Communication Between CULTURES

T
he opportunity to write an eighth edition of Communication Between Cultures
filled us with feelings of gratitude and caution. The realization that earlier texts
had been so well received by our peers and students that another edition was warranted left us with a sense of appreciation. We interpreted this measure of success to
mean that during the past forty years our message regarding the importance of intercultural communication appears to have resonated with an approving audience. We
welcomed the prospect of being able to refine and improve upon what we had done
in seven previous editions. We did, however, realize the requirement to exercise prudence when advancing new perspectives and material while concomitantly retaining
the focus that had contributed to the popularity of earlier editions. For this edition,
we have sought to fuse the past, present, and future prospects of intercultural communication. We have retained the core concepts of the discipline, added contemporary
perceptions and research, and ventured into some new territory.
This book is still about the synergy between communication and culture and how
that interface influences human interactions. More specifically, it is about what happens when people of different cultures engage in communication with the objective of
sharing ideas, information, and perspectives, while working to understand and
appreciate their differences. Knowing that the concepts of communication and culture inextricably intertwine, we have endeavored to incorporate the basic principles
of both topics throughout the text. Informed by the understanding that intercultural
interactions are a daily occurrence for an ever growing number of people, we designed
this book for those individuals whose professional or private lives bring them into
contact with members of cultures or co-cultures different from their own