2.1: Intercultural Communication Competence

Cultural Connection: The Iced Coffee

Figure 2.1.1: Friends enjoying coffee at an outdoor cafe in Frankfurt, Germany

While vacationing in Germany with my family, we strolled through a picturesque park and garden before stopping at a café with a to-go window. My daughter wanted an iced coffee—coffee with ice and milk—so I confidently placed my order using my best rehearsed German: “Ich möchte etwas Eis Café.”

The server looked at me quizzically, then informed me it would take a few minutes, gesturing sternly for us to sit on a nearby bench. My daughters and I settled in to wait, though I had a lingering suspicion that I had made a mistake—I just wasn’t sure what it was.

As we waited, realization dawned. Germans rarely put ice in their beverages, and the word “Eis” actually means ice cream! Instead of ordering an iced coffee, I had unknowingly requested a coffee with ice cream. I realized that even though one can carefully prepare for intercultural encounters, misunderstandings can occur. Thankfully, my daughter enjoyed the ice cream and coffee very much!

Angela, Communication Studies Professor

Introduction

Whether it’s ordering coffee abroad or collaborating in a diverse classroom, even simple interactions can go awry when cultural expectations clash. The story you just read is more than a travel mishap—it’s a reminder that communication is shaped by invisible norms, assumptions, and habits we often take for granted. In today’s globalized world, developing intercultural communication competence isn’t just helpful—it’s essential. This chapter will guide you through key concepts and models that help us recognize our own biases, adapt our communication styles, and engage respectfully across cultural boundaries. You’ll explore how attitudes, knowledge, and skills work together to build competence, and how self-awareness and reflection can transform misunderstandings into meaningful connections. To begin, let’s examine two barriers to intercultural understanding: cultural bumps and ethnocentrism.

Cultural Bumps

Cultural bumps are small misunderstandings that are caused by cultural differences and communication (Ting-Tommey & Chung, 2022). Communicating with people who are similar to ourselves can be challenging in the best relationships. However, communicating with people we perceive as different (we shall call them strangers) can feel downright impossible at times.

Figure 2.1.2: US President Obama greeting French President Macron

What daily behaviors contribute to misunderstandings in intercultural encounters?

• Language: Not speaking or a lack of familiarity with dialects and jargon can shape how we communicate and serve as a barrier.
• Culture: Our cultural upbringing serves as our lens to view and understand the world.
• Norms: Guidelines for how to behave in a culture, often grounded in morals and values, can create some surprising bumps.
• Rules: Guidelines for how to communicate in a culture, such as how to greet people, make requests, or express disagreement, are often taken for granted and can lead to some cultural confusion.
• Symbols: Objects, gestures, or words that carry specific cultural meaning (e.g., flags, emojis, clothing). For example, in the US the thumbs up gesture is considered positive, but in many places in the world it is an insult gesture.
• Expectations (our personal beliefs about how people should behave, how we should behave, and what we think will happen). Our expectations regarding how people from other cultures and ethnic groups should behave are based on how we categorize them (she is Japanese, he is black, they are Mexicans).
• Stereotypes affect our communication with strangers. Stereotypes, however, are less problematic in our communication with people from our own groups because they are usually more accurate and favorable than stereotypes of other groups.

When these elements differ across cultures, even simple interactions—like eye contact, tone of voice, or personal space—can lead to misunderstanding. These bumps aren’t failures; they’re opportunities to pause, reflect, and learn. While cultural bumps are often accidental, they can escalate when we assume our own cultural norms are the “right” way to behave. This mindset is called ethnocentrism—the belief that one’s own culture is superior or more correct than others.

Ethnocentrism

At its core, ethnocentrism is the tendency to use our own cultural lens as the standard when evaluating the communication, values, and norms of others. The word ethnocentrism comes from ethno = world and centrism = center. It is learned and leads us to believe that our way of thinking and acting is normal, correct, and maybe even the best way. As Ting-Toomey and Chung (2012) explain, an “ethnocentric mindset means staying stuck within our own cultural worldview and using our cultural values as the baseline standards to evaluate the person’s cultural behavior” (p. 28). While this way of thinking may feel safe and at times comforting, it limits our ability to flexibly respond when communicating with people who are culturally different. Alternatively, we should work to adapt an ethnorelative mindset, meaning we should try to understand communication behaviors from the other person’s cultural perspective (Bennett & Bennett, 2004).

Whether you are traveling abroad, building a relationship with someone from another culture, or collaborating with diverse classmates and colleagues, the ability to be flexible and adapt your communication to different cultural contexts is essential. The ability to be sensitive to unique cultural variations in cultures and communicate effectively is the heart of this chapter.

Student Voices

Figure 2.1.3: Visiting Spain, photo by Samuel Sanchez.

Insights on Ethnocentrism

During my 2025 summer vacation, I took my first international flight to Barcelona, Spain; it was a whopping 13-hour flight. I was happy to travel for leisure, but I did not consider the effects of cultural variations. Whether it was the stares I was receiving while walking on the street, or the manner with which I was waited on at a restaurant, I could not help but feel as if something was wrong. Where I was in the world, I knew to be a tourist hotspot, so I expected familiarity. My expectations for servers included smiles and constant reassurance (like that in the USA), but I was met with a more reserved style, which at first seemed unpleasant. It was without difficulty that I imagined the people in Barcelona—locals and tourists alike—to not be behaving properly, and I found myself irritated in response to that fact because I would never act in such a way. I would not mind an eccentric fashion choice I witnessed out in public. I would greet customers with a bubbly attitude and a bright smile—even if it was forced—had I been waiting on a group at a restaurant. Then it hit me that all of the things I wanted others to do were all of the things that I would do, and I realized that I was no longer in Los Angeles. I was in the midst of another culture, and I was in a tourist hotspot, where it was wrong to expect familiarity, and where a myriad of cultures interact. Other people in Barcelona were not living incorrectly or inappropriately; they were simply living differently. It hit me soon after that that I should not be discouraged by another because of their fashion preferences, and I should have considered the fact that the style of service at a restaurant was different from one city to another and even less alike from one country to the next. I learned that I should travel with an open mind, and imagine that certain looks from another person, or particular differences in interaction, are not inherently negative; they are merely diverse.

Samuel Sanchez, California Community College Transfer Student and English Major

Communication Competence

People who have developed good communication skills are often described as having communication competence. Communicating effectively, along with writing and critical thinking, is often considered one of the key skills of gaining a college education. To have communication competence means that “we have knowledge of effective and appropriate communication patterns and the ability to use and adapt that knowledge in various contexts” (Cooley & Roach, 1984).

The National Communication Association (NCA) has developed guidelines for what it means to be a competent communicator (1999). They include:

1. State ideas clearly.
2. Communicate ethically.
3. Recognize when it is appropriate to communicate.
4. Identify their communication goals.
5. Select the most appropriate and effective medium for communicating.
6. Demonstrate credibility.
7. Identify and manage misunderstandings.
8. Manage conflict.
9. Be open-minded about another’s point of view.
10. Listen attentively.

While communication competence in the United States is undeniably important, today's increasingly interconnected world demands more than just effective communication—it requires intercultural competence to navigate diverse communities with sensitivity, awareness, and adaptability. Consider Maya, a California State University and community college graduate, who now works in her dream job managing public relations for an e-sports team at a major gaming company. Her role has taken her across the globe—Korea, Thailand, Germany, and Canada—introducing her to a range of cultural contexts. Though Maya possesses outstanding communication skills, each new country has challenged her to expand her skill set, adjusting to distinct customs, communication styles, and social expectations.

Whether working abroad or at home, we all encounter situations where we must communicate across cultural differences. Recognizing and embracing these moments allows us to foster deeper understanding, strengthen relationships, and adapt to the evolving global landscape.

Contributors and Attributions

Intercultural Learning: Critical Preparation for International Student Travel, by James Cook University, Provided by UTS ePress.

License: CC-BY-NC-SA

Intercultural Communication for the Community College, by Karen Krumrey-Fulks. Provided by LibreTexts. License: CC-BY-NC-

SA

Exploring Intercultural Communication, by Tom Grothe. Provided by LibreTexts. License: CC By-NC-SA