The Study of Intercultural Communication

We live in a rapidly changing world with larger forces driving us to interact with others who are culturally different from ourselves.  There are six major categories of imperatives that reflect our reasons for wanting to study intercultural communication.  These imperatives are peace, demographics, economic, technology, ethical and self-awareness.  Regardless of which imperative is personally most important to an individual, one fact is important to remember:  the communication choices we make determine the personal or national or international outcomes that follow.

Understanding that communication is a linear, interactional, or transactional process rather than something that "just happens" helps communicators "see" more of what is going on around them.  Whether you are a sender or receiver or both at the same time, communication is far more than just transmitting information. There are social, relational, cultural, and physical contexts that frame our communication norms and rules.  This class will encourage you to look for and take note of the contexts and communication processes that you haven't been aware of before.

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.  Cultures are made up of people attempting to make good decisions about how to live a life.  Like you, they have values and beliefs that govern their choices.  Analyzing the communication of people who are different than you can lead to a whole new appreciation of the diversity of humankind.  Maybe this idea is new to you, but the study of intercultural communication is actually the study of YOUR story within the human story.