Intercultural Communication That Went Wrong

Running head: INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION THAT WENT WRONG
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION THAT WENT WRONG
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INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION THAT WENT WRONG
Introduction
The essay aims to provide a scenario first where intercultural communication goes wrong
and then analyze the scenario with evidences from the literature. The scenario involves
interaction between a Chinese senior and an employee of English-speaking culture. The
postcolonial analysis of intercultural communication will be done. Apart from that, the essay will
also discuss the various reasons for the failure of intercultural communication and the influence
of globalization. The barriers to intercultural communication will be discussed as well.
Discussion
The scenario that will be presented involves the interaction between a Chinese senior and
an English-speaking employee. In this scenario, the intercultural communication fails when the
English-speaker does not offer drink to his senior after his Chinese senior refused for the first
time. This is a failure because the English-speaking employee did not know that in Chinese
culture, it is impolite to accept any offer in the first instance and the person offering it must offer
repeatedly. The Chinese senior was on a visit to the English-speaking employee’s country and
the employee had invited the senior over dinner. The employee had asked his senior if he would
like some wine but the Chinese senior refused. The employee did not serve any drink to the
senior, which was not taken in a good manner. The next day, the Chinese senior let the employee
know through another employee about it. The employee then apologized for the same but did not
recognize that he was at fault. He narrated the incident to his colleagues, made fun of his senior,
and even made derogatory remarks like “funny Chinese people”.
The above scenario took place because none of the individuals was competent in
intercultural communication. Intercultural communication refers to the way people interact or