CULTURE, INTERCULTURAL & CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS "A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY"

Communication is a system of behavior, and because different cultures often demand very different behaviors, intercultural communication is more complex than communication between persons of the same culture. All communication takes place in the matrix of culture; therefore difference in culture is the primary obstacle to intercultural communication. Our culture teaches us our behavior from birth, and most of our behavior is unconscious. Although our verbal language comes to us naturally, only the most ethnocentric can believe that their own is a "natural" language and that other societies speak some distortion of it. If we understand that we need to translate verbal language, we should be able to understand that we also need to translate nonverbal language. Accordingly, the present study is an attempt to a critically descriptive review of the opinions, views and beliefs of some scholars in the above fields of study with respect to culture, intercultural and cross-cultural communication similarities, misunderstandings, and obstacles.