In the chapter one, author is talking about the skill of communication. Every people cannot live
in the world without communication. And we need to communicate with others that help us know more intercultural.
Actually, I am really interested in intercultural, because now I am in the intercultural world. Everyone knows that I am a Chinese student which is studying in American. I saw a lot of differences between Chinese cultural and American cultural. Of course, how can I know that more difference are because communicate with my native friends. Therefore, I would really like to talk about the social context. “The social context refers to the widely shared expectations people have about the kind of interactions that normally should occur given different kinds of social events.” (Intercultural Competence p.17) I agree with this definition which the author says and gives an example of funerals to me. I like to share another example that I know which is comparing the differences between Chinese weddings and American weddings.
For the Chinese wedding, people will put things which are red color to the whole of bridal chamber such as quilt, cups, curtain, candles, and more, because in China that red color is meaning lucky. Although some things that cannot be changed the red color, people will put some red color things such as red paper or red cloth on those things. However, in American wedding, people never do those like Chinese. They would like white which is meaning pure in their bridal chamber. The other thing about difference between Chinese wedding and American wedding is giving the gift of a new couple. In China, people would like to put money in a red bag because they do not know which things that couple need, so they just give the money and couple will buy things which they need use that money. Moreover, the amount of money has to make a lucky number, for example 8888, 6666, because eight and six is most lucky number in China. However,
in American, people will give couple a gift card. I think that American people have the same thinking as Chinese people. They just use different ways to show that.
Different countries have different cultural and different cultural become an intercultural. We have to get a great skill of communication that to help us understand intercultural differences. Reference:
Koester, Jolene, and Myron W. Lustig. 2013. Intercultural competence: Interpersonal Communication Across Cultures. 7th ed. Boston: Pearson。