Intercultural communication in transnational work

Just take a minute to reflect: If your fellow volunteer with an Anglo-Saxon background said to you during a discussion about a new project “I’m not quite sure, but I would rather suggest XYZ” how would you understand this sentence?

Would you think a) your counterpart is hesitant about what he/she is saying? Or b) would you understand it as a rejection of what was previously said?

Depending on your own cultural background and on the communicative strategies you are personally used to, you may know that the only way to interpret the sentence is b).

The above situation is an example for intercultural communication. As for the definition of Culture, also for the term intercultural communication there are several definitions depending on the line of research and the focus of the researchers. In a very broad sense the term Intercultural Communication refers to “all kinds of communication between individuals from different cultures” (Thomas, 2005, p. 113) [translated by the author of the module].

When thinking of intercultural communication the challenges are very often underestimated, especially when both partners share a common language, which may not be the mother tongue of at least one partner. Being able to speak the same language may be helpful but in some cases it can also be misleading. Although it is true that intercultural communication is comparable to communication among a culturally homogeneous group when it comes to taking into account certain universal elements of communication like setting, register, choice of verbal / non-verbal means of communication, relationship between the counterparts and so forth, there is one element, however, that makes the difference between inter- and intracultural communication: culture with its country-specific characteristics influencing communication.