1.1 A Brief Introduction

In our first introductory exercise, you completed a personal item inventory of at least twenty items and noted where they came from. What did you find? Chances are that if you looked at your clothes, food, and even refrigerator or car, you found that many of the things were produced by people all over the world. In the second exercise, you could see the locations of origin and the relative distance the items traveled. Our modern world is increasingly connected, and the probability that you will interact, work with, or even form relationships with people from cultures other than your own is almost 100 percent. Intercultural communication is all around us.

If you drive a modern MINI Cooper, for example, the body is made in England, but the engine may be made in Brazil. Imagine traveling to all the places to see the items you listed as they were made. Imagine meeting the people who made or assembled them. How would their lives be similar to yours? How would they be different? How would you communicate? If they shared their dreams with you, would you understand them? Communication across cultures is part of our everyday lives, but that doesn’t make it any less challenging.

In our third introductory exercise, we focused on who you know and who knows you. There is an old adage that goes, “Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are,” and for our discussion, we can see that our family and friends may be from all over. We may interact with them via Facebook or Twitter, and they might be in another country or the next room. Perhaps they speak more than one language and you interact in a common language like English, or perhaps you move from language to language as you interact. Even if you communicate only in English, your language use may adjust and adapt to reflect the group. For example, you may use text messages and abbreviations and slang with your friends but use more formal or complete words and phrases with coworkers, parents, or family. If you communicate with people from other English-speaking countries like Australia or New Zealand, you may note that you speak a similar language but with distinct words that differ greatly in their usage. Language use is one hallmark of culture and cultural norms.

DiversityThe presence of different types of a unit within a given system. means the presence of different types of a unit within a given system. In our study of people, we can see diverse communities formed with families and groups from distinct backgrounds, cultures, languages, and ideas. Diversity in biology is associated with competition and collaboration, and it confers an element of strength. Diverse gene pools are stronger than limited gene pools. Diverse communities, with people from different walks of life, offer many ways to approach and solve problems, provide a wealth of experience and skills, and promote increased specialization and interdependence. Through interaction, we can come to understand one another and respect our diversity. We are stronger together, in diverse communities, than we are in limited or isolated groups. Learning to appreciate our respective diversity, our orientations, our viewpoints and insights, our skills and abilities, our strengths and weaknesses, is an important part of intercultural communication.

Turning our attention to food, and our fourth exercise, it is interesting to see the wide range of difference. You may have had a continental breakfast or a protein shake, or you may have skipped the meal entirely. Your choice was influenced by access and preferences, both aspects of culture. Access to food is a reflection of where you live but also how you live. If you are on the run in the morning, the protein shake may make perfect sense, but if you live in a place where your family joins around the breakfast table before you each go off to your individual or group activities of the day, the food choices and how they are shared can be quite distinct.

Preferences can also be a product of what is available to you and what is familiar. Perhaps you like Mexican food and plan on stopping for some takeout on your way home, but a Thai restaurant across the street attracts your interest. Locally produced foods once dominated our choice of selection, but in the United States, we can find grapes from Chile next to kiwis from New Zealand on the same table. Family recipes have given way to restaurants that represent foods from all over the world, and we may have a favorite food from a country we know little about.

If we take a look at our imaginary dining table, what might be on it besides the food? Will there be place mats? Will the napkins be made from disposable paper or cloth? Will there be three forks on the left, each with a specific use? How we share food, from the famous Japanese tea ceremony to tea time in England, varies greatly across cultures. (See: https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/what-do-your-table-manners-say-about-you/p07gbkp3).

Extending the example of the table, who sits around your table? What customs do you share that people who are not part of your group, family, or community would not necessarily understand? What foods do you associate with certain holidays? For example, in the United States turkey and mashed potatoes are associated with Thanksgiving. How we prepare, present, and share food represent many aspects of intercultural communication.

Finally, in the fifth introductory exercise you had an opportunity to participate in the Oxfam Hunger Banquet. You were assigned an identity with a name, a life, and a socioeconomic status as you walked in the door. Half of the participants in the banquet received cards that represent a life of poverty on less than $2 per day, reflecting 48 percent of our world today according to the World Bank and the Population Reference Bureau. Indeed, one third of rural residents worldwide lack access to clean drinking water. Another 35 percent of the participants were considered middle class, making more than $987 but not more than $12,000 a year. Only 15 percent of the participants made more than $12,000 a year, according to the cards they received. One difference that may have been discussed during the banquet was the level of education across the three distinct groups, noting that girls and women have significantly less access worldwide. Another topic of discussion may have been energy use, noting that residents of North America use eight times the amount of energy as people who live in Latin America. Finally, a point that may have been mentioned at the close of the banquet is that you did not choose your parents, where you were born, your sex, or your language(s), culture(s), social status, race, ethnicity, or nationality at your birth. Our circumstances are different, and those differences impact how, when, and often why we interact. Our circumstances are an aspect of culture. This text encourages everyone to look beyond our differences to find common ground.

In this book, we will examine the dynamic and sometimes challenging topic of intercultural communication and help you learn to apply it in the kinds of situations you are likely to encounter over the course of your life and career. We will examine differences and similarities. We will look for common ground. Intercultural communication relates to our relationships at work and at home, and between countries and nations. Peace, tolerance, and understanding all come through intercultural communication. We may interact through technology, in person, or even indirectly via our purchasing decisions, but we will interact with people from diverse cultures. In order to understand our own dreams and be able to effectively share them with others, we need to be open to the dreams of others, their hopes and aspirations, their customs and traditions, and what they hold dear. We are interconnected on our planet, from the wind, to the rain, to our global marketplace of international trade. What we do impacts others, and what they do impacts us. Finding common ground and facilitating effective intercultural communication are worthy goals for us all.

As you learn the material in this text, each part will contribute to the whole. The degree to which you attend to each part will ultimately help give you the skills, confidence, and preparation to use communication in furthering your career, relationships, and life. Intercultural communication is all around you. Please consider this an invitation to explore the fascinating ways we perceive, interact with, and respond to each other around the world.