Intercultural Verbal Communication Styles

Intercultural interaction has become a reality of everyday life for almost everyone in today’s modern globalized world. As intensive communication with speakers of differing backgrounds and assumptions is now the rule rather than the exception, conversing and communicating competently across cultures is becoming a major concern for many people. It is important to be aware of how language is used in another culture and to understand the culturally specific patterns of communication. Cultures provide people with ways of thinking and ways of seeing, hearing, and interpreting the world. The prevailing culture determines whose speech style will be seen as normal; who will be required to learn the communication style and interpret the meaning of the other; and whose language style will be seen as deviant, ...