Today, communication is affected by many different aspects of human language and behavior;

for example, nonverbal communication can be just as relevant as the exact language forms
chosen. Most of the time, however, we are not fully conscious of the assumptions and beliefs
involved in a communication exchange with someone from another culture.
Intercultural communication is the sending and receiving of messages across languages and
cultures. It is also a negotiated understanding of meaning in human experiences across social
systems and societies. When we talk of other cultures, we mean not only those who speak a
language that is different from ours or who live in a different country or region; we also mean
those who live in the same city or region but who do not share the same social groups. For
example, a 14-year-old teenager does not typically communicate the same way as an 82-year-old
senior citizen. Even if they were born and raised in the same neighborhood (in the city or in a
rural area), their conversation could be just as “intercultural” as two people who come from
opposite corners of the globe because they are from two subcultures. A subculture is a smaller
group within a larger culture that shares language or behavioral patterns that are different from
the larger group.

Communicating “across” cultures is even more complicated because we tend to interpret

messages in split seconds based on past experiences and the cultural grids that were passed down
to us in our home cultures. A cultural grid is a framework of understanding for processing verbal
and nonverbal cues specific to a particular culture. We are usually not aware of the many ways
that culture can influence the way we listen to, speak to, and understand other human beings.

We, of course, base much of our understanding on the verbal and nonverbal cues available to us.
Verbal cues are the words and sounds people emit when communicating. Nonverbal cues are
facial expressions, gestures, and other things that don’t require sound, but still offer a message.
For example, when someone wants to agree, he or she can verbally say “yes,” or nonverbally nod
their head, or both. Communication must be placed into a framework of understanding or it is
meaningless. That framework is based on assumptions from our home culture and any other
cultures that we have come into contact with. Everyone has had some experience with verbal and
nonverbal cues, but no one fully understands all of the languages and cultures in the world and
how they are similar and different from one another. To bridge the intercultural communication
gaps, several personal characteristics are helpful: patience, a sense of humor, and an open mind
toward different points of view. Some aspects of intercultural communication are simple and
well-understood. Others are somewhat embarrassing, complicated, and mysterious. Therefore,
some intercultural communications might go smoothly and participants will find them easy.
Others, especially those that contain a participant from a culture the other knows little about,
may prove more challenging. There is still a lot to be learned.
CULTURE
● Culture is an ongoing negotiation of learned patterns of beliefs, attitudes, values, and
behaviors. Each of us has personal, social, and cultural identities.
● Personal identities are components of self that are primarily intrapersonal and connect to
our interests and life experiences.
● Social identities are components of self that are derived from our involvement in social
groups to which we are interpersonally invested.
● Cultural identities are components of self-based on socially constructed categories that
teach us a way of being and include expectations for our thoughts and behaviors.
The term “culture” refers to all the characteristics common to a particular group of people that
are learned and not given by nature. That the members of a group have two legs is thus not a
cultural characteristic but a natural one, while a special but common way of walking would
probably be cultural. Analytically, we can differentiate between the following four primary
cultural dimensions:

● Patterns of thought—common habitual ways of thinking, where thinking includes factual

beliefs, values, norms, and emotional attitudes.
● Patterns of behavior—common habitual ways of behaving, from ways of speaking to
ways of conducting commerce and industry, where the behavior can be
intentional/unintentional, aware/unaware, or individual/interactive.
● Patterns of artifacts—common ways of manufacturing and using material things, from
pens to houses (artifact = artificial object), where artifacts include houses, tools,
machines, or media. The artifactual dimension of culture is usually given special attention
in museums.
● Imprints in nature—the long-lasting imprints left by a group in the natural surroundings,
where such imprints include agriculture, trash, roads, or intact/ruined human habitations.
In fact, “culture” in the sense of human-engineered “growth” (i.e. a human
transformation of nature) gives us a basic understanding of what the concept of culture is
all about. In general, we can say that culture is always “cultivated nature”.

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, 2010). 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.

Intercultural communication, on the other hand, can be defined as communication flows or

exchanges of information across cultural boundaries. It is sometimes also referred to as
cross-cultural communication. Intercultural communication is derived from fields in the social
sciences such as anthropology, cultural studies, psychology, communication and others. Its basic
purpose is to explore and explain how different cultures communicate with each other. In order
to get a perspective on intercultural communication, one must first understand the concept of
culture itself. Culture in simple terms can be understood to be the way of life of the people. As
the eminent anthropologist Clifford Geertz tried to theorise about culture in his ‘thick
description’ where a study of human behaviour would not only explain the behaviour, but also
the context in a manner that is meaningful. Geertz’s concept of culture is a semiotic one, where
man is enmeshed in webs of significance created by him. Culture is that web. Thus the study of
culture is an interpretive one, in search of meaning.

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,
an Individual learned about the Vietnamese New Year celebration “Tet” from a friend made in
graduate school. This same friend also taught him/her how to make some delicious Vietnamese
foods that he/she continues to cook today. They likely would not have gained this cultural
knowledge or skill without the benefits of my intercultural friendship.

Intercultural communication competence (ICC)

It is the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in various cultural contexts. There
are numerous components of ICC. Some key components include motivation, self- and other
knowledge, and tolerance for uncertainty. 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.

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,

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.