Intercultural Communication

Cultural communication or intercultural communication has become an important area of study in communication in the light of emerging business transactions between people belonging to different regions, different religions, and different ethnic groups. Since culture is understood as a totality of acquired behaviors of a large community of people which are in other way described as the traditions of that people and are passed on from one generation to the next generation, this culture is perpetuated by four institutions in society. They are family, school, religion (temple, churches, and mosque) and mass media. People learn culture through these institutions, and develop a cultural behavior. In the wake of globalization, the free passage of information through mass media across countries enables people of one culture to learn the culture of other people. With the flow of global information from one region to another, and the multiple flows of information from different countries are reciprocally impacting the Oriental and Occidental cultures, resulting in the blend of two cultures. Some scholars call it multiculturalism instead of ‘one culture and one nation’. Language (English accent), travel (tourism), appearance (imitation), and adaption (other cultures) will facilitate to overcome the challenges of ethnocentrism and may help individuals to become a global citizen in a multicultural environment.