By examining intercultural relations in seventeen societies, this book answers the fundamental question: 'how shall we all live together?'

Communication Across Cultures remains an excellent resource for students of linguistics and related disciplines, including anthropology, sociology and education. It is also a valuable resource for professionals concerned with language and intercultural communication in this global era.

"World Visions can conceive of everything except alternative world visions." If this pronouncement by Umberto Eco is right, how can any ethnic group conceive of living with another group on the same territory - in Canada or elsewhere - if their world visions are incompatible? Can we sidestep incompatible world visions or should we try to understand them? Figured Worlds explores the possibilities of equilibrium between commitments to mutual understanding and the framing of strategies of negotiation. This collection begins its rich analytical investigation by describing how people - Australian Aborigines, New Zealand Maori, Japanese, and Africans - first learn the figured worlds of their own culture, made up of sensations, affirmations and will, prophecy, revelation, myth, dream, and metamorphoses. It then sets out how diverse figured worlds within a given social system are related, and concludes by offering insightful mappings of the dynamics of these relations, perceived in both their existential-ontological aspects, as well as their material-practical means. Comprising scholarship that is half Canadian and half British, this work offers important foundational perspectives into the thought worlds of cultures found within other cultures.

Elisabeth Gareis breaks new ground in her study of intercultural friendships. She probes the scantily researched subject of friendship to report on the nature of relations between foreigners and Americans in the United States. The approach is descriptive, using data derived from an extensive review of literature, questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Participants in the study were 15 unmarried graduate students from Germany, India, and Taiwan who had been in the U.S. for at least one year. From her study, Gareis concludes that cultural background is much less significant for the successful development of intercultural friendships than might be expected. The investigative results show that other factors play a more important role in developing strong intercultural friendships. These factors include: individual personality, level of confidence, the meaning attached to the concept of friendship, and general cultural expectations. As the only book of its kind to exist in the market, Intercultural Friendships will enlighten students and teachers of intercultural communication classes, counselors working with foreign students, and cross-cultural leaders. It will prove indispensable to foreign students in the U.S. and U.S. citizens working or studying abroad.

In this volume, Ting-Toomey and Oetzel accomplish two objectives: to explain the culture-based situational conflict model, including the relationship among conflict, ethnicity, and culture; and, second, integrate theory and practice in the discussion of interpersonal conflict in culture, ethnic, and gender contexts. While the book is theoretically directed, it is also a down-to-earth practical book that contains ample examples, conflict dialogues, and critical incidents. Managing Intercultural Conflict Effectively helps to illustrate the complexity of intercultural conflict interactions and readers will gain a broad yet integrative perspective in assessing intercultural conflict situations. The book is a multidisciplinary text that draws from the research work of a variety of disciplines such as cross-cultural psychology, social psychology, sociology, marital and family studies, international management, and communication.

"This book explores the role of teaching tools used in business education to add competitive benefits with the business skills and make them applied in cross-cultural business environments. It explores significant pedagogical practices in the cross-cultural environment and identifies the teaching tools competent in cross-cultural environment those make business education competing and applied"--

This book presents a structured yet flexible methodology for developing intercultural competence in a variety of contexts, both formal and informal. Piloted around the world by UNESCO, this methodology has proven to be effective in a range of different contexts and focused on a variety of different issues. It, therefore can be considered an important resource for anyone concerned with effectively managing the growing cultural diversity within our societies to ensure inclusive and sustainable development. Intercultural competence refers to the skills, attitudes, and behaviours needed to improve interactions across difference, whether within a society (differences due to age, gender, religion, socio-economic status, political affiliation, ethnicity, and so on) or across borders. The book serves as a tool to develop those competences, presenting an innovative adaptation of what could be considered an ancient tradition of storytelling found in many cultures. Through engaging in the methodology, participants develop key elements of intercultural competence, including greater self-awareness, openness, respect, reflexivity, empathy, increased awareness of others, and in the end, greater cultural humility. This book will be of great interest to intercultural trainers, policy makers, development practitioners, educators, community organizers, civil society leaders, university lecturers and students – all who are interested in developing intercultural competence as a means to understand and appreciate difference, develop relationships with those across difference, engage in intercultural dialogue, and bridge societal divides.