communication (and by association, intercultural competence) need to be refined. While this is not an exhaustive list of limitations, it identifies some of the parameters within which current conceptualizations of intercultural competence must be viewed.

The following sections discuss intercultural competence, as we know it, starting with what it is and what it is not . A brief discussion of well-known theories of ICC follows, then some of the variables associated with ICC are identified. One of the topics of repeated query is whether ICC is culture-general or culture-specific. This is addressed in the section following the discussion of variables associated with ICC, followed by a section on assessment of ICC. Finally, before delving into research directions for the future and a historiography of research in ICC over the years, the question of whether ICC can be learned is addressed.

Clarification of Nomenclature

As noted in the summary section, one of the most helpful definitions of intercultural competence is provided by Spitzberg and Chagnon ( 2009 ), who define it as “the appropriate and effective management of interaction between people who, to some degree or another, represent different or divergent affective, cognitive, and behavioral orientations to the world” (p. 7). However, addressing what intercultural competence is not is just as important as explaining what it is, in a discussion such as this. Conceptually, intercultural competence is not equivalent to acculturation, multiculturalism, biculturalism, or global citizenship—although intercultural competence is a significant aspect of them all. Semantically, intercultural efficiency, cultural competence, intercultural sensitivity, intercultural communication competence, cross-cultural competence, and global competence are some of the labels with which students of intercultural competence might be familiar.

The multiplicity in nomenclature of intercultural competence has been one of the factors that have irked researchers who seek conceptual clarity. In a meta-analysis of studies in intercultural communication competence, Bradford, Allen, and Beisser ( 2000 ) attempted to synthesize the multiple labels used in research; they concluded that intercultural effectiveness is conceptually equivalent to intercultural communication competence. Others have proposed that intercultural sensitivity is conceptually distinct from intercultural competence (Chen & Starosta, 2000 ). Others have demonstrated that, while there are multiple labels in use, there is general consensus as to what intercultural competence is (Deardorff, 2006 ).

In communication literature, it is fair to note that intercultural competence and intercultural communication competence are used interchangeably. In literature in other disciplines, such as medicine and health sciences, cultural competence is the label with which intercultural competence is described. Some have also proposed the phrase cultural humility as a deliberate alternative to cultural competence, suggesting that cultural humility involves life-long learning through self-awareness and critical reflection (Tervalon & Murray-Garcia, 1998 ).

The nature of an abstract concept is such that its reality is defined by the labels assigned to it. Unlike some concepts that have been defined and developed over many years within the parameters of a single discipline, intercultural competence is of great interest to researchers in multiple disciplines. As such, researchers from different disciplines have ventured to study it, without necessarily building on findings from other disciplines. This is one factor that has contributed to the multiple labels by which intercultural competence is known. This issue might not be resolved in the near future. However, those seeking conceptual clarity could look for the operationalization of what is being studied, rather than going by the name by which it is called. In other words, if what is being studied is effectiveness and appropriateness in intercultural communication (each of these terms in turn need to be unpacked to check for conceptual equivalency), then one can conclude that it is a study of intercultural competence, regardless of what it is called.

Theories of Intercultural Competence

Many theories of intercultural (communication) competence have been proposed over the years. While it is fair to say that there is no single leading theory of intercultural competence, some of the well-known theories are worth noting.

There are a couple of theories of ICC that are identified as covering laws theories (Wiseman, 2002 ), namely Anxiety Uncertainty Management (AUM) theory and Face Negotiation theory. Finding its origins in Berger and Calabrese ( 1975 ), AUM theory (Gudykunst, 1993 , 2005 ) proposes that the ability to be mindful and the effective management of anxiety caused by the uncertainty in intercultural interactions are key factors in achieving ICC. Gudykunst conceptualizes ICC as intercultural communication that has the least amount of misunderstandings. While AUM theory is not without its critics (for example, Yoshitake, 2002 ), it has been used in a number of empirical studies over the years (examples include Duronto, Nishida, & Nakayama, 2005 ; Ni & Wang, 2011 ), including studies that have extended the theory further (see Neuliep, 2012 ).

Though primarily focused on intercultural conflict rather than intercultural competence, Face Negotiation theory (Ting-Toomey, 1988 ) proposes that all people try to maintain a favorable social self-image and engage in a number of communicative behaviours designed to achieve this goal. Competence is identified as being part of the concept of “face,” and it is achieved through the integration of knowledge, mindfulness, and skills in communication (relevant to managing one’s own face as well as that of others). Face Negotiation theory has been used predominantly in intercultural conflict studies (see Oetzel, Meares, Myers, & Lara, 2003 ). As previously noted, it is not primarily a theory of intercultural competence, but it does address competence in intercultural settings.

From a systems point of view, Spitzberg’s ( 2000 ) model of ICC and Kim’s ( 1995 ) cultural adaptation theory are also well-known. Spitzberg identifies three levels of analysis that must be considered in ICC, namely the individual system, the episodic system, and the relational system. The factors that contribute to competence are delineated in terms of characteristics that belong to an individual (individual system), features that are particular to a specific interaction (episodic system), and variables that contribute to one’s competence across interactions with multiple others (relational system). Kim’s cultural adaptation theory recognizes ICC as an internal capacity within an individual; it proposes that each individual (being an open system) has the goal of adapting to one’s environment and identifies cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions of ICC.

Wiseman’s ( 2002 ) chapter on intercultural communication competence, in the Handbook of International and Intercultural Communication provides further descriptions of theories in ICC. While there have been several models of ICC developed since then, well-formed and widely tested theories of ICC remain few.

Variables Associated with Intercultural Competence

A number of variables have been identified as contributors to intercultural competence. Among these are mindfulness (Gudykunst, 1993 ), self and other awareness (Deardorff, 2006 ), listening skills (Ting-Toomey & Kurogi, 1998 ), positive attitude toward other cultures, and empathy (Arasaratnam & Doerfel, 2005 ), to name a few. Further, flexibility, tolerance for ambiguity, capacity for complexity, and language proficiency are also relevant. There is evidence to suggest that personal spiritual wellbeing plays a positive role in intercultural competence (Sandage & Jankowski, 2013 ). Additionally, there is an interesting link between intercultural competence and a biological variable, namely sensation seeking. Evidence suggests that, in the presence of a positive attitude towards other cultures and motivation to interact with people from other cultures, there is a positive relationship between sensation seeking and intercultural competence (Arasaratnam & Banerjee, 2011 ). Sensation seeking has also been associated with intercultural friendships (Morgan & Arasaratnam, 2003 ; Smith & Downs, 2004 ).

Cognitive complexity has also been identified with intercultural competence (Gudykunst & Kim, 2003 ). Cognitive complexity refers to an individual’s ability to form multiple nuanced perceptual categories (Bieri, 1955 ). A cognitively complex person relies less on stereotypical generalizations and is more perceptive to subtle racism (Reid & Foels, 2010 ). Gudykunst ( 1995 ) proposed that cognitive complexity is directly related to effective management of uncertainty and anxiety in intercultural communication, which in turn leads to ICC (according to AUM theory).

Not all variables are positively associated with intercultural competence. One of the variables that notably hinder intercultural competence is ethnocentrism. Neuliep ( 2002 ) characterizes ethnocentrism as, “an individual psychological disposition where the values, attitudes, and behaviors of one’s ingroup are used as the standard for judging and evaluating another group’s values, attitudes, and behaviors” (p. 201). Arasaratnam and Banerjee ( 2011 ) found that introducing ethnocentrism into a model of ICC weakened all positive relationships between the variables that otherwise contribute to ICC. Neuliep ( 2012 ) further discovered that ethnocentrism and intercultural communication apprehension debilitate intercultural communication. As Neuliep observed, ethnocentrism hinders mindfulness because a mindful communicator is receptive to new information, while the worldview of an ethnocentric person is rigidly centered on his or her own culture.

This is, by no means, an exhaustive list of variables that influence intercultural competence, but it is representative of the many individual-centered variables that influence the extent to which one is effective and appropriate in intercultural communication. Contextual variables, as noted in the next section, also play a role in ICC. It must further be noted that many of the ICC models do not identify language proficiency as a key variable; however, the importance of language proficiency has not been ignored (Fantini, 2009 ). Various models of intercultural competence portray the way in which (and, in some cases, the extent to which) these variables contribute to intercultural competence. For an expansive discussion of models of intercultural competence, see Spitzberg and Chagnoun ( 2009 ).

If one were to broadly summarize what we know thus far about an interculturally competent person, one could say that she or he is mindful, empathetic, motivated to interact with people of other cultures, open to new schemata, adaptable, flexible, able to cope with complexity and ambiguity. Language skills and culture-specific knowledge undoubtedly serve as assets to such an individual. Further, she or he is neither ethnocentric nor defined by cultural prejudices. This description does not, however, take into account the contextual variables that influence intercultural competence; highlighting the fact that the majority of intercultural competence research has been focused on the individual.

The identification of variables associated with intercultural competence raises a number of further questions. For example, is intercultural competence culture-general or culture-specific; can it be measured; and can it be taught or learned? These questions merit further exploration.

Culture General or Culture Specific

A person who is an effective and appropriate intercultural communicator in one context might not be so in another cultural context. The pertinent question is whether there are variables that facilitate intercultural competence across multiple cultural contexts. There is evidence to suggest that there are indeed culture-general variables that contribute to intercultural competence. This means there are variables that, regardless of cultural perspective, contribute to perception of intercultural competence. Arasaratnam and Doerfel ( 2005 ), for example, identified five such variables, namely empathy, experience, motivation, positive attitude toward other cultures, and listening. The rationale behind their approach is to look for commonalities in emic descriptions of intercultural competence by participants who represent a variety of cultural perspectives. Some of the variables identified by Arasaratnam and Doerfel’s research are replicated in others’ findings. For example, empathy has been found to be a contributor to intercultural competence in a number of other studies (Gibson & Zhong, 2005 ; Nesdale, De Vries Robbé, & Van Oudenhoven, 2012 ). This does not mean, however, that context has no role to play in perception of ICC. Contextual variables, such as the relationship between the interactants, the values of the cultural context in which the interaction unfolds, the emotional state of the interactants, and a number of other such variables no doubt influence effectiveness and appropriateness. Perception of competence in a particular situation is arguably a combination of culture-general and contextual variables. However, the aforementioned “culture-general” variables have been consistently associated with perceived ICC by people of different cultures. Hence they are noteworthy. The culture-general nature of some of the variables that contribute to intercultural competence provides an optimistic perspective that, even in the absence of culture-specific knowledge, it is possible for one to engage in effective and appropriate intercultural communication. Witteborn ( 2003 ) observed that the majority of models of intercultural competence take a culture-general approach. What is lacking at present, however, is extensive testing of these models to verify their culture-general nature.

The extent to which the culture-general nature of intercultural competence can be empirically verified depends on our ability to assess the variables identified in these models, and assessing intercultural competence itself. To this end, a discussion of assessment is warranted.

Assessing Intercultural Competence

Researchers have employed both quantitative and qualitative techniques in the assessment of intercultural competence. Deardorff ( 2006 ) proposed that intercultural competence should be measured progressively (at different points in time, over a period of time) and using multiple methods.

In terms of quantitative assessment, the nature of intercultural competence is such that any measure of this concept has to be one that (conceptually) translates across different cultures. Van de Vijver and Leung ( 1997 ) identified three biases that must be considered when using a quantitative instrument across cultures. First, there is potential for construct biases where cultural interpretations of a particular construct might vary. For example, “personal success” might be defined in terms of affluence, job prestige, etc., in an individualistic culture that favors capitalism, while the same construct could be defined in terms of sense of personal contribution and family validation in a collectivistic culture (Arasaratnam, 2007 ). Second, a method bias could be introduced by the very choice of the use of a quantitative instrument in a culture that might not be familiar with quantifying abstract concepts. Third, the presence of an item that is irrelevant to a particular cultural group could introduce an item bias when that instrument is used in research involving participants from multiple cultural groups. For a more detailed account of equivalence and biases that must be considered in intercultural research, see Van de Vijver and Leung ( 2011 ).

Over the years, many attempts have been made to develop quantitative measures of intercultural competence. There are a number of instruments that have been designed to measure intercultural competence or closely related concepts. A few of the more frequently used ones are worth noting.

Based on the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) (Bennett, 1986 ), the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) measures three ethnocentric and three ethno-relative levels of orientation toward cultural differences, as identified in the DMIS model (Hammer, Bennett, & Wiseman, 2003 ). This instrument is widely used in intercultural research, in several disciplines. Some examples of empirical studies that use IDI include Greenholtz ( 2000 ), Sample ( 2013 ), and Wang ( 2013 ).

The Intercultural Sensitivity Inventory (ICSI) is another known instrument that approaches intercultural competence from the perspective of a person’s ability to appropriately modify his or her behavior when confronted with cultural differences, specifically as they pertain to individualistic and collectivistic cultures (Bhawuk & Brislin, 1992 ). It must be noted, however, that intercultural sensitivity is not necessarily equivalent to intercultural competence. Chen and Starosta ( 2000 ), for example, argued that intercultural sensitivity is a pre-requisite for intercultural competence rather than its conceptual equivalent. As such, Chen and Starosta’s Intercultural Sensitivity scale should be viewed within the same parameters. The authors view intercultural sensitivity as the affective dimension of intercultural competence (Chen & Starosta, 1997 ).

Although not specifically designed to measure intercultural competence, the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) measures five dimensions, namely open mindedness, emotional stability, cultural empathy, social initiative, and flexibility (Van Oudenhoven & Van der Zee, 2002 ), all of which have been found to be directly related to intercultural competence, in other research (see Matsumoto & Hwang, 2013 ).

Quantitative measures of intercultural competence almost exclusively rely on self-ratings. As such, they bear the strengths and weaknesses of any self-report (for a detailed discussion of self-knowledge, see Bauer & Baumeister, 2013 ). There is some question as to whether Likert-type scales favor individuals with higher cognitive complexity because such persons have a greater capacity for differentiating between constructs (Bowler, Bowler, & Cope, 2012 ). Researchers have also used other methods such as portfolios, reflective journals, responses to hypothetical scenarios, and interviews. There continues to be a need for fine-tuned methods of assessing intercultural competence that utilize others’ perceptions in addition to self-reports.

Can Intercultural Competence Be Learned?

If competence is the holy grail of intercultural communication, then the question is whether it can be learned. On the one hand, many researchers suggest that the process of learning intercultural competence is developmental (Beamer, 1992 ; Bennett, 1986 ; Hammer, Bennett, & Wiseman, 2003 ). Which means that over time, experiences, and deliberate reflection, people can learn things that cumulatively contribute to intercultural competence. Evidence also suggests that collaborative learning facilitates the development of intercultural competence (Helm, 2009 ; Zhang, 2012 ). On the other hand, given research shows that there are many personality variables that contribute to intercultural competence; one could question whether these are innate or learned. Further, many causal models of intercultural competence show that intercultural competence is the product of interactions between many variables. If some of these can be learned and others are innate, then it stands to reason that, given equal learning opportunities, there would still be variations in the extent to which one “achieves” competence. There is also evidence to suggest that there are certain variables, such as ethnocentrism, that debilitate intercultural competence. Thus, it is fair to conclude that, while there is the potential for one to improve one’s intercultural competence through learning, not all can or will.

The aforementioned observation has implications for intercultural training, particularly training that relies heavily on dissemination of knowledge alone. In other words, just because someone knows facts about intercultural competence, it does not necessarily make them an expert at effective and appropriate communication. Developmental models of intercultural competence suggest that the learning process is progressive over time, based on one’s reaction to various experiences and one’s ability to reflect on new knowledge (Saunders, Haskins, & Vasquez et al., 2015 ). Further, research shows that negative attitudes and attitudes that are socially reinforced are the hardest to change (Bodenhausen & Gawronski, 2013 ). Hence people with negative prejudices toward other cultures, for example, may not necessarily be affected by an intercultural training workshop. While many organizations have implemented intercultural competency training in employee education as a nod to embracing diversity, the effectiveness of short, skilled-based training bears further scrutiny. For more on intercultural training, see the Handbook of Intercultural Training by Landis, Bennett, and Bennett ( 2004 ).

Research Directions

In a review of ICC research between 2003 and 2013 , Arasaratnam ( 2014 ) observed that there is little cross-disciplinary dialogue when it comes to intercultural competence research. Even though intercultural competence is a topic of interest to researchers in multiple disciplines, the findings from within a discipline appear to have limited external disciplinary reach. This is something that needs to be addressed. While the field of communication has played a significant role in contributing to current knowledge of intercultural competence, findings from other disciplines not only add to this knowledge but also potentially address gaps in research that are inevitable from a single disciplinary point of view. As previously observed, one of the reasons for lack of cross-disciplinary referencing (apart from lack of familiarity with work outside of one’s own discipline) could be the use of different labels to describe intercultural competence. Hence, students and scholars would do well to include these variations in labels when looking for research in intercultural competence. This would facilitate consolidation of inter-disciplinary knowledge in future research.

New and robust theories of intercultural competence that are empirically tested in multiple cultural groups are needed. As previously observed, the majority of existing theories in intercultural communication competence stem from the United States, and as such are influenced by a particular worldview. Theories from other parts of the world would enrich our current understanding of intercultural competence.

Thus far, the majority of research in intercultural communication has been done with the fundamental assumption that participants in a dyadic intercultural interaction arrive at it from two distinct cultural perspectives. This assumption might not be valid in all interactions that could still be classified as intercultural. With increasing global mobility, there are more opportunities for people to internalize more than one culture, thus becoming bicultural or blended in their cultural identity. This adds a measure of complexity to the study of intercultural competence because there is evidence to show that there are cultural differences in a range of socio-cognitive functions such as categorization, attribution, and reasoning (Miyamoto & Wilken, 2013 ), and these functions play important roles in how we perceive others, which in turn influences effective and appropriate communication (Moskowitz & Gill, 2013 ).

The concept of competence itself merits further reflection. Because the majority of voices that contribute to ongoing discussions on intercultural competence arise from developed parts of the world, it is fair to say that these discussions are not comprehensively representative of multiple cultural views. Further, the main mechanisms of academic publishing favor a peer-review system which can be self-perpetuating because the reviewers themselves are often the vocal contributors to the existing body of knowledge. For a more well rounded reflection of what it means to engage in authentic and affirming intercultural communication, sources of knowledge other than academic publications need to be considered. These may include the work done by international aid agencies and not-for-profit organizations for example, which engage with expressions of intercultural communication that are different from those that are observed among international students, expatriates, or medical, teaching, or business professionals, who inform a significant amount of intercultural competence research in academia.

Historiography: Research in Intercultural Competence over the Years

The concept of “competence” is not recent. For example, in an early use of the term, psychologist Robert W. White ( 1959 ) characterized competence as “an organism’s capacity to interact effectively with its environment” (p. 297) and proposed that effectance motivation (which results in feelings of efficacy) is an integral part of competence. Today’s research in intercultural competence has been informed by the work of researchers in a number of disciplines, over several decades.

In the field of communication, some of the pioneers of ICC research are Mary Jane Collier ( 1986 ), Norman G. Dinges ( 1983 ), William B. Gudykunst ( 1988 ), Mitchell R. Hammer ( 1987 ), T. Todd Imohari (Imohari & Lanigan, 1989 ), Daniel J. Kealey ( 1989 ), Young Yun Kim ( 1991 ), Jolene Koester (Koester & Olebe, 1988 ), Judith N. Martin ( 1987 ), Hiroko Nishida ( 1985 ), Brent D. Ruben ( 1976 ), Brian H. Spitzberg ( 1983 ), Stella Ting-Toomey ( 1988 ), and Richard L. Wiseman (Wiseman & Abe, 1986 ).

While much of the momentum in communication research started in the late 1970s, a conservative (and by no means comprehensive) glance at history traces back some of the early works in intercultural competence to the 1960s, where researchers identified essential characteristics for intercultural communication. This research was based on service personnel and Americans travelling overseas for work (Gardner, 1962 ; Guthrie & Zetrick, 1967 ; Smith, 1966 ). The characteristics they identified include flexibility, stability, curiosity, openness to other perspectives, and sensitivity, to name a few, and these characteristics were studied in the context of adaptation to a new culture.

In the 1970s, researchers built on early work to further identify key variables in intercultural “effectiveness” or “cross-cultural” competency. Researchers in communication worked toward not only identifying but also assessing these variables (Hammer, Gudykunst, & Wiseman, 1978 ; Ruben & Kealey, 1979 ), primarily using quantitative methods. Ruben, Askling, and Kealey ( 1977 ) provided a detailed account of “facets of cross-cultural effectiveness” identified by various researchers.

In the 1980s, research in ICC continued to gain momentum, with a special issue of the International Journal of Intercultural Relations dedicated to this topic. ICC was still approached from the point of view of two specific cultures interacting with each other, similar to the acculturation approach in the previous decade. Many of the conceptualizations of ICC were derived from (interpersonal) communication competence, extending this to intercultural contexts. For example, Spitzberg and Cupach’s ( 1984 ) conceptualization of communication competence as effective and appropriate communication has been foundational to later work in ICC.

Researchers in the 1990s built on the work of others before them. Chen ( 1990 ) presented eleven propositions and fifteen theorems in regards to the components of ICC, building from a discussion of Dinges’ ( 1983 ) six approaches to studying effective and appropriate communication in intercultural contexts. Chen went on to propose that competence is both inherent and learned. The 1993 volume of the International and Intercultural Communication Annual was dedicated to ICC, introducing some of the theories that later become influential in intercultural research, such as Gudykunst’s ( 1993 ) Anxiety/Uncertainty Management (AUM) theory, Cupach and Imahori’s ( 1993 ) Identity Management theory, and Ting-Toomey’s ( 1993 ) Identity Negotiation theory. Contributions to intercultural competence theory came from other disciplines as well, such as a learning model for becoming interculturally competent (Taylor, 1994 ) and an instructional model of intercultural strategic competence (Milhouse, 1996 ), for example. The formation of the International Academy for Intercultural Research, in 1997 , marked a significant step toward interdisciplinary collaboration in intercultural research. Research in the 1990s contributed to the strides made in the 2000s.

In a meta-review of ICC, Bradford, Allen, and Beisser ( 2000 ) observed that ICC and intercultural communication effectiveness have been used (conceptually) interchangeably in previous research. Despite the different labels under which this topic has been studied, Arasaratnam and Doerfel ( 2005 ) made the case for the culture-general nature of ICC, and Deardorff ( 2006 ) demonstrated that there is consensus amongst experts as to what ICC is. The publication of the SAGE Handbook of Intercultural Competence (Deardorff, 2009 ) and Spitzberg and Chagnon’s ( 2009 ) comprehensive introductory chapter on conceptualizing intercultural competence are other noteworthy contributions to literature in intercultural competence. In 2015 , the publication of another special issue on intercultural competence by the International Journal of Intercultural Relations (some 25 years after the 1989 special issue) signals that intercultural competence continues to be a topic of interest amongst researchers in communication and other disciplines. As discussed in the Research Directions section, the areas that are yet to be explored would hopefully be addressed in future research.

Further Reading

• Arasaratnam, L. A. (2014). Ten years of research in intercultural communication competence (2003–2013): A retrospective. Journal of Intercultural Communication , 35 .
• Arasaratnam, L. A. , & Deardorff, D. K. (Eds.). (2015). Intercultural competence [Special issue]. International Journal of Intercultural Relations , 48 .
• Bennett, J. M. (2015). The SAGE encyclopedia of intercultural competence . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Bradford, L. , Allen, M. , & Beisser, K. R. (2000). An evaluation and meta-analysis of intercultural communication competence research. World Communication , 29 (1), 28–51.
• Deardorff, D. K. (2009). The SAGE handbook of intercultural competence . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Martin, J. N. (Ed.). (1989). Intercultural communication competence [Special issue]. International Journal of Intercultural Relations , 13 (3).
• Wiseman, R. L. (2002). Intercultural communication competence. In W. B. Gudykunst & B. Moody (Eds.), Handbook of international and intercultural communication (pp. 207–224). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Wiseman, R. L. , & Koester, J. (1993). Intercultural communication competence . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Arasaratnam, L. A. (2007). Empirical research in intercultural communication competence: A review and recommendation. Australian Journal of Communication , 34 , 105–117.
• Arasaratnam, L. A. , & Banerjee, S. C. (2011). Sensation seeking and intercultural communication competence: A model test. International Journal of Intercultural Relations , 35 , 226–233.
• Arasaratnam, L. A. , & Doerfel, M. L. (2005). Intercultural communication competence: Identifying key components from multicultural perspectives. International Journal of Intercultural Relations , 29 , 137–163.
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Intercultural Communication: “Who are you?”

Preparing think piece two.

As you prepare for your Think Piece 2, we thought you would appreciate a week to consider how you might expand your ideas for your Think Piece 2 submission. This section will provide you with the course’s Think Piece 2 assignment and four extended content areas to expand upon in your Think Piece 2. Subsequent links to new “chapters” in this unit will provide sample essays/reports, sample outlines, a sample grading rubric, and additional resources to help with the assignment.

Learning Outcomes – Students Will:

• Read about Think Piece Two.
• Find links to additional related chapters for Think Piece Two Content (yes, you can quote the materials below for TP 2).
• Identify new cultures, co-cultures, and personal identities.
• Consider how to conduct an interview or create a personal connection to a culture or co-culture different than one’s own.
• Demonstrate their connections to intercultural communication in Think Piece 2.

The “Think Piece 2” Objective

The second learning unit, where we asked the question, “Who are you?”  introduced you to the topics of perception in Chapter 4 , verbal communication  in Chapter 5 , nonverbal communication in Chapter 6 , and listening & compassionate listening in Chapter 7 . In Think Piece 2 (posted below and in your course D2L Content Area), you will focus on these areas as you probe a culture, co-culture, or personal/social identity other than your own.

The goal of this unit is to promote the process of acquiring a higher level of intercultural communication competence necessary for professional growth and personal fulfillment. Also, it gives you sharp insight into persons of another culture and an appreciation for one’s role and responsibility within our globalized world. In short, “[c]ollaboration and commerce between nations and across cultures is an unavoidable necessity of modern living. The success of those endeavors hinges upon the competence with which each party interacts with the other. Further, these interactions can be beneficial, not just in terms of each group realizing their respective goals, but also at the level of the individuals involved” (Cavanaugh, 2015, p. 1). Presenting and encouraging the transformative process of learning practical interviewing skills are vital to improving intercultural communication competence. One can “effectively adapt verbal and nonverbal messages to the appropriate cultural context” (Neuliep, 2018, p. 37).

Additional Content to Consider for Think Piece 2

Link to New OER Books & Creative Commons Content

We have shared materials within this OER textbook to synthesize general concepts central to the study of Intercultural Communication. As you prepare Think Piece #2, additional materials outside this book will be helpful to narrow your topic. Instead of copying and pasting additional materials into our course e-book, we are linking the materials here for your consideration, as listed below. In Weeks 9 & 10 of our Spring 2022 RTCTC COMM 2100 course, you will not need to prepare class discussions or quizzes as Week 9 is “MEA” week in Minnesota, and Week 10 is dedicated to writing Think Piece 2. During Weeks 9 & 10, you will also meet with Lori for your midterm conferences.

Therefore, for Weeks 9 & 10, you will explore the following links to learn more about topics of your choice related to the Think Piece 2 assignment.

Culture Shock

• Exploring Intercultural Communication’s Chapter on I ntroduction to Culture Shock & Managing Culture Shock
• Peace Corps’s (simple but effective) handout on Culture Shock
• Intercultural Business Communication’s chapter on Culture Shock
• Intercultural Communication for the Community College’s chapter on Tourism

Anti Racism

• A student resource kit on Anti Racism

Prejudice & Racism

• Intercultural Business Communication’s chapter on Prejudice & Racism

Our Own Book’s Subsequent Chapters on Specific Co-Cultures

We will return to topics like those listed above and below in the third unit of “What are we doing together?” Please visit these chapters in our OER e-book if your Think Piece 2 relates to these topics.

• LGBTQ+ Co-Culture
• Meet Laura & learn about  Native American Co-Cultures
• Meet Marco & learn about Mexican-American Co-Cultures
• Meet Cindy (again) & learn about the Hmong Co-Culture
• Meet Abdullahi and Tammad & learn about the Somali-American Co-Cultures
• Meet Kim Sin and learn about the Cambodian Community
• Meet Al Lun shares his story of being the “Permanent Other.”
• Meet Laura (also see link above)

About Assignments:

Intercultural communication courses ask students to demonstrate their progress toward intercultural communication competence. To this end, written and oral assignments focus on personal reactions to and acquired knowledge and analysis of certain aspects of another culture relevant to effective intercultural communication. Doing so may lead to some measure of intercultural competence. In the course, discussions posts, written work, and class assignments as students to  1) learn about, and be aware of, one’s own culture and how it has shaped who and what one is so that honest and sound research of another culture to which they do not belong may occur; 2) interview someone from, or closely associated with, that culture and; 3) analyze the process and your intercultural communication.

Review Think Piece Project #2: Who Are You? (200 Points)

You will choose the essay, report, or creative project option for this assignment.

Questions? Just ask Lori. Remember, whichever option you choose, the focus is on intercultural communication and our second question this semester: “Who are you?” In other words, you’ll explore a co-culture, culture, or personal identity different from the one to which you belong.

Note about Honesty, Plagiarism , and Integrity

Again, this assignment concerns YOU and YOUR co-cultures, personal identities, and reflections. Please do not plagiarize; there were three instances of plagiarism just last semester. I use “Turn It In” – which compares your essay to other submissions worldwide. I will see “similarity reports” that show when papers are plagiarized (or copied). Do not jeopardize your grade and integrity – I had to report peers for plagiarism last semester. I created three options so you would find a unique, personal way to express yourself. Each textbox below outlines the assignment choices. You will also find this assignment in D2L’s Content Area.

Think Piece 2 – Personal Narrative Essay Choice

Essay overview :.

If you opt to write an essay, please type a double-spaced essay integrating the course material into personal and observational reflection. This essay will form a personal narrative using first-person “I” language. In this 3+ page essay, use critical thinking skills to assess the formation and understanding of personal identity/co-culture(s) other than your own. This essay should reference appropriate course content (through at least 5 in-text parenthetical references – or quotes from your book) and be written clearly and accurately. Your work in the discussions can be a starting point for this essay. Additionally, one outside research source is needed, and you need to spend at least 2 hours exploring this topic.

Essay Requirements:

• ▪ You can examine country profiles, demographic data, or more scholarly, theoretical materials.
• https://www.hofstede-insights.com/product/compare-countries/
• https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/ [Human Rights Reports on Countries]
• https://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/rpt/ [US State Department Reports]
• https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/countries
• ▪ .com sites and additional research may be added.
• o Experience this co-culture: include reference to your exploring this culture/co-culture.
• I would like you to spend at least 2 hours experiencing, talking about this co-culture
• Additional Sample Essay Prompts and Sample Outlines will be shared in D2L.

Sample Essay Topic Prompts:

Sample essay prompts:.

• o Ideas: talk to a newcomer/immigrant/international student/international visitor who is new to our area. Explore how learning/using English has been a challenge/reward for this person. Apply the theory from the book to this person’s experience. Compare/contrast what you experienced/observed to what you researched.
• o Ideas: use a language you are learning to explore another culture. How do others react? How do you feel using this language? Explore the notions of language in your essay. Compare what you experienced/observed to what you researched.
• o Ideas: Try to learn a few words from another language. Use these words in a new setting related to this culture. How do others react? How do you feel using this language? Explore the notions of language in your essay. Compare what you experienced/observed to what you researched.
• o Ideas: spend some silent time observing nonverbal communication, then find a person you feel comfortable with to whom you may ask questions.
• o Test it out! Join the International Student Club, spend an afternoon volunteering with a group (Coach Rob and Andre Crocket have invited us to work with the boys they mentor), go to a restaurant, learn how to eat in a different way, etc. Have fun – challenge yourself!
• o Chapter 7 talks about a number of cultural identities. Gender identity is one that is being discussed more in the news. How can you explore this co-culture?
• Better understand “culture shock:” Examine the verbal and nonverbal elements of culture shock. Learn about someone’s journey to a new culture and apply the materials you researched/read from class to this person’s story. Compare/contrast their experience to a situation in which you felt a sense of “culture shock.”
• o How do cultures come together in educational contexts?
• o How do cultures come together in business contexts?
• o How do cultures come together in sports and athletic contexts?
• o How do cultures come together in healthcare contexts?
• o How do cultures come together in art/music contexts?  

Think Piece 2 – Report Choice

Project overview:.

If you opt to write a report, please type a 3+-page summary that integrates the course material into personal and observational reflection. This report will have a first-person voice. In this self-investigation, you will use critical thinking skills to assess the formation, understanding, enactment, and performance of a new co-culture/culture (or personal identity) different than your own. The essay and report options are similar, ; eachhould reference appropriate course content (at least 5 in-text parenthetical references – or quotes from your book) in addition to 1 outside research article and experience exploring the topic (2 hours). Your work in the discussions can be a starting point for the report. Do not plagiarize; I will see it in Turn-It-In.

Report Requirements:

Address the following questions in at least 3 double spaced pages i ntegrating 5 quotes from the book and 1 research article and experience (feel free to look back to the discussions to reply to the questions):

• What culture, co-culture, or personal identity did you learn more about? How did you research your topic? What did you do to spend at least 2 hours learning more personally? (see links in the Essay choice area for ideas for researching).
• As you explain and explore this topic, define 3 significant terms from the book’s second half (Lori can help you choose terms if you need help). Explain how these terms help you better understand the culture, co-culture, or personal identity you researched and spent time learning about.
• What are the norms and communication styles of the topic you explored? How does this compare/contrast to your own culture, co-cultures, or personal identity?
• Explore the book’s advice in Chapter 11 (see D2L for ideas). How could you use the advice to understand new cultures better? How have you explored this new culture/co-culture these past weeks? What have you learned about others and yourself? How can you use this knowledge in your personal life and professional work?

Think Piece 2 – Creative Project Choice

If you opt to create a special project, first have your idea approved by Lori. You can create a video, interview, vlog, host a LIVE cooking show (or video) with your co-culture members/elders, create a family tree, website, narrated PowerPoint, scrapbook, art, poetry, song, or some other creative project to communicate what you have learned about NEW co-cultures and intercultural communication. The focus is on intercultural communication and addressing the question of Unit 2: “Who are You?” The Creative Project choice should not just be about culture only.

You will need to creatively demonstrate critical thinking skills as you assess the formation, understanding, enactment, and performance of your own identity. You will also need to reference appropriate course content ( through at least 5 references – or oral citations/quotes from your book stating the section reference) and communicate clearly and accurately. You may add this analysis/tie to the course content in a written or oral format.

Creative Project Requirements

• Meet with Lori on ZOOM or in person to discuss your project.
• How did completing this project help you to learn about the class’s Unit 2  Key terms? Decide upon 5 term s from the book’s second half to talk/write about. Define your terms and explain how they are tied to your Creative Project. Remember to give section & chapter references.
• All Think Piece #2 submissions need to refer to 1 outside source (see links in the Essay choice area for ideas). You are also asked to spend 2 hours exploring this new culture/co-culture. What co-culture/culture did you research,  and how does it relate to the dominant culture? How does this project reflect that?
• Look to the back of the book to find information on “Intercultural Communication Competence.” Explain what this is and how your project helped/didn’t help you to develop intercultural communication competence.
• What communication skills did you practice/learn about while working on this project? It should take about 2 hours to explore this culture.
• What have you learned about others and yourself by completing this special project? How can you use this knowledge in your personal life and your work?

Ideas for Think Piece 2

The “Who are You Unit” is an intercultural communication learning module providing you a unique opportunity to better understand a given culture outside of, or other than, your own culture. Four primary concepts and skill areas central to intercultural communication and necessary for conducting an intercultural interview are perception and perception-checking, nonverbal communication and verbal communication, and listening. The format used best to impart the four skill areas central to intercultural interviewing includes (1) a definition of the skill area itself; (2) a discussion of the practice or use of this skill area in intercultural communication contexts; (3) questions to consider for the effective use of the skill area; and (4) a prompt or queue for the development of an essay assignment reflecting on the intercultural interview. All told, we consider what is learned from the preparation for the interview, the tenor and substance of the interview itself, and a reflection upon how the interview transforms or deepens an understanding of both the interviewee’s culture and the student’s own culture. The unit contains insightful student observations. The appendix provides helpful comments culled from past student papers. External resources, class activities, and videos will also be provided for an opportunity to further and deepen understanding of the four skill areas (perception, verbal and non-verbal communication, and listening).

First and foremost, intercultural interviews should be conducted in a safe environment enabling both interviewer and interviewee to ask genuine, honest, and respectful questions with the responses given. The interview must be more than a loose exercise in stream-of-consciousness questioning. Hence, preparation for the interview is necessary as questions and prompts will need some connection or relevance to the student’s essay. It helps to read corresponding chapters and sections from the primary textbook and other relevant resources. Please pay attention to the cultural patterns and taxonomies/typologies we read about in Chapter 2 . Choose one or more concepts fitting to the essay and include one or more concepts with which you are comfortable, along with concepts including, but not limited to, cultural identity, intercultural verbal and nonverbal communication, perception, and listening.

Sample questions for an interview may include, in some fashion, how the interviewee experienced a collective vs. an individualistic family structure. Consider the variety of questions one could ask:  Did you feel like a team or more as individuals in your family? Did your country stress what was “good for the country” or “what is good for the individual citizen?” Can this be explained? How were family decisions made, where did you go to college, and who was responsible for what chores

Consider the questions to ask during the interview and the course content one would like to explore. At the same time, one will want to “just listen” without asking questions for some of the interview time. Chapter 7 focused on using “active listening” and “compassionate listening skills,” depending on the context. In the following pages, we offer ideas, samples, and outlines.

Site Visits

Learning about cultures found not abroad or in far-flung areas of the United States but “in one’s backyard” is a valuable means to begin or work towards cultural communication competence. This process can start by visiting local culturally-based or oriented nonprofit organizations, historical buildings and sites, museums, art galleries, restaurants, places of worship, and other sites. This unit explores the many opportunities to learn about co-cultures locally in Minnesota. As the OER book expands, I will add more cultural locations. Please read the Site Visit section of our e-book for ideas on where you can go to learn more about “culture in your backyard.”

Learning more about various cultures “in your backyard” might include visiting nonprofit organizations, historical buildings, museums, art galleries, restaurants, cultural centers, and other sites. You are welcome to develop cultural conversations with the contacts in this unit or find your own contacts.

Learn more about ideas for site visits in the Cultural Highlights Section of our e-book.

Creative Projects

Finally –  a quick comment about creative projects. You are welcome to explore your artistic expressions in an art project. One of your former classmates painted her cultural identity for Think Piece Two – you might follow her lead and paint the vision you have of a co-culture (of course, like your classmate, you’ll need to chat with Lori to determine how you will demonstrate the analysis/research you did in the preparation of this project). You might produce a video. You could create an oral history of relatives who live in another country (we found our Swedish family and our Finnish family and did that!). Creative projects exploring “Who are you?” could even demonstrate/simulate the concepts linked above.

Perception is more of a process whereby each of us creates “mental images” of the world that surrounds us, that is, of the “world out there” (Green, Fairchild, Knudsen, & Lease-Gubrud, 2018).

According to Gamble and Gamble's definition (1996), "Perception is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sense data in a way that enables people to make sense of our world." (p. 77).

Verbal Communication is defined as an agreed-upon and rule-governed system of symbols used to share meaning (Introduction to Communication, 2022).

“Nonverbal communication is a process of generating meaning using behavior other than words. Rather than thinking of nonverbal communication as the opposite of or as separate from verbal communication, it’s more accurate to view them as operating side by side—as part of the same system” (Communication, 2016, p.165).

Samovar, et. al (2018) add, "we purpose that nonverbal communication involves all those nonverbal stimuli in a communication setting that are generated by both the source and [their] use of the environment and that have potential message value for the source and/or receiver.

“Listening is the learned process of receiving, interpreting, recalling, evaluating, and responding to verbal and nonverbal messages” (Communication, 2016, p.230). Listening is a choice whereas hearing is a physiological action. Further, listening is a skill one can cultivate.

Compassionate listening is most simply defined as a “quality of listening which creates a safe container for people to be free to express themselves and to go to the level of their deep concerns….[It means] listening deeply to the needs and suffering of others and respecting their rights to their opinions…[forming the] basis of...successful dialogue, [which] can only take place when people are really ready to listen to each other and to themselves” (Hwoschinsky, 2006, p.3).

Developing Intercultural Communication Competence by Lori Halverson-Wente is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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1 Chapter 1 – Introduction to Intercultural Communication

Introduction to intercultural communication.

“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”

— attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a speech by Rep. John Lewis commemorating the 50th anniversary of the march on Washington D.C. (“I have a dream,” attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Lewis, 2013).

A Personal Note from Lori Halverson-Wente

Welcome to our free online Intercultural Communication Coursebook/reading materials. We found that by asking students to rent or purchase the most recent textbook or hoping they would buy less expensive versions online, students often ended up with the most costly book or went without a textbook. It occurred to us that a FREE Open Education Resource (OER) book would better meet the needs and pocketbooks of students.

On a practical level, over the years, intercultural friendships and experiences have enriched our personal and academic lives. Thus our goal for this book is to explain intercultural communication on a theoretical level while including practical skill-based applications to understand local Minnesota co-cultures better. To this end, we have directly incorporated works from other OER textbooks and video materials and attributed them both within the text and at the end of each chapter. Using an OER format allows our course materials to adapt, shift, and become updated with feedback from students each semester. Additionally, an OER allows for updates based on current events and local and national news. As noted throughout the book, a favorite professor of ours used to say, “Communication addresses three questions: who am I, who are you, and what are we doing together?” If we think about these questions, we find that these questions are a practical means to divide the course and examine the primary topics of Intercultural Communication.

Therefore, in this first chapter, we will put forth the book’s overall theoretical approach, the formation of cultural identities, and the basic outline of the primary topics of Intercultural Communication guided by Tucker’s three questions of communication.

Students will notice that this OER textbook will grow and adapt during the semester.  We worked to focus on Minnesota co-cultures and interviewed individuals who you might know or read about. This book is truly a surprise each semester as it keeps growing. At the same time, we want to stress that much of the scholarship in this OER book draws upon other OER books that are freely shared without copyright. We cite the sources and indent for block quotes to show you who authored the information.  You might hear a “shift of voice” in these sections. We want to attribute and thank the community of writers and scholars who have contributed to this book.

We can also provide students with PDFs for downloading and printing. There are study terms at the end of the chapters. PowerPoint presentations and key glossary terms are available – just email: [email protected] if you are not in Lori Halverson-Wente’s Intercultural Communication class.

We are excited to learn with students as the semester progresses. Students are encouraged to ask questions and put forth their ideas about the course topics and concepts, theoretical and practical, to improve their understanding and contribute to the course itself.

Chapter One Overview

This chapter reviews some of the primary terms and concepts related to intercultural communication . In general and, in particular, we will define and explore terms, concepts, and skills correlated to starting the semester off strong for students studying intercultural communication. In subsequent chapters, the concepts this chapter outlines are more thoroughly treated. The end of this chapter concludes with more information about identity and a preview of a discussion activity for online or classroom applications.

This course will include theoretical and skill-based activities; students will gradually become culturally curious, confident, and potentially competent communicators through various intercultural communication encounters as the course continues. Once gained, intercultural competencies may be deepened and tested through travel, perhaps contributing profoundly to an authentic sojourner experience discussed below. While necessary, it is not sufficient to learn with the substance or dep of various life skills required to function effectively in a different culture or navigate our globe’s diverse cultures. We hope that students will move beyond the necessary. Still, theoretical concepts in the book help to develop familiarity with local co-cultures (their history, basics of culture, reading about and watching cultural representatives speak of their co-cultures within the dominant culture, and getting to know someone from a different co-culture personally).

Now, the classroom cannot be the only path to progress in successfully navigating cultures, intercultural concepts, variety and personal connections, and the nuances of culture learned through travel that immerses one in a given culture. Over the past 50 years, new cultures have relocated to the United States due to economic globalization and migration due to war, drought, and other climate-related disasters, extreme poverty, failed states characterized by inter-gang war and its robbing and torture of civilians, civil war, and oppressive governments. Crises change cultures and forced migration, yet they have brought different cultures to Minnesota, allowing the culturally curious to learn about displaced cultures.

Many years ago, we signed up for a cruise ship that promised interaction with the cultures in ports of call. Unfortunately, the cruise ship experience proved very limited interculturally. First, the ship’s cruise director used strictly scripted activities that may bring one interaction with different mammalian “cultures,” such as swimming with dolphins or closely observing whales. Seriously, such cruises limit intercultural experiences and understanding by restricting passengers to luxurious beach hotels and the cheap goods and trinkets set up by locals to sell to tourists on the beach. Instead, the authentic and fun culture exists over the hill from the beaches. Taking a local taxi instead and asking the driver for a short trip to learn about their town, heritage, family, children, and where to shop, eat, or walk is an easy way to take part in authentic local culture. The valuable intercultural action is a few miles away from the Disney floating behemoths that travel to foreign ports of call, such as the Bahamas and Jamaica.

One concept/term is vital to this course – globalization. How has globalization impacted you? Has your or your parent’s job been lost to other countries with lower production costs? Where are your clothes made? Are your groceries locally grown or from another state or country? Consider globalization from a cultural perspective – a crucial concept that both adversely dilutes cultures, destroys local traditions, and produces a homogenized world culture yet allows for efficient intercultural communication:

Globalization, as a concept, refers both to the ‘shrinking’ of the world and the increased consciousness of the world as a whole. It is a term used to describe the changes in societies and the world economy that are the result of dramatically increased cross-border trade, investment, and cultural exchange. The processes and actions to which the concept of globalization now refers have been proceeding, with some interruptions, for many centuries, but only in relatively recent times has globalization become a main focus of discussion. The current or recently-past epoch of globalization has been dominated by the nation-state , national economies, and national cultural identities. The new form of globalization is an interconnected world and global mass culture, often referred to as a ‘global village’ ( New World Encyclopedia , 2022).

Section One: Communication, Culture & Intercultural Communication Defined

Section one learning outcomes.

• Define communication, nonverbal communication, and verbal communication.
• Define symbol.
• Understand the definitions of culture, dominant culture, and co-culture.
• Define intercultural communication.

Communication Defined

Communication loosely means “sharing and understanding meaning” or “making common” (Pearson & Nelson, 2000). Community and communication share the same root word, and in “making common,” we find a means to use verbal (words) and nonverbal (non-words) symbols to reduce uncertainty.

Defining communication is challenging; however, the goal of human communication is to share and understand the same meaning. Professor Schultze straightforwardly: “If you do not understand what I intend to say, we failed to communicate. Such lack of shared understanding is miscommunication, not communication” (Schultze, n.d.). Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, & Roy (2017) posit that “…human communication is a dynamic process in which people attempt to share their thoughts with other people through the use of symbols in particular settings…In communication, a symbol is an expression that stands for something else and the act of assigning meaning to symbols is at the core of human communication” (pp. 28-31).

In intercultural settings, the communicators might not share the same language or verbal communication . Verbal communication is defined as an agreed-upon and rule-governed system of symbols used to share meaning (Introduction to Communication, 2022). 

Nonverbal communication takes on an additional emphasis in intercultural communication contexts. “Nonverbal communication is a process of generating meaning using behavior other than words. Rather than thinking of nonverbal communication as the opposite of or as separate from verbal communication, it’s more accurate to view them as operating side by side—as part of nonverbal communication of the same system” (“ Communication in the Real World ,” 2016, p. 165). Communication is dynamic, symbolic, contextual, learned, and has a consequence (Samovar, 2021).

All communication happens within a context or communication situation. When the context includes individuals from different cultures, there is a unique potential for both uncertainty and room for growth as the communicators learn from one another—examining the definition of culture assists in this growth.

Communication is Symbolic

Deeper dive into symbols.

Communication for the Real World (2016) helps clarify what is meant by communication is symbolic:

Most people are born with the capacity and ability to communicate, but everyone communicates differently. This is because communication is learned rather than innate. As we have already seen, communication patterns are relative to the context and culture in which one is communicating, and many cultures have distinct languages consisting of symbols. A key principle of communication is that it is symbolic. Communication is symbolic in that the words that make up our language systems do not directly correspond to something in reality. Instead, they stand in for or symbolize something. The fact that communication varies so much among people, contexts, and cultures illustrates the principle that meaning is not inherent in the words we use. For example, let’s say you go to France on vacation and see the word  poisson  on the menu. Unless you know how to read French, you will not know that the symbol is the same as the English symbol  fish . Those two words don’t look the same at all, yet they symbolize the same object. If you went by how the word looks alone, you might think that the French word for fish is more like the English word  poison  and avoid choosing that for your dinner. Putting a picture of a fish on a menu would definitely help a foreign tourist understand what they are ordering, since the picture is an actual representation of the object rather than a symbol for it. All symbolic communication is learned, negotiated, and dynamic. We know that the letters  b-o-o-k  refer to a bound object with multiple written pages. We also know that the letters  t-r-u-c-k  refer to a vehicle with a bed in the back for hauling things. But if we learned in school that the letters  t-r-u-c-k  referred to a bound object with written pages and  b-o-o-k referred to a vehicle with a bed in the back, then that would make just as much sense, because the letters don’t actually refer to the object and the word itself only has the meaning that we assign to it. We will learn more about how language works, but communication is more than the words we use. We are all socialized into different languages, but we also speak different ‘languages’ based on the situation we are in. For example, in some cultures it is considered inappropriate to talk about family or health issues in public, but it wouldn’t be odd to overhear people in a small town grocery store in the United States talking about their children or their upcoming surgery. There are some communication patterns shared by very large numbers of people and some that are particular to a dyad—best friends, for example, who have their own inside terminology and expressions that wouldn’t make sense to anyone else. These examples aren’t on the same scale as differing languages, but they still indicate that communication is learned. They also illustrate how rules and norms influence how we communicate.

Attribution for this Section Above:

• Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies :  https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/BookDetail.aspx?bookId=274

Application

Russian President Putin promoted the memory of the World War II victory of the Russians over the Germans to bring back cohesion among the Russian people. His use of the nonverbal symbol of the Russian flag. His words speak of Russian pride in their country. Whether this embodies the whole truth or not, it is an important cultural symbol that guides who the Russians are asked to believe who they are as a culture. Intentionally or unintentionally, symbols can be used to manipulate and form perceptions, this is why understanding the core nature of how communication is based upon symbol use is essential for critical thinkers. We wonder, how could someone “blindly follow” Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, or Valdimar Putin. Simply put: symbols are powerful and culturally bound. Advocates for Human Rights are jailed or killed in Russia – or they have left the country due to being in danger when they question the symbols and fight for reform.

When you consider the power of symbols when emersed in the culture, the question becomes more difficult to answer and the need to study intercultural communication more crucial for today’s world.

Read more here: Nexus of Patriotism and Militarism in Russia: A Quest for Internal Cohesion . 

Culture Defined

“Culture is communication, and communication is culture.” ~ E. T. Hall (1959)

Defining culture is imprecise; hundreds of academic definitions highlight different employ nuances to suit their particular approach. As Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, & Roy (2017) explain, “Culture is a set of human-made objective and subjective elements that in the past have increased the probability of survival and resulted in satisfaction for the participants in an ecological niche, and thus became shared among those who could communicate with each other because they had a common language and lived in the same time and place” (p. 39).

Another definition from Lustig & Koester (2005) in their book, Among Us , explains that culture is a learned set of shared interpretations of beliefs, values, norms, and social practices that includes the behaviors of a  large group of people. In so doing, culture links to human symbolic processes (p. 13).

Finally, a more straightforward definition comes from Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies (2016): “Culture is an ongoing negotiation of learned patterns of beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors” (p. 377).

In their book Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, & Roy (2017) stress family, worldview, religion, history, values, social organizations, all[ considering language as vital elements of culture. These elements of culture might help one better understand how intercultural communicators both share and differ in various ways. Now, “ Worldview is how people interpret reality and events, including their images of themselves and how they relate to the world around them” (p. 57). When one explores another’s culture, often one finds they are doing likewise.

This sense of definitional ambiguity is evident in the Open Education Resource (OER) Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies (2016), quoted below:

creative commons photo from burst.shopify.com Culture is a complicated word to define, as there are at least six comon ways that culture is used in the United States. For the purposes of exploring the communicative aspects of culture, we will define culture as the ongoing negotiation of learned and patterned beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors. When unpacking this definition, note that culture shouldn’t be conceptualized as stable and unchanging. Culture is “negotiated,” and…is dynamic….The definition also points out that culture is learned, which accounts for the importance of socializing institutions like family, school, peers, and the media. Culture is patterned in that there are recognizable widespread similarities among people within a cultural group. There is also deviation from and resistance to those patterns by individuals and subgroups within a culture, which is why cultural patterns change over time. Last, the definition acknowledges that culture influences our beliefs about what is true and false, our attitudes including our likes and dislikes, our values regarding what is right and wrong, and our behaviors. It is from these cultural influences that our defining identities are formed (p. 377).

Regardless of the definition of culture used, individuals experiencing a new culture or witnessing a foreign newcomer to their area, especially outside their language, know the frustrations of learning. Reducing frustrations and developing a variety of intercultural communication skills are helpful.

Dominant Culture and Co-Culture

Lustig & Koester (2010) note, “Not all groups within a nation or region have equal access to sources of institutional and economic power. When cultures share the same political, geographic, and economic landscapes, some form of a status hierarchy often develops. Groups of people who are distinguished by their religions, political, cultural, or ethnic identity often struggle among themselves for dominance and control of the available economic and political resources. The cultural group that has primary access to institutional and economic power is often characterized as the dominant culture ” (p. 214).

Samovar, et. al, (2009), best describe how co-cultures develop within a dominant culture:

{W]ithin each society you will find a dominant culture, but this culture is not monolithic. That is to say, within the dominant culture you will find numerous co-cultures and specialized cultures. As Victor suggests, ‘A national culture is never a homogeneous thing of one piece. In every culture, there are internal contradictions or polarities. U.S. culture is no exception.’  We believe that the best way to identify these groups is by using the term co-cultures, because it calls attention to the idea of dual membership. We will, therefore, use the word co-culture when discussing groups or social communities exhibiting communication characteristics, perceptions, values, beliefs, and practices that are sufficiently different to distinguish them from other groups and communities and from the dominant culture. Some co-cultures share many of the patterns and perceptions found within the larger, dominant culture, but their members also have distinct and unique patterns of communication that they have learned as part of their membership in the co-culture. As you will see…, most of the co-cultures in the United States meet many of the criteria and characteristics that we will apply to describe culture. These co-cultural affiliations can be based on race, ethnic bacground, gender, age, sexual preference, or other factors.  What is important about all co-cultures is that being gay, disabled, Latino, African American, Asian American, American Indian, or female, for example, exposes a person to a specialized set of messages that help determine how he or she perceives some aspects of the external world. It also signifi cantly influences how members of that co-culture communicate those perceptions (p. 13).

Culture is learned, transmitted from generation to generation, based on symbols, and is a dynamic and integrated system (Samovar, 2011, p. 17). These characteristics of culture are demonstrated in the video at the end of the chapter and are discussed in more detail later in this chapter.

Defining Intercultural Communication

Having reviewed the definitions of culture and communication, looking more carefully at the defining characteristics of intercultural communication is essential to this unit. If the purpose of intercultural communication is a straightforward proposition–the requirement of personal interaction with someone of a different culture, be that an intercultural interview or something else. If sharing and understanding meaning is our goal,  intercultural communication is to do so in diverse settings with individuals from cultures different from our own. Lustig and Koester (2011), in their textbook, Intercultural Competence , briefly define intercultural communication as follows: “Intercultural communication occurs when large and important cultural differences create dissimilar interpretations and expectations about how to communicate competently” (p. 52).

Intercultural communication happens in all communication contexts: intrapersonal, interpersonal, small group/team, public, and mass communication. Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies (2016) shares:

It is through intercultural communication that we come to create, understand, and transform culture and identity. Intercultural communication is communication between people with differing cultural identities. One reason we should study intercultural communication is to foster greater self-awareness (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). Our thought process regarding culture is often ‘other focused,’ meaning that the culture of the other person or group is what stands out in our perception. However, the adage ‘know thyself’ is appropriate, as we become more aware of our own culture by better understanding other cultures and perspectives. Intercultural communication can allow us to step outside of our comfortable, usual frame of reference and see our culture through a different lens. Additionally, as we become more self-aware, we may also become more ethical communicators as we challenge our ethnocentrism, or our tendency to view our own culture as superior to other cultures (Communication, 2016, p. 404).

When using intercultural communication, remember these five thoughts when completing the intercultural interview:  after all, [e]ngaging in intercultural communication is a complex activity. It will help to understand: (1) the uniqueness of each individual, (2) the hazards of over-generalizing, (3) the need to be objective, (4) the necessity for compromise, and (5) the myth of believing that communication is a cure-all” (Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, & Roy, 2017, p. 17). The ultimate goal is to develop one’s intercultural communication competency and integrate this into their own life. Objectivity is a goal, defined as Judgement based upon observable data and uninfluenced by emotions and personal prejudices,; it is a goal that can be hard to achieve. It is still important to cultivate this sense of self-awareness in perception formation.

While studying Intercultural Communication, it is helpful to avoid cultural generalizations or approximations since they are based on limited data and are only a way to “approximately” know more about a larger population. In this course, we will work to create more complex perceptions and test out inferences. In the video at the end of the chapter, you’ll hear more about the cultural generations made of the speaker. A goal of intercultural communication courses is to cultivate an attitude of cultural curiosity. This means you will be asked to seek out new experiences and learn more about how we often view the world from our own worldview. Don’t be worried if you are uneasy about “stepping outside of your comfort zone.” Everyone experiences this course uniquely and it is the hope you will have more questions when you leave the course than when you began the course.

Cultural Characteristics

Culture is learned, transmitted from generation to generation, based on symbols, and is a dynamic and integrated system (Samovar, et. al, 2011, p. 79): 

Culture is transmitted from Generation to Generation The American philosopher Thoreau once wrote, ‘ All the past is here.’   As it applies to culture, Thoreau is correct. For a culture to endure it must make certain that its crucial messages and elements are not only shared, but are passed to future generations. In this way the past becomes the present and helps create the future. As Brislin notes, ‘ If there are values consid ered central to a society that have existed for many years, these must be transmitted from one generation to another.’    This process of transmitting culture can be seen as a kind of ‘ social inheritance.’ Charon elaborates on this idea when he writes: ‘ Culture is a social inheritance; it consists of ideas that may have developed long before we were born. Our society, for example, has a history reaching beyond any individual ’ s life, the ideas developed over time are taught to each generation and ‘ truth ’ is anchored in interaction by people long before dead.’     It is communication that makes culture a continuous process, for once cultural habits, principles, values, and attitudes are formulated, they are communicated to each member of the culture. While the immediate family begins the ‘ education’   process, you need to remember that most of the crucial ‘ lessons’   of a culture continue to be emphasized throughout the person ’ s life. Infants, held and touched by parents, do not consciously know they are learning about family and touch, but they are. The essential cultural values continue to be reinforced as children share holidays, both religious and secular, with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other relatives. So strong is the need for a culture to bind each generation to past and future generations, it is often asserted that a fracture in the transmission process would contribute to a cul ture ’ s extinction (Samovar, pp. 52-53). The chapter “Cultural Characteristics and the Roots of Culture” by Karen Krumrey-Fulks (2021) expands upon this as follows:

Karen Krumrey-Fulks (2021) shares:

Culture is Symbolic Carbaugh [expands] on the work of anthropologist Clifford Geertz, who believed that culture was a system based on symbols. Geertz said that people use symbols to define their world and express their emotions. As human beings, we all learn about the world around us, both consciously and unconsciously, starting at a very young age. What we internalize comes through observation, experience, interaction, and what we are taught. We manipulate symbols to create meaning and stories that dictate our behaviors, to organize our lives, and to interact with others. The meanings we attach to symbols are arbitrary. Looking someone in the eye means that you are direct and respectful in some countries, yet, in other cultural systems, looking away is a sign of respect. Carbaugh also suggested that culture is ‘a learned set of shared interpretations and beliefs, values, and norms, which affect the behaviors of a relatively large group of people.’ Our course will combine Carbaugh’s longer definitions into the statement that culture is a learned pattern of values, beliefs, and behaviors shared by a large group of people. It is within this framework that we will explore what happens when people from different cultural backgrounds interact.

Culture is Learned Although there is a debate as to whether babies are born into the world as  tabula rasa (blank slate) or without knowing anything. We can say that they do not come with pre-programmed preferences like your personal computer or cell phone. And, although human beings do share some universal habits such as eating and sleeping, these habits are biologically and physiologically based, not culturally based. Culture is the unique way that we have learned to eat and sleep. Other members of our culture have taught us slowly and consciously (or even subconsciously) what it means to eat and sleep.

Culture is Dynamic and Heterogeneous …It should be understood that culture is always changing. Cultural patterns are not rigid but slowly and constantly changing. The United States of the 1960s is not the United States of today. Nor if I know one person from the United States do I know them all. Within cultures there are struggles to negotiate relationships within a multitude of forces of change. Although the general nature of this book focuses on broad principles, by viewing any culture as diverse in character or content ( heterogeneous ), we are better equipped to understand the complexities of that culture and become more sensitive to how people in that culture live. Values and Culture Value systems are fundamental to understanding how culture expresses itself. Values are deeply felt and often serve as principles that guide people in their perceptions and behaviors. Using our values, certain ideas are judged to be right or wrong, good or bad, important or not important, desirable or not desirable. Common values include fairness, respect, integrity, compassion, happiness, kindness, creativity, curiosity, religion, wisdom, and more. Ideally, our values should match up with what we say we will do, but sometimes our various values come into conflict, and a choice has to be made as to which one will be given preference over another. An example of this could be love of country and love of family. You might love both, but ultimate choose family over country when a crisis occurs.

Beliefs and Culture Our values are supported by our assumptions of our world. Assumptions are ideas that we believe and hold to be true. Beliefs come about through repetition. This repetition becomes a habit we form and leads to habitual patterns of thinking and doing. We do not realize our assumptions because they are in-grained in us at an unconscious level. We become aware of our assumptions when we encounter a value or belief that is different from our own, and it makes us feel that we need to stand up for, or validate, our beliefs. People from the United States strongly believe in independence. They consider themselves as separate individuals in control of their own lives. The Declaration of Independence states that all people—not groups, but individual people—are created equal. This sense of equality leads to the idea that all people are of the same standing or importance, and therefore, informality or lack of rigid social protocol is common. This leads to an informality of speech, dress, and manners that other cultures might find difficult to negotiate because of their own beliefs, assumptions, and behaviors. Beliefs are part of every human life in all world cultures. They define for us, and give meaning to, objects, people, places, and things in our lives. Our assumptions about our world determine how we react emotionally and what actions we need to take. These assumptions about our  worldviews  guide our behaviors and shape our attitudes. Mary Clark (2005) defines  worldviews as ‘beliefs and assumptions by which an individual makes sense of experiences that are hidden deep within the language and traditions of the surrounding society.’ Worldviews  are the shared values and beliefs that form the customs, behaviors and foundations of any particular society.  Worldviews ‘set the ground rules for shared cultural meaning’ (Clark, 2005). Worldviews  are the patterns developed through interactions within families, neighborhoods, schools, communities, churches, and so on.  Worldviews can be resources for understanding and analyzing the fundamental differences between cultures.

Feelings and Culture Our culture can give us a sense of familiarity and comfort in a variety of contexts. We embody a sense of ethnocentrism.  Ethnocentrism  is the belief that one’s own culture is superior to all other’s and is the standard by which all other cultures should be measured (Sumner, 1906). An example of this could be the farm-to-table movement that is currently popular in the United States. Different parts of the country, pride themselves in growing produce for local consumption touting the benefits of better food, enhanced economy, and carbon neutrality. Tasting menus are developed, awards are given, and consumers brag about the amazing, innovative benefits of living in the United States. What is often missed is the fact that for many people, in many cultures across the planet, the farm-to-table process has not changed for thousands of years. Being a locavore is the only way they know. Geertz (1973) believed the meanings we attach to our cultural symbols can create chaos when we meet someone who believes in a different meaning or interpretation; it can give us culture shock. This shock can be disorientating, confusing, or surprising. It can bring on anxiety or nervousness, and, for some, a sense of losing control. Culture is always provoking a variety of feelings.  Culture shock will be discussed in greater depth later.

Behavior and Culture Our worldview influences our behaviors. Behaviors endure over time and are passed from person to person. Within a dominant or national culture, members can belong to many different groups. Dominant cultures may be made up of many subsets…that exist within them. For example, your dominant or national culture may be the United States, but you are also a thirty-year-old woman from the Midwest who loves poodles. Because you are a thirty-year-old woman, you exist in the world very differently than a fifty-year-old man. A co-culture is a group whose values, beliefs or behaviors set it apart from the larger culture of which it is a part of and shares many similarities (Orbe, 1996). Social psychologists may prefer the term micro-culture as opposed to co-culture.

Attribution for this Section:

This page titled  1.3: Cultural Characteristics and the Roots of Culture  is shared under a  CC BY-NC-SA  license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by  Karen Krumrey-Fulks .

Culture and Identity

The topic of cultural identity will be explored throughout the semester and later in this book. Exploring the key concepts of identity is helpful as we begin our first look at the topics this course will cover. Professor Shannon Ahrndt in her online creative commons textbook, Intercultural Communication , shares:

Personal, Social, and Cultural Identities

Attribution of this Section: Professor Shannon Ahrndt in her online creative commons textbook, Intercultural Communication

Professor Ahrndt (2020) shares, as fully quoted below:

“Personal, Social, and Cultural Identities Ask yourself the question “Who am I?”…We develop a sense of who we are based on what is reflected back on us from other people. Our parents, friends, teachers, and the media help shape our identities. While this happens from birth, most people in Western societies reach a stage in adolescence where maturing cognitive abilities and increased social awareness lead them to begin to reflect on who they are. This begins a lifelong process of thinking about who we are now, who we were before, and who we will become (Tatum, 2000). Our identities make up an important part of our self-concept and can be broken down into three main categories personal, social, and cultural identities (see Table 1.1).

TABLE 1.1 Personal, Social, and Cultural Identities

“We must avoid the temptation to think of our identities as constant. Instead, our identities are formed through processes that started before we were born and will continue after we are gone; therefore our identities aren’t something we achieve or complete. Two related but distinct components of our identities are our personal and social identities (Spreckels & Kotthoff, 2009). Personal identities include the components of self that are primarily intrapersonal and connected to our life experiences. For example, I consider myself a puzzle lover, and you may identify as a fan of hip-hop music. Our social identities are the components of self that are derived from involvement in social groups with which we are interpersonally committed.

“For example, we may derive aspects of our social identity from our family or from a community of fans for a  sports team. Social identities differ from personal identities because they are externally organized through membership. Our membership may be voluntary (Greek organization on campus) or involuntary (family) and explicit (we pay dues to our labor union) or implicit (we purchase and listen to hip-hop music). There are numerous options for personal and social identities. While our personal identity choices express who we are, our social identities align us with particular groups. Through our social identities, we make statements about who we are and who we are not.

“Personal identities may change often as people have new experiences and develop new interests and hobbies. A current interest in online video games may give way to an interest in graphic design. Social identities do not change as often because they take more time to develop, as you must become interpersonally invested. For example, if an interest in online video games leads someone to become a member of a MMORPG, or a massively multiplayer online role-playing game community, that personal identity has led to a social identity that is now interpersonal and more entrenched. Cultural identities are based on socially constructed categories that teach us a way of being and include expectations for social behavior or ways of acting (Yep, 2002). Since we are often a part of them since birth, cultural identities are the least changeable of the three. The ways of being and the social expectations for behavior within cultural identities do change over time, but what separates them = from most social identities is their historical roots (Collier, 1996). For example, think of how ways of being and acting have changed for African Americans since the civil rights movement.

“Any of these identity types can be ascribed or avowed. Ascribed identities are personal, social, or cultural identities that are placed on us by others, while avowed identities are those that we claim for ourselves (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). Sometimes people ascribe an identity to someone else based on stereotypes. You may see a person who likes to read science-fiction books, watches documentaries, has glasses, and collects Star Trek memorabilia and label him or her a nerd. If the person doesn’t avow that identity, it can create friction, and that label may even hurt the other person’s feelings. But ascribed and avowed identities can match up. To extend the previous example, there has been a movement in recent years to reclaim the label nerd and turn it into a positive, and a nerd subculture has been growing in popularity. For example, MC Frontalot, a leader in the nerdcore hip-hop movement, says that being branded a nerd in school was terrible, but now he raps about “nerdy” things like blogs to sold-out crowds (Shipman, 2007). We can see from this example that our ascribed and avowed identities change over the course of our lives, and sometimes they match up and sometimes not.”

Section Two: What is Intercultural Communication Competence?

Part two learning outcomes.

• Define communication competence.
• Explain each part of the definition of communication competence.
• Discuss strategies for developing communication competence.
• Discuss communication apprehension and public speaking anxiety and employ strategies to manage them.

Finally, in this introductory chapter, defining the basic notion of intercultural communication competence will help set a strong footing for the following chapters.

According to Darla Deardorff (2004), “Intercultural [communication] competence is the ability to interact effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations, based on specific attitudes, intercultural knowledge, skills and reflection” (p. 5). A pyramid model represents desired internal and external outcomes by acquiring necessary preliminary competencies and skills. Deardorff’s model of intercultural communication competence, influential in its field, is explained in great detail beyond our course level (along with other similar models) at this site: center for intercultural dialogue .

Undergirding Deardorff’s pyramid of intercultural communication competence and comprising its foundation are three characteristics allowing for its development and excellence:  (1) motivation — developing cultural curiosity, general openness, and respect for self/others; (2) knowledge — having a fund of knowledge to draw on to develop deep understanding, gaining knowledge of culture as well as specific cultural information and sociolinguistic awareness; (3) skills — possessing communication and listening skills such as listening, interpreting, analyzing, and evaluating (Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, & Roy, 2017, p. 217).

Barriers & Components of Intercultural Communication Competence

“Intercultural communication competence (ICC) is the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in various cultural contexts.” Samovar, et al. (2017) share that motivation, skills, and knowledge are components of building intercultural communication competence. Others, such as (Martin & Nakayama, 2010) name the vital components as motivation, self and other knowledge, and tolerance for uncertainty.  

Barriers of Intercultural Communication Competence

Green, et. at al (2018) share the importance of looking at what impedes intercultural communication competence in the section below, shared from their OER, I ntroduction to Communication :

Before looking at how to be more competent in intercultural interactions, it is important to identify some of the  barriers .  Verderber and MacGeorge (2016) give six:

• Anxiety : While an intercultural situation will not necessarily result in culture shock, it is not unusual to experience some level of discomfort in such situations. The apprehension we feel can make the interaction awkward or can lead us to avoiding situations that we deem too unfamiliar.
• Assumed similarity or difference : If we expect that restaurants will be the same in Asia as they are in the U.S., we are likely to be disappointed. Likewise, if we think no one in another country will understand us, we might miss the opportunity to connect with others who share similar interests.
• Ethnocentrism : Assuming our culture is superior to or more important than all others will make it difficult to successfully engage with people from other cultures.
• Stereotyping : We can create stereotypes of people within our culture or of people from other cultures. Either way it stops us from seeing people as individuals, and we instead see them as a certain age, race, gender, ability, or whatever. Stereotyping is a process of judging that we all need to work to avoid.
• Incompatible communication code : Even within our own language, we may have trouble understanding the messages of others. When the languages are different, it may be more difficult. Nonverbal communication also varies between cultures, so it is not always a good substitute for verbal communication.
• Incompatible norms and values:  People of one culture may be offended by the norms or values of another culture. For example, less-significant differences in values, such as which foods are most desired, may be offensive. For example, in India, cows are considered sacred, yet in the U.S., beef is widely consumed. However, different cultural values about business practices or expansion of territory can lead to international conflict.

Communication in the Real World ( 2016) expands upon the notion of cultivating intercultural communication competence and is quoted below:

Throughout this book we have been putting various tools in our communication toolbox to improve our communication competence. Many of these tools can be translated into intercultural contexts. While building any form of competence requires effort, building intercultural communication competence often requires us to take more risks. Some of these risks require us to leave our comfort zones and adapt to new and uncertain situations. In this section, we will learn some of the skills needed to be an interculturally competent communicator.

Components of Intercultural Communication Listed

Initially, a person’s motivation for communicating with people from other cultures must be considered. Motivation refers to the root of a person’s desire to foster intercultural relationships and can be intrinsic or extrinsic (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). Put simply, if a person isn’t motivated to communicate with people from different cultures, then the components of ICC discussed next don’t really matter. If a person has a healthy curiosity that drives him or her toward intercultural encounters in order to learn more about self and others, then there is a foundation from which to build additional competence-relevant attitudes and skills. This intrinsic motivation makes intercultural communication a voluntary, rewarding, and lifelong learning process. Motivation can also be extrinsic , meaning that the desire for intercultural communication is driven by an outside reward like money, power, or recognition. While both types of motivation can contribute to ICC, context may further enhance or impede a person’s motivation to communicate across cultures. Members of dominant groups are often less motivated, intrinsically and extrinsically, toward intercultural communication than members of nondominant groups, because they don’t see the incentives for doing so. Having more power in communication encounters can create an unbalanced situation where the individual from the nondominant group is expected to exhibit competence, or the ability to adapt to the communication behaviors and attitudes of the other. Even in situations where extrinsic rewards like securing an overseas business investment are at stake, it is likely that the foreign investor is much more accustomed to adapting to United States business customs and communication than vice versa. This expectation that others will adapt to our communication can be unconscious, but later ICC skills we will learn will help bring it to awareness. The unbalanced situation I just described is a daily reality for many individuals with nondominant identities. Their motivation toward intercultural communication may be driven by survival in terms of functioning effectively in dominant contexts. [Consider] the phenomenon known as code-switching , in which individuals from nondominant groups adapt their communication to fit in with the dominant group. In such instances, African Americans may “talk white” by conforming to what is called “standard English,” women in corporate environments may adapt masculine communication patterns, people who are gay or lesbian may self-censor and avoid discussing their same-gender partners with coworkers, and people with nonvisible disabilities may not disclose them in order to avoid judgment. While intrinsic motivation captures an idealistic view of intercultural communication as rewarding in its own right, many contexts create extrinsic motivation. In either case, there is a risk that an individual’s motivation can still lead to incompetent communication. For example, it would be exploitative for an extrinsically motivated person to pursue intercultural communication solely for an external reward and then abandon the intercultural relationship once the reward is attained. These situations highlight the relational aspect of ICC, meaning that the motivation of all parties should be considered. Motivation alone cannot create ICC.

Knowledge supplements motivation and is an important part of building ICC. Knowledge includes self- and other-awareness , mindfulness, and cognitive flexibility . Building knowledge of our own cultures, identities, and communication patterns takes more than passive experience (Martin & Nakayama). Developing cultural self-awareness often requires us to get out of our comfort zones. Listening to people who are different from us is a key component of developing self-knowledge. This may be uncomfortable, because we may realize that people think of our identities differently than we thought. For example, when I lived in Sweden, my Swedish roommates often discussed how they were wary of befriending students from the United States. They perceived US Americans to be shallow because they were friendly and exciting while they were in Sweden but didn’t remain friends once they left. Although I was initially upset by their assessment, I came to see the truth in it. Swedes are generally more reserved than US Americans and take longer to form close friendships. The comparatively extroverted nature of the Americans led some of the Swedes to overestimate the depth of their relationship, which ultimately hurt them when the Americans didn’t stay in touch. This made me more aware of how my communication was perceived, enhancing my self-knowledge. I also learned more about communication behaviors of the Swedes, which contributed to my other-knowledge. The most effective way to develop other-knowledge is by direct and thoughtful encounters with other cultures. However, people may not readily have these opportunities for a variety of reasons. Despite the overall diversity in the United States, many people still only interact with people who are similar to them. Even in a racially diverse educational setting, for example, people often group off with people of their own race. While a heterosexual person may have a gay or lesbian friend or relative, they likely spend most of their time with other heterosexuals. Unless you interact with people with disabilities as part of your job or have a person with a disability in your friend or family group, you likely spend most of your time interacting with able-bodied people. Living in a rural area may limit your ability to interact with a range of cultures, and most people do not travel internationally regularly. Because of this, we may have to make a determined effort to interact with other cultures or rely on educational sources like college classes, books, or documentaries. Learning another language is also a good way to learn about a culture, because you can then read the news or watch movies in the native language, which can offer insights that are lost in translation. It is important to note though that we must evaluate the credibility of the source of our knowledge, whether it is a book, person, or other source. Also, knowledge of another language does not automatically equate to ICC. photo: pexel.com Developing self- and other-knowledge is an ongoing process that will continue to adapt and grow as we encounter new experiences. Mindfulness and cognitive complexity will help as we continue to build our ICC (Pusch, 2009).  Mindfulness  is a state of self- and other-monitoring that informs later reflection on communication interactions. As mindful communicators we should ask questions that focus on the interactive process like “How is our communication going? What are my reactions? What are their reactions?” Being able to adapt our communication in the moment based on our answers to these questions is a skill that comes with a high level of ICC. Reflecting on the communication encounter later to see what can be learned is also a way to build ICC. We should then be able to incorporate what we learned into our communication frameworks, which requires cognitive flexibility.  Cognitive flexibility  refers to the ability to continually supplement and revise existing knowledge to create new categories rather than forcing new knowledge into old categories. Cognitive flexibility helps prevent our knowledge from becoming stale and also prevents the formation of stereotypes and can help us avoid prejudging an encounter or jumping to conclusions. In summary, to be better intercultural communicators, we should know much about others and ourselves and be able to reflect on and adapt our knowledge as we gain new experiences. Skills & Tolerance for Uncertainity Motivation and knowledge can inform us as we gain new experiences, but how we feel in the moment of intercultural encounters is also important. [We have heard feelings are ‘neither good nor bad – they just are.’ In fact, to gain intercultural communication competency, a skill based approach is necessary to help us communicate regargless of our emotional state. Additionally,] t olerance for uncertainty is necessary and refers to an individual’s attitude about and level of comfort in uncertain situations (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). Some people perform better in uncertain situations than others, and intercultural encounters often bring up uncertainty. Whether communicating with someone of a different gender, race, or nationality, we are often wondering what we should or shouldn’t do or say. Situations of uncertainty most often become clearer as they progress, but the anxiety that an individual with a low tolerance for uncertainty feels may lead them to leave the situation or otherwise communicate in a less competent manner. Individuals with a high tolerance for uncertainty may exhibit more patience, waiting on new information to become available or seeking out information, which may then increase the understanding of the situation and lead to a more successful outcome (Pusch, 2009). Individuals who are intrinsically motivated toward intercultural communication may have a higher tolerance for uncertainty, in that their curiosity leads them to engage with others who are different because they find the self- and other-knowledge gained rewarding.

photo: pexel.com Cultivating Intercultural Communication Competence How can ICC be built and achieved? This is a key question we will address in this section. Two main ways to build ICC are through experiential learning and reflective practices (Bednarz, 2010). We must first realize that competence isn’t any one thing. Part of being competent means that you can assess new situations and adapt your existing knowledge to the new contexts. What it means to be competent will vary depending on your physical location, your role (personal, professional, etc.), and your life stage, among other things. Sometimes we will know or be able to figure out what is expected of us in a given situation, but sometimes we may need to act in unexpected ways to meet the needs of a situation. Competence enables us to better cope with the unexpected, adapt to the nonroutine, and connect to uncommon frameworks. I have always told my students that ICC is less about a list of rules and more about a box of tools. Three ways to cultivate ICC are to foster attitudes that motivate us, discover knowledge that informs us, and develop skills that enable us (Bennett, 2009). To foster attitudes that motivate us, we must develop a sense of wonder about culture. This sense of wonder can lead to feeling overwhelmed, humbled, or awed (Opdal, 2001). This sense of wonder may correlate to a high tolerance for uncertainty, which can help us turn potentially frustrating experiences we have into teachable moments. I’ve had many such moments in my intercultural encounters at home and abroad. One such moment came the first time I tried to cook a frozen pizza in the oven in the shared kitchen of my apartment in Sweden. The information on the packaging was written in Swedish, but like many college students, I had a wealth of experience cooking frozen pizzas to draw from. As I went to set the oven dial to preheat, I noticed it was strange that the oven didn’t go up to my usual 425–450 degrees. Not to be deterred, I cranked the dial up as far as it would go, waited a few minutes, put my pizza in, and walked down the hall to my room to wait for about fifteen minutes until the pizza was done. The smell of smoke drew me from my room before the fifteen minutes was up, and I walked into a corridor filled with smoke and the smell of burnt pizza. I pulled the pizza out and was puzzled for a few minutes while I tried to figure out why the pizza burned so quickly, when one of my corridor-mates gently pointed out that the oven temperatures in Sweden are listed in Celsius, not Fahrenheit! Despite almost burning the kitchen down, I learned a valuable lesson about assuming my map for temperatures and frozen pizzas was the same as everyone else’s. photo: pexel.com Discovering knowledge that informs us is another step that can build on our motivation. One tool involves learning more about our cognitive style, or how we learn. Our cognitive style consists of our preferred patterns for “gathering information, constructing meaning, and organizing and applying knowledge” (Bennett, 2009). As we explore cognitive styles, we discover that there are differences in how people attend to and perceive the world, explain events, organize the world, and use rules of logic (Nisbett, 2003). Some cultures have a cognitive style that focuses more on tasks, analytic and objective thinking, details and precision, inner direction, and independence, while others focus on relationships and people over tasks and things, concrete and metaphorical thinking, and a group consciousness and harmony. Developing ICC is a complex learning process. At the basic level of learning, we accumulate knowledge and assimilate it into our existing frameworks. But accumulated knowledge doesn’t necessarily help us in situations where we have to apply that knowledge. Transformative learning takes place at the highest levels and occurs when we encounter situations that challenge our accumulated knowledge and our ability to accommodate that knowledge to manage a real-world situation. The cognitive dissonance that results in these situations is often uncomfortable and can lead to a hesitance to repeat such an engagement. One tip for cultivating ICC that can help manage these challenges is to find a community of like-minded people who are also motivated to develop ICC. In my graduate program, I lived in the international dormitory in order to experience the cultural diversity that I had enjoyed so much studying abroad a few years earlier. I was surrounded by international students and US American students who were more or less interested in cultural diversity. This ended up being a tremendous learning experience, and I worked on research about identity and communication between international and American students. Developing skills that enable us is another part of ICC. Some of the skills important to ICC are the ability to empathize, accumulate cultural information, listen, resolve conflict, and manage anxiety (Bennett, 2009). Again, you are already developing a foundation for these skills by reading this book, but you can expand those skills to intercultural settings with the motivation and knowledge already described. Contact alone does not increase intercultural skills; there must be more deliberate measures taken to fully capitalize on those encounters. While research now shows that intercultural contact does decrease prejudices, this is not enough to become interculturally competent. The ability to empathize and manage anxiety enhances prejudice reduction, and these two skills have been shown to enhance the overall impact of intercultural contact even more than acquiring cultural knowledge. There is intercultural training available for people who are interested. If you can’t access training, you may choose to research intercultural training on your own, as there are many books, articles, and manuals written on the subject. Reflective practices can also help us process through rewards and challenges associated with developing ICC. As we open ourselves to new experiences, we are likely to have both positive and negative reactions. It can be very useful to take note of negative or defensive reactions you have. This can help you identify certain triggers that may create barriers to effective intercultural interaction. Noting positive experiences can also help you identify triggers for learning that you could seek out or recreate to enhance the positive (Bednarz, 2010). A more complex method of reflection is called  intersectional reflexivity . Intersectional reflexivity is a reflective practice by which we acknowledge intersecting identities, both privileged and disadvantaged, and implicate ourselves in social hierarchies and inequalities (Jones Jr., 2010). This method brings in the concepts of dominant and nondominant groups and the privileges/disadvantages dialectic we discussed earlier. photo: pexel.com While formal intercultural experiences like studying abroad or volunteering for the Special Olympics or a shelter for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (GLBTQ) youth can result in learning, informal experiences are also important. We may be less likely to include informal experiences in our reflection if we don’t see them as legitimate. Reflection should also include “critical incidents” or what I call “a-ha! moments.” Think of reflection as a tool for metacompetence that can be useful in bringing the formal and informal together (Bednarz, 2010).

*The section above is attributed to Communication in the Real World .

Why Study Intercultural Communication

Karen Krumrey (2020) in her online textboo k, Intercultural Communication for the Community College , s hares the following materials about the importance of studying Intercultural Communication. We are grateful to integrate her work in our online textbook. She shares as noted below: What is your reason for studying intercultural communication?  Maybe it was a requirement on the road to achieving your major, and you dutifully signed up without having given it much thought.  Maybe you’ve spent time overseas or enjoyed spending time with an exchange student at your high school.  Martin & Nakayama (2011) believe that all our varied reasons can fall into six categories that they call imperatives.   For our purposes, an  imperative  will be an important or compelling reason.   Martin & Nakayama (2011) identify the six  imperative categories as peace, demographic, economic, technological, self-awareness, and ethical. Human civilization is familiar with conflict.  History is full of conflict over politics, religion, language, resources, and more.  The bottom line for the  peace imperative is a question.  Can individuals of different races, ethnicities, language, and cultures co-exist on this planet?  It would be naïve to assume that simply understanding intercultural communication issues would end war and conflict, but this question does underscore the need for all of us to learn more about cultural groups other than our own. The term demographics means the  characteristics of a population ,  as classified by race, ethnicity, age, sex, income, and more.   U.S. demographics, as well as those around the world, are changing dramatically.  According to the Population Reference Bureau (2019), which computes a “diversity index,” the states in the US south, southwest, and west will see the biggest impact from immigration.  Many of those immigrants will be economic refugees directly impacted by climate change.  They will come searching for new ways to support themselves and their families.  Others will be victims of violence and political instability. The United States has an interesting history in relationship to its’ immigrants.  A commonly used metaphor called  the melting pot  assumes that immigrants and cultural minorities are assimilated into the US majority culture, losing their original cultures.  Most researchers believe that  the melting pot  is a myth, and a better metaphor would be the  tossed salad or rather the diversity of immigrants and minorities is still apparent, but part of a nourishing whole. Vocabulary important to the  demographic imperative  are  heterogeneous  and  homogeneous.   If a population is considered  heterogeneous,  there are  differences in the group, culture, or population.   If a population is considered  homogeneous,  there are  similarities in the group, culture, or population. Diversity  is the  quality of being different.   A  nativistic  group is  extremely patriotic to the point of being anti-immigrant. The  demographic imperative  is not only about immigration though, it’s also about an aging workforce, and economic pressure.  Most families need two incomes to live what is consider a middle-class existence or to generate savings enough to retire on.  As the demographics change, culture changes. The recent trend toward  globalization  or  the creation of a world market in goods, services, labor, capital, and technology  is dramatic.  To be effective in this new global market, we must understand how business is conducted in other countries and cultures because more and more of our domestic economic growth depends on global success. An accurate understanding of the economies around the world is also crucial to compete on the world stage.  The bottom line when considering the  economic imperative is the ultimate impact of globalization on the average person. In 1967, a futurist named Marshall McLuhan coined the iconoclastic term,  global village,  which has become the vanguard for the  technology imperative.   The term  refers to a world in which communication technology unites people in remote parts of the world.   As you know, it was decades later before personal computing came into existence, but today new technology is introduced almost daily.  Technology has made communication easier.  Information is so easy to access and manipulate, that we are now confronted with the impact of  fake news  and purposeful  disinformation. Technology is not just about ease of use though, it’s also about increasing contact with others.  We can increase contact with people who are different than us, but we can also increase contact with people who are the same as us.  In fact, research tells us that humans prefer to use technology to contact those who are  homogeneous.  Diasporic groups, ethnic and/or national groups that are geographically dispersed throughout the world,  are using technology to maintain contact as they disperse from refugee camps to host nations.  Technology is also an  identity management  tool.  Individuals use technology to make sense of their multiple images concerning their sense of self in different social contexts. Communication technology has become so important and so intertwined with the economic imperative that the term,  digital divide,  has come into being.   Digital natives , or  people who grew up using technology,  are often citizens of wealthy nations that live lives of privilege and have better economic prospects because of their technological access.  People who grew up in poorer nations without technological skills and access, often have fewer economic opportunities.  At the end of the last century, this idea was captured in the statement, “they live on the other side of the tracks.” The other side of the train tracks referred to a less desirable location.  In today’s world, the “tracks” have been replaced by technology, and the  digital divide. Does the digital divide lead you to ponder ethical issues of privilege and wealth?  Ethics,  the principles of conduct that help govern behaviors of individuals and groups,  often create cultural questions that lead to our understanding of the  ethical imperative.   Ethical principles often arise from community consensus of what is good or bad, right or wrong, and what “ought” to be as opposed to what “is.”  Some ethical issues are  explicit  or clearly stated within a culture, while other are  implicit or not clearly stated. When pondering ethical situations and cultural mores, there are two ways humans view the situation, relativistically or universally .   If you are a  relativist,  you believe that  no cultural pattern is inherently right or wrong, everything depends on perspective.   In other words, you might not make the same choice yourself, but are willing to understand why others would make that choice.  If you are a  universalist,  you believe that  cultural differences are more superficial, and that fundamental notions of right and wrong are universal.   In other words, everyone should be making the same choices for the same reasons.  Although  universalism  and  relativism are thought of as an either/or choice (non-dualistic), realistically most people are a combination of both (dualistic).  There are some issues you might hold strict opinions about while other issues you are willing to be more open about. [We will explore this notion next chapter].   One of the most important reasons for studying intercultural communication is the awareness it raises of our own cultural identity and background.  The  self-awareness imperative  helps us to gain insights into our own culture along with our intercultural experiences.  All cultures are  ethnocentric  by their very natures.   Ethnocentrism  is a  tendency to think that our own culture is superior to other cultures.   Most of us don’t even realize that we think this way, but we do.  Sure, we might admit that our culture isn’t perfect, yet we still think that we’re doing better than that culture to the north or south of us.  Ethnocentrism can lead to stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination.  It will be discussed in greater depth in coming chapters.   The opposite of ethnocentrism is  self-reflexivity  or the  process of learning to understand oneself and one’s position in society.   Learning about others helps us to understand ourselves.  Real people with real lives struggle with decisions just like you do.  They have values, and beliefs that govern their choices.  Listening to the voices of people who are different can lead to different ways of seeing the world.  Developing self-awareness may also lead to an increased awareness of being caught up in the political, economic, and historical systems that are not associated with an individual’s choice.   As you ponder your reasons for studying intercultural communication, it is hoped that you make a conscious effort to become more aware of the communication practices of yourself and others.  Much of the communication principles and theories that you learn about in this book occur at a subconscious level.  As you learn more, challenge yourself to develop observation skills so you can “see” more.  As you learn more, become more flexible in your interpretation of the messages that you are receiving from others.  As you learn more, begin to create meaning “with” others and avoid dictating “to” others.  The study of intercultural communication is the study of the variation of your story within the human story.  Let’s get started. Attribution for this section: Intercultural Communication for the Community College Karen Krumrey-Fulks is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.  

Application – Chapter One Discussion

An ending note from Lori and Mark H-W, as we end this chapter one, we are including your class discussion (which might vary in D2L) and key concepts for the quiz. The key concepts are also defined above and when you click on a glossary term, the definition appears! Here’s to a great week of discussion.

SAMPLE Discussion Questions – Getting Ready to Share

See your own D2L online instructions.

First, please watch Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk, “The danger of a single story.”

“Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding” (TED Talk Description).

Directions:

As you reflect upon Chapter 1, please note how we define intercultural communication. Sometimes we hear people say, “I am from S.E. Minnesota, I am surrounded by corn and soybeans, I have no culture.”

Others say, “I am from far away, how does this relate? My whole life is intercultural communication.”

Please know we all have cultures. This chapter allows for theoretical definitions. The video above speaks to the importance of including all stories, noting there is more than a single story .

You will answer these questions in about 3 paragraphs (think about 3 paragraphs or 500 words) OR add a video upload  (2-3 minutes) of yourself explaining the ideas (remember the quote) in your course online Discussion Area:

Discussion Questions:

1. What does the book mean by “Developing Intercultural Competence?”

• Use at least 1 quote from the book (you can mention the section as there are no “pages”) in this part of your post as you explain this notion.
• Please introduce yourself. What co-cultures do you identify yourself with? Explain.
• How do you describe yourself culturally? Reflect upon the notion of “story” — is your “story” told?
• How have you experienced different intercultural communication relationships? What are the rewards/challenges of having intercultural relationships?
• Add a video upload OR a photo of yourself, so we get a visual cue.

2. What/who do you wish you knew more about? You will need to complete 6 hours of intercultural conversations this semester (Lori will have ZOOM sessions you can join, people you can visit internationally and locally & online, and you can find your own conversations too). What “culture in your backyard” do you most want to explore? What other ideas do you have? Starting next week, I’ll add ideas.

3. What will you do this week (note, you add a reply on Sundays to update us on what you did):

• Learn more about a culture you identify with.
• Learn more about the culture “in your backyard” (yes, make a commitment to doing something).

Chapter Key Vocabulary

• communication
• nonverbal communication
• verbal communication
• dominant culture
• objectivity
• ethnocentrism
• heterogeneous
• homogeneous
• demographics
• technological
• self-awareness
• melting pot
• tossed salad
• global village
• diasporic groups
• identity management
• relativism/relativity
• universalism/universality
• self-reflexivity

Ahrndt, S. (2020). Intercultural Communication [Textbook]. University of Missouri-St. Louis. Open Educational Resources Collection. Retrieved from https://irl.umsl.edu/oer/24

Berger, C. R., & Calabrese, R. J. (1975). “Some Explorations In Initial Interaction And Beyond: Toward A Developmental Theory Of Interpersonal Communication.” Human Communication Research, 1(2), 99–112. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.1975.tb00258.x

Clark, M. E. (2005). “In search of human nature.” London: Routledge.

Communication in the Real World. (2016). Communication is nonverbal. Retrieved from https://open.lib.umn.edu/communication/chapter/6-4-communication-is-nonverbal/

Deardorff, D. K. (2004). The identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student outcome of internationalization at institutions of higher education in the United States (Doctoral dissertation). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global database. (UMI No. 3136104)

Geertz, C. (1973). “The Interpretation of cultures.” London: Hutchinson.

Green, J., Broussard, M., & Comadena, M. E. (2018). Introduction to communication. Open Educational Resources Collection. Retrieved from https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1070&context=communication-textbooks

Hall, E. T. (1959). The Silent Language. Doubleday.

Hall, E. (1976). “Beyond culture.” Garden City, NY: Anchor.

Hampden-Turner, C., & Trompenaars, F. (1997). “Response to Geert Hofstede.” International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 21(1), 149–159. doi: 10.1016/s0147-1767(96)00042-9

Hills, M. D. (2002). “Kluckhohn and Strodtbecks Values Orientation Theory.” Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 4(4). doi: 10.9707/2307-0919.1040

Hofstede, G. (1980). “Culture and Organizations.” International Studies of Management & Organization, 10(4), 15–41. doi: 10.1080/00208825.1980.11656300

Introduction to Communication. (2022). Verbal communication. Retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/introductiontocommunication/chapter/verbal-communication/

Kluckhohn, F. R., & Strodtbeck, dF. L. (1961). “Variations in Value Orientations.” Evanston, IL: Row Peterson.

Krumrey-Fulks, K. (n.d.). 1.3: Cultural Characteristics and the Roots of Culture [Webpage]. Open Oregon Educational Resources. Retrieved March 6, 2023, from https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/intercultural/chapter/1-3-cultural-characteristics-and-the-roots-of-culture/

Lustig, M. W., & Koester, J. (2005). Among us: Essays on identity, belonging, and intercultural competence. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2010). Experiencing intercultural communication: An introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2011). “Experiencing intercultural communication” (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

New World Encyclopedia. (2022, January 6). “Globalization.” https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Globalization

Orr, L. M., & Hauser, W. J. (2008). “A Re-Inquiry of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions: A Call for 21st Century Cross-Cultural Research.” Marketing Management Journal, 18(2), 1–19.

Pearson, J. C., & Nelson, P. E. (2000). An introduction to human communication: Understanding and sharing. National Textbook Co.

Samovar, L. A. (2021). Communication. In International encyclopedia of communication. Wiley-Blackwell.

Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., McDaniel, E. R., & Roy, C. S. (2009). Communication between cultures (7th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., McDaniel, E. R., & Roy, C. S. (2011). Communication between cultures (8th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., McDaniel, E. R., & Roy, C. S. (2017). Communication between cultures (9th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., & McDaniel, E. R. (2017). Intercultural communication: A reader. Cengage Learning.

Schultze, Q. (n.d.). Definitions of communication. Retrieved from http://www.quentinjshultze.com/definitions-of-communication/

Sumner, W. G. (1906). “Folkways: Sociological importance of usages, manners, customs, mores and morals.” 195

Victor, D. A. (1992). International business communication. Harper Collins.

Attributions

Ahrndt, Shannon, “Intercultural Communication” (2020). Open Educational Resources Collection. 24. Available at: https://irl.umsl.edu/oer/24

• This textbook is brought to you for free and open access by the Open Educational Resources at IRL @ UMSL. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Educational Resources Collection by an authorized administrator of IRL @ UMSL. For more information, please contact [email protected].

Cultural Characteristics and the Roots of Culture

• Shared by LibreTexts is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA.

Intercultural Communication for the Community College

• Karen Krumrey-Fulks’s OER Book, Intercultural Communication for the Community College, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

http://introtocommopensource.ridgewater.edu/index.html

• Keith Green, Ruth Fairchild, Bev Knudsen, Darcy Lease-Gubrud’s 2018 OER book, Introduction to Communication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License .

https://open.lib.umn.edu/communication/

• [Author removed at the request of original publisher]. (2016, September 29). The University of M.N . Communication in the Real World. Retrieved December 17, 2021, from https://open.lib.umn.edu/communication/front-matter/publisher-information/

It is through intercultural communication that we come to create, understand, and transform culture and identity. Intercultural communication is communication between people with differing cultural identities (Samavor, et. al).

"Identity is a psychological term used to explain the way individuals understand themselves as part of a social group and are recognized by others as members of the social group."

Source: Culture and Psychology by L D Worthy; T Lavigne; and F Romero is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

"sharing and understanding meaning"  or “making common” (Pearson & Nelson, 2000).

In communication, a symbol is an expression that stands for something else and the act of assigning meaning to symbols is at the core of human communication" (Samovar, et. al, pp. 28-31).

Additionally, "a symbol is something that stands in for or represents something else. Symbols can be communicated verbally (speaking the word hello), in writing (putting the letters H-E-L-L-O together), or nonverbally (waving your hand back and forth). In any case, the symbols we use stand in for something else, like a physical object or an idea; they do not actually correspond to the thing being referenced in any direct way" (Communication, pp. 113-114).

Verbal Communication is defined as an agreed-upon and rule-governed system of symbols used to share meaning (Introduction to Communication, 2022).

“Nonverbal communication is a process of generating meaning using behavior other than words. Rather than thinking of nonverbal communication as the opposite of or as separate from verbal communication, it’s more accurate to view them as operating side by side—as part of the same system” (Communication, 2016, p.165).

Samovar, et. al (2018) add, "we purpose that nonverbal communication involves all those nonverbal stimuli in a communication setting that are generated by both the source and [their] use of the environment and that have potential message value for the source and/or receiver.

As Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, & Roy (2017) explain, “Culture is a set of human-made objective and subjective elements that in the past have increased the probability of survival and resulted in satisfaction for the participants in an ecological niche, and thus became shared among those who could communicate with each other because they had a common language and lived in the same time and place” (p.39).

is how people interpret reality and events, including their images of themselves and how they relate to the world around them” (Samavor et.al., 2017, p. 57).

The cultural group that has primary access to institutional and economic power is often characterized as the dominant culture (Lustig & Koester, 2010, pp. 313-314).

Co-culture refers to, "groups or social communities exhibiting communication characteristics, perceptions, values, beliefs, and practices that are sufficiently different to distinguish them from other groups and communities and from the dominant culture" (Samovar, et. al., 2009, p. 13).

judgment based upon observable data and uninfluenced by emotions and personal prejudices (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/objectivity).

approximations since they are based on limited data and are only a way to "approximately" know more about a larger population. (Samavor, et. al).

According to Darla Deardorff (2004), “Intercultural [communication] competence is the ability to interact effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations, based on specific attitudes, intercultural knowledge, skills and reflection” (p.5).

"Motivation describes the wants or needs that direct behavior toward a goal."

"Intrinsic motivation arises from internal factors; things within the person."

"Extrinsic motivation arises from external factors, things outside the person."

Developing Intercultural Communication Competence Copyright © 2018 by Lori Halverson-Wente is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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WHAT IS INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION?

In international business, the failure to understand cultural differences can bear serious consequences. In fact, whole campaigns have had to be pulled due to a lack of prior research into cultural awareness. Last-minute redesign and reprinting can be very expensive, so it is crucial to ensure that any text and images used are culturally appropriate. It’s not surprising that intercultural understanding and communication are top priorities for international businesses today. Employees with intercultural communication competence are highly sought-after. But what is intercultural communication?

Intercultural communication studies communication across different cultures and social groups and describes the many communication processes and related issues among groups of individuals from varied cultural backgrounds.

Knowing a foreign language is just part of the parcel—the other party’s cultural background, values, and beliefs also need to be understood. This is where intercultural communication skills are indispensable. They are needed to successfully communicate with people from other cultures and social groups. And intercultural communication skills also include a willingness to be adaptable and accept that other cultures may communicate and do things differently.

If you’re wondering where you and your staff can acquire these sought-after intercultural communication skills, look no further! EHLION is an established language services provider with many years of experience in cross-cultural training. We can help your staff communicate effectively with other employees internationally, or we can prepare executives for overseas deployments or for high-level business negotiations as an alternative to relying on technical translation , patent translation , or notarized translation services.

What is the meaning of intercultural communication?

How can we define intercultural communication? Intercultural communication essentially means communication across different cultural boundaries. When two or more people with different cultural backgrounds interact and communicate with each other or one another, we can say that intercultural communication is taking place. So intercultural communication can be defined as the sharing of information on different levels of awareness between people with different cultural backgrounds, or put simply: individuals influenced by different cultural groups negotiate shared meaning in interactions.

Intercultural communication theories

There are many different intercultural communication types and theories. The most important ones are:

Social science approach

This model focuses on observing the behavior of a person from a different culture in order to describe it and compare it with other cultures. It also examines the ways in which individuals adjust their communication with others in different situations, depending on who they are talking to. For example, we would tell the same story differently to our best friend than we would to our grandmother.

Interpretive approach

This theory focuses on accumulating knowledge about a culture through communication in the form of shared stories based on subjective, individual experiences. The main focus is on intercultural communication as it is used in particular speech communities, so ethnography plays a major role here. Because the individual context is so important for this model, it does not strive to make generalized predictions based on its findings.

Dialectical approach

This method examines aspects of intercultural communication in the form of six dichotomies, namely cultural vs. individual, personal vs. contextual, differences vs. similarities, static vs. dynamic, history vs. past-present vs. future, and privilege vs. disadvantage. A dialectical approach helps us think about culture and intercultural communication in complex ways, so we can avoid categorizing everything in either-or dichotomies by adopting a broader approach and acknowledging the tensions that must be negotiated.

Critical approach

This approach examines cultures according to their differences compared to the researcher’s own culture and, in particular, how these cultures are portrayed in the media. The critical approach is complex and multifaceted and therefore leads to a rich understanding of intercultural communication.

The differences between Multicultural vs. Cross-cultural vs. Intercultural

You may have also come across the terms multicultural communication and cross-cultural communication. How do these differ from intercultural communication? Let’s take a look!

Multicultural communication

Multicultural refers to how a group or team is composed, in particular a group that is made up of people with different nationalities. In fact, communication in multicultural settings has become commonplace today.

Cross-cultural communication

Cross-cultural means comparing two or more different cultures; so cross-cultural communication examines the varying communication styles of different cultural groups.

Communication

Intercultural , finally, refers to exchanges taking place between different cultures.

So, in a nutshell, intercultural communication relates to interactions among people from different cultures, while cross-cultural communication involves comparing interactions among people from the same culture to those from another culture.

Intercultural Communication in Business

Download the guide to improve your intercultural communication skills in business

Why is intercultural communication so important?

There are many reasons why intercultural communication is important. First of all, effective intercultural communication is an essential skill for anyone working across different countries or regions in order to establish harmonious relationships and avoid conflict. It is essential to accurately and appropriately transfer information across countries and cultures. Executives in multinational companies, working either in their home country or as expats abroad, especially benefit from great intercultural communication skills to engage with international clients and employees.

Similarly, intercultural communication is also crucial for anyone working with people from other cultures to avoid misunderstandings and even offense. It’s fair to say that intercultural communication is the foundation for successful international business in today’s globalized world.

Practical examples of intercultural communication

Intercultural competence covers a large field ranging from linguistic aspects all the way to social and cultural conventions.

Linguistic differences can make it challenging for global companies to identify suitable product names for their target markets that don’t cause offense. Coca-Cola, for example, once tried to find a phonetic equivalent of their brand for the Chinese market and came up with KeKou-KeLa. But they failed to consider that this pleasantly sounding name translates to “bite the wax tadpole” in Chinese. Needless to say, the brand name had to be changed.

It’s important to be aware that each culture may have different social conventions. American business partners, for example, prefer small talk to build a relationship first, whereas Brits may try humor, and Germans tend to get straight to the point without beating around the bush. Thais, on the other hand, think nothing of asking what are considered rather personal questions in the western world, for example about your marital status or job. Similarly, Americans like to use first names when addressing others, while in Austria, titles should be used to avoid sounding disrespectful. Germans will want to shake hands, while people in Thailand place their palms together at chest level and bow instead.

Social conventions

In a business context, it’s also interesting that different cultures prefer a different presentation style. So take note if you or your staff are planning to present overseas. Western cultures like Australia and the U.S. are more forward-looking and like to focus on potential future benefits of products and campaigns. In contrast, representatives from countries such as China or India will prefer to go over past achievements to establish credibility. This knowledge can make or break relationships and business deals.

Non-verbal communication can be just as tricky to navigate as verbal communication. In many countries, giving a thumbs-up sign is a positive expression that signals agreement. But in some cultures, such as Japan, Indonesia, and Latin America, it is considered offensive.

Similarly, eating with your hands is a perfectly acceptable way to eat in Indian culture but is considered rude in many other cultures

Barriers and challenges

Given its complexity, it’s not surprising that there are several barriers to intercultural communication.

One of the main challenges of intercultural communication is ethnocentrism, which is the common but misguided assumption of a cultural group that it is superior to other cultural groups. This can be addressed by actively trying to be open-minded and accepting towards other cultures.

Another barrier is assuming that other cultures are similar rather than different to your own. As a result, you might behave as you would in your own culture but end up causing offense or worse, simply because you are unaware that different rules and norms apply in the other culture.

Finally, the most common barrier to intercultural communication is—perhaps surprisingly—anxiety. When you are unsure what is expected of you or what to do, it’s only natural to feel anxious. Your focus is then likely to shift to your feeling of anxiousness and away from the intercultural transaction taking place. As a result, you may make more mistakes than you would have otherwise and seem to be behaving awkwardly to others.

Intercultural communication in business

International business is more than investing in localisation or translating your documents and materials . Arranging negotiation interpreting services is also laudable, but it’s only half the job. The other half is to train your members of staff in intercultural communication and help them acquire intercultural competence to ensure they can communicate effectively—both with other staff around the globe, and with clients and other people from different cultural backgrounds.

Given the importance of intercultural communication in business, it’s definitely worth investing in this area. Communication can be significantly improved by implementing proper cross-cultural training. This is especially important if you are managing teams from all over the world. Be especially aware of different styles of communication, as some may be more direct than others.

EHLION’s intercultural coaching will help you to build successful business relationships across different cultures. Our experienced coaches are experts in the local customs and business etiquette of various countries around the globe.

Please refer to our translation rates overview for costs and benefits of translation and intercultural training with EHLION.

How to improve your intercultural communication skills

Apply these tried and tested strategies to improve your intercultural communication skills:

Prepare with anticipation

Do your research and find out who you will be dealing with. Look into the cultural norms and social customs of the location. If you are traveling to China, South Korea , or Japan , for example, check out our country guides before you set off!

Learn the language

It will no doubt be a huge benefit and much appreciated if you show that you’ve made an effort to learn your counterpart’s language. They will surely respect you for it, and this could boost your relationship.

Observe the culture

When you first interact with a representative of the unfamiliar culture, listen carefully and closely observe their behavior. Pay particular attention to how they respond to different communication styles, and also look for similarities to your own culture.

Be open-minded and self-aware

Forget all blanket assumptions you may have had about the other culture. After all, people are still individuals with their own preferences, so be aware of any preconceived ideas you may have and challenge them.

Ask questions

If you’re unsure about something or think you may have misunderstood what’s being asked of you, it’s perfectly fine to ask and clarify rather than guessing and potentially committing an embarrassing faux pas.

To coach you in the culture of your target country. You can ask them any question you like and draw on their hands-on experience.

When you book in for our popular cross-cultural training, you will become familiar the working and leadership styles in your target country. As a result, you will be able to successfully communicate with and motivate employees there. What’s more, EHLION’s coaches will give you valuable tips on conflict management and negotiation in local region, and will explain the differences in attitudes towards physical contact as well as the meaning of gestures and facial expressions in each culture.

Intercultural communication in a nutshell

Intercultural communication is a cornerstone of international relations and business transactions in our globalized world today. Although it has its pitfalls, intercultural communication skills can be trained and improved to foster smooth relationships among people from different cultural backgrounds.

Investing in intercultural training is a surefire way towards business success and better interpersonal relations. Speak to one of our friendly team members today to find out what EHLION can do for you and your business.

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2.3: Barriers to Intercultural Communication

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• Lisa Coleman, Thomas King, & William Turner
• Southwest Tennessee Community College

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Learning Objectives

• Analyze barriers to effective intercultural communication.
• Define and give examples of ethnocentrism.
• Define and give examples of stereotyping.

  "How You See Me" series on YouTube features "real" people discussing their cultural identifies.( https://youtu.be/Fls_W4PMJgA?list=PLfjTXaT9NowjmBcbR7gJVFECprsobMZiX )

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): How You See Me. (Nick Ross)

Barriers to Intercultural Communication

Most of us can appreciate the important of intercultural communication, yet several stumbling blocks may get in the way of a positive intercultural communication experience.  Some of the most common ones are anxiety, 

It is not unusual to experience some level of discomfort in communicating with individuals from other cultures or co-cultures.  It may be that we feel as though we will do or say the wrong thing.  This can make the interaction awkward or can lead us to avoid opportunities for intercultural communication. Although not as detrimental as ethnocentrism or stereotypes, anxiety can prevent us from making intercultural connections that will enrich our lives.

Assumption of Similarities

Although you know differently, many people mistakenly assume that simply being human makes everyone alike.  However, as we've discussed, values, beliefs, and attitudes can vary vastly from culture to culture.  Those who assume a person from another cultural background is just like them will often misread or misinterpret and perhaps even be offended by any intercultural encounter.  In intercultural communication, assume differences in communication style will exist that you may be unaware of.  It is important to avoid interpreting another individual's behavior through your own cultural lens.

• Ethnocentrism

Where did you start reading on this page? The top left corner. Why not the bottom right corner, or the top right one? In English, we read left to right, from the top of the page to the bottom. But not everyone reads the same. If you read and write Arabic or Hebrew, you will proceed from right to left. Neither is right or wrong, simply different. Americans tend to say that people from England drive on the “wrong” side of the road, rather than on the “other” side. You may find it hard to drive on the other side of the road while visiting England, but for people in the United Kingdom, it is normal and natural.  A high level of appreciation for one’s own culture can be healthy; a shared sense of community pride, for example, connects people in a society. But ethnocentrism can lead to disdain or dislike for other cultures and could cause misunderstanding and conflict.  Ethnocentrism  assumes  our culture or co-culture is superior to or more important than others and evaluates all other cultures against it.  To dismantle ethnocentrism, we must recognize that our views of the world, what we consider right and wrong, normal or weird, are largely influenced by our cultural standpoint and that our cultural standpoint is not everyone's cultural standpoint. This ethnocentric bias has received some challenge recently in United States’ schools as teachers make efforts to create a multicultural classroom by incorporating books, short stories, and traditions from non-dominant groups.

Ethnocentrism shows up in large and small ways.  A "small" way might be in disdain for other cultures' or co-cultures' food preferences. Some individuals express disgust at other cultures’ eating meat from a dog or guinea pig, for example, while they don’t question their own habit of eating cows or pigs. A "large" and one of the most horrific examples of ethnocentrism in history can be seen is in the Nazi’s elevation of the Aryan race in World War II and the corresponding killing of Jews, Gypsies, gays and lesbians, and other non-Aryan groups. 

Stereotypes

Stereotypes are oversimplified ideas about groups of people. Stereotypes can be based on race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation — almost any characteristic. They may be positive, such as all Asian students are good at math, but are most often negative, such as all overweight people are lazy.  Stereotyping is a generalization that doesn't take individual differences into account.  

Stereotypes are frequently expressed on TV, in movies, chat rooms and blogs, and in conversations with friends and family. Further research has found that stereotypes are often used outside of our awareness, making it very difficult to correct them. And when we are distracted or under time pressure, these tendencies become even more powerful (Stangor & Duan, 1991). Still, it’s crucial to try to recognize our own stereotypic thinking. Treating individuals according to rigid stereotypic beliefs is detrimental to all aspects of the communication process and can lead to prejudice and discrimination.

Prejudice 

Prejudice  is a negative attitude and feeling toward an individual based solely on one’s membership in a particular social group, such as gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, social class, religion, sexual orientation, profession, and many more (Allport, 1954; Brown, 2010). An example of prejudice is having a negative attitude toward people who are not born in the United States and disliking them because of their status as "foreigners."

Because it is often difficult to recognize our own prejudices, several tests have been created to help us recognize our own "implicit" or hidden biases. The most well-known implicit measure of prejudice—the  Implicit Association Test (IAT) —is frequently used to assess stereotypes and prejudice (Nosek, Greenwald, & Banaji, 2007). In the IAT, participants are asked to classify stimuli that they view on a computer screen into one of two categories by pressing one of two computer keys, one with their left hand and one with their right hand. Furthermore, the categories are arranged such that the responses to be answered with the left and right buttons either “fit with” (match) the stereotype or do not “fit with” (mismatch) the stereotype.  

When our prejudices and stereotypes are unchallenged, they can lead to action in the forms of discrimination and even  violence.  Racial discrimination  is discrimination   against an individual based solely on membership in a specific racial group. There have been a number of shocking highly publicized instances in which African-Americans were killed by vigilantes or law enforcement, one of the more disturbing being the case of George Floyd.  On May 25, 2020, George Floyd died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for over 8 minutes; almost 3 of those minutes were after Floyd was unconscious. (Dovidio et al., 2010).  And in late 2020, "the United Nations  issued a report  that detailed "an alarming level" of racially motivated violence and other hate incidents against Asian Americans." According to a Pew Research Report, "32% of Asian adults say they have feared someone might threaten or physically attack them...with the majority of Asian adults (81%) saying violence against them is increasing. (Pew Research Center, Ap. 11, 2021)  Mexican Americans and other Latinx groups are also targets, both of citizens and police. (Dovidio et al., 2010)  

Discussions about stereotypes, prejudice, racism, and discrimination are unsettling to some. However, we must recognize these attributes in ourselves and others before we can take steps to challenge and change their existence.

• Stereotyping
• Racial discrimination

For Discussion

• Have you ever felt as though you were stereotyped?  Explain when this happened and how it made you feel.  Have you ever been guilty of stereotyping others, perhaps unintentionally?
• Discuss examples of stereotypes you have read about or seen in media.
• If you would like to develop more understanding of prejudice, see some of the short videos at undertandingprejudice.org at this link: https://secure.understandingprejudice.org/multimedia/
• What are some forms of discrimination other than racial discrimination?  Have you ever experienced or witnessed what you thought was discrimination?  Explain.

Activities: Experiencing Intercultural Barriers Through Media

• Activity 1:  When watching the following video, notice all of the stereotypes people who are native to Alaska face, and think about how you’d approach a conversation with someone from the area. Try to consider the situation from another perspective.
• What People Get Wrong About Alaska Natives:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDU4PkSqWsQ
• Multimedia:  Comedian and news anchor   Trevor Noah discusses trying a taco for the first time. More importantly, look at the misunderstanding that happens in the use of language in the clip. Think about whether you may have had misunderstandings like these with friends from other cultures. Trevor Noah: That’s Racist - Tacos :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDk5ajNDgZc&list=TLPQMTEwMTIwMjBTkibtm_xuXQ&index=2
• Multimedia:  Biracial actresses from Sister, Sister discuss their marriages. One of the twins is married to an African American man, and the other is married to a white man. Think about your own experience with interracial couples, or even your own experience being part of an interracial couple. How do you react when you hear such things?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngwvHYqYGS0
• Ethnocentrism and Mobility  - Read the article “The Inevitability of Ethnocentrism Revisited: Ethnocentrism Diminishes As Mobility Increases,” located at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4672305/ . What does the article say about in-group and out-groups? How does mobility reduce out-group hostility? Does traveling help reduce ethnocentrism?

Ruiz, Neil, Khadidijah Edwards, and Mark Lopez. Pew Research Center, 21 April 2021.  https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...hem-is-rising/

Chung, L. (2019). Crossing boundaries: Cross-cultural communication. In K. D. Keith (Ed.), Cross-cultural psychology: Contemporary themes and perspectives (pp. 400-420). Wiley.

Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond Culture. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books/Doubleday.

Intercultural Conflict Management. Butte College, 10 Sept. 2020, https://socialsci.libretexts.org/@go/page/58206 . 

Communication Challenges in Intercultural Interactions Essay

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Introduction

Communication barriers in intercultural interactions, high anxiety.

In the present age, young people have difficulties socializing with people from other cultures who they meet at school and the workplace because of communication obstacles. If people can acknowledge and appreciate other communities, they can be able to associate well with people from diverse cultures. People need to overcome communication barriers in intercultural interactions so that they can improve their relationships. In addition, about fifty percent of the American population will be people of color due to immigration by the year 2050. Therefore, there is a great need to learn the lifestyles of different communities so that the challenges of communication barriers are solved.

People have different views concerning intercultural communication. Some individuals believe that more interaction between communities of diverse nations would lead to a better understanding between the different cultures. Despite this, there are numerous challenges that exist in intercultural communication (Dupraw & Axner, n.d.). Dupraw and Axner (n.d.) believe that interaction with other people does not necessarily depict communication. Ingram (n.d.) observes that communication barriers across communities have prevailed because people are not informed that they exist in the first place. This essay aims to show that communication in intercultural interactions is hindered by the communication style, body language, stereotypes, the tendency to evaluate, high anxiety, and differences in ways of completing tasks.

Communication style

Language is a major communication barrier. Barna (n.d.) asserts that people experience challenges with terminologies, grammar, phrases, slang, and the accent in a foreign language. The worst-case scenario is when a person holds on or borrows the meaning of a word in a different community without considering its linguistic context. It may cause a misunderstanding in the whole statement, thereby inciting a different reaction compared to the expected reaction.

Body language

Body language is also very influential in any communication process. Knowing the language of a foreign nation is not enough to communicate effectively (Dupraw & Axner, n.d.). Failing to understand the common nonverbal signs, such as gestures and the tone of voice is a major communication obstacle. It is also more challenging to understand nonverbal symbols that are further from consciousness, such as the management of time, spacial relationships, and acceptable gestures of formality. To solve this, visitors in a foreign country need to know about the nonverbal signs associated with the culture they are interacting. They also need to know what each sign is attributed to because they may be interpreted differently. Thus, the wrong interpretation can lead to miscommunication.

Stereotypes

Understanding stereotypes can also make intercultural communication easier. Stereotypes are oversimplified concepts that give the society a basis from which to understand the surroundings (Barna, n.d.). Stereotypes are obstacles in communication because they hinder objective viewing of a cause. Unfortunately, they are challenges that cannot be solved through telling facts. For example, people with an African descent are associated with fried foods and loud music. Such stereotypes help people from other communities understand how to deal with people of the African descent.

The tendency to evaluate

Another obstacle to communication is the tendency to misjudge the arguments and deeds of others, instead of trying to understand their opinions and feelings. Judging one’s actions as good prohibits the unbiased attention required to understand the perception and behavior patterns of other people (Dupraw & Axner, n.d.). Other behaviors that do not conform to the personal behavior cultured will then be perceived as wrong. Communication is, thus, disrupted severely when feelings and emotions are implicated in a situation where much of listening and empathizing is required.

Anxiety caused by the new environment and the new culture can build up communication barriers in intercultural communication. The aspect of high anxiety is common with Outlanders because of the uncertainty of the new environment (Barna, n.d.). Moreover, cultural differences between nations cause more anxiety because individuals do not know how they should respond to other cultures or how people in the host country will respond to their lifestyle. People are also anxious when communicating with foreigners because they cannot sustain the normal flow of speech. The citizen of the host country is also tensed by the foreigner’s scrutiny and, probably, negative responses. The foreigner’s confidence is destroyed when he starts withdrawing from others and showing hostility. These behaviors have a negative impact on effective communication.

Ways of completing tasks

The different ways of completing tasks can ignite arguments in intercultural communications. Different cultures use varying methods in completing tasks because of the differences in resources, opinions on the benefits associated with the task, and the significance of teamwork when accomplishing a specific task (Dupraw & Axner, n.d.). For example, Asians may first work on strengthening the team and then completing the task later, while the Americans may opt to accomplish the task first and then build relationships later. Such differences can lead to poor communication if they are not understood and appreciated.

Personal experience

I have experienced a communication breakdown with a Chinese student who did not understand English. When he spoke, it was very difficult to understand what he meant because his pronunciation of most words was incorrect. This led to a misinterpretation of the whole conversation. He was irritated because he did not get the response he needed. He was forced to write down what he meant to say to solve his challenge in the language.

Various obstacles can cut off communication in a multicultural setting. These obstacles can be nonverbal or verbal signs. Communication obstacles include communication style, body language, high anxiety, stereotype, tendency to evaluate, ways of completing tasks, and nonverbal signs such as gestures, posture, and management of time. Therefore, people need to understand the culture and communication process of each culture in order to overcome the communication breakdown in a cultural setting.

Barna, L. (n.d). Intercultural communication stumbling blocks. Portland, OR: Portland University. Web.

Dupraw, M., & Axner, M. (n.d.). Working on common cross-cultural challenge. New York, NY: AMPU. Web.

Ingram, P. (n.d.). An overview of diversity awareness. State College, PA: Penn State University. Web.

• The Role of Ethnocentrism in Intercultural Communication
• Understanding Intercultural Communication by Ting-Toomey and Leeva
• 6 Barriers of Intercultural Communication Essay
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• Demonstrative Communication Principles
• Importance of Interviews: Types and Strengths
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• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, June 7). Communication Challenges in Intercultural Interactions. https://ivypanda.com/essays/communication-challenges-in-intercultural-interactions/

"Communication Challenges in Intercultural Interactions." IvyPanda , 7 June 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/communication-challenges-in-intercultural-interactions/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Communication Challenges in Intercultural Interactions'. 7 June.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Communication Challenges in Intercultural Interactions." June 7, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/communication-challenges-in-intercultural-interactions/.

1. IvyPanda . "Communication Challenges in Intercultural Interactions." June 7, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/communication-challenges-in-intercultural-interactions/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Communication Challenges in Intercultural Interactions." June 7, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/communication-challenges-in-intercultural-interactions/.