Inter - cultural communication

CONTEXT.  Intercultural  competence  is  contextual.  An  impression  or 

judgment  that a person is  intercultural  competent is made with respect to 

both  a  specific  relational  context  and  a  particular  situational  context. 

Competence is not independent of  the relationships and situations within 

which  communication  occurs.  Thus,  competence  is  not  an  individual 

attribute;  rather,  it  is  a  characteristic  of  the  association  between

individuals. It is possible, therefore, for someone to be perceived as highly 

competent  in  one  set  of  intercultural  interactions  and  only  moderately 

competent in another.  Judgments  of intercultural competence also depend 

on  cultural  expectations  about  the  permitted  behaviours that  characterise 

the  settings  or  situations  within  which  people  communicate.  The  settings 

help  to  define  and  limit  the  range  of  behaviours  that  are  regarded  as 

acceptable. Consequently, the same set of behaviours may be perceived as

very competent in one cultural setting and much less competent in another. 

For  instance, one person might want to use highly personalised nicknames 

and  touching  behaviours  in  public,  the  other  person  might  regard  such 

visible displays as unwarranted and therefore incompetent.