The Dynamics of Intercultural Friendship: Barriers and Solutions Essay

This essay delves into the multifaceted nature of intercultural friendships, exploring the challenges and rewards associated with forming relationships across diverse cultural backgrounds. It begins by highlighting the importance of friendship and the unique perspectives gained from cross-cultural interactions. The essay then examines the significant barriers to intercultural friendships, including differences in values, beliefs, customs, communication styles, and the impact of geopolitical tensions. It references scholarly research to support these claims. Furthermore, the essay offers practical solutions for overcoming these barriers, such as fostering positivity, respecting cultural differences, emphasizing similarities, and seeking common interests. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of mutual respect and understanding for successful intercultural friendships, ultimately providing the ability of finding out more interests and passions along with some increased knowledge and resources.

Running head: INTERCULTURAL FRIENDSHIP
INTERCULTURAL FRIENDSHIP
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1INTERCULTURAL FRIENDSHIP
Friendship can be a hard work (Owton & Allen-Collinson, 2014). Whether it is
making friendship or maintain it, friendship always require effort from both the sides. There
has been very limited scholarly researches and studies conducted on the different dynamics of
friendship, particularly, the intercultural friendship. It is basically because of the fact that
intercultural friendship means different things to different individuals and this further makes
it a very different concept. It is to mention that cross cultural friendships teach people that
everyone has different ways of coping up with the similar sort of challenges that they are
facing. Friendship has the potential of imparting some useful advices on the basis of the
personal experiences of people from different background, cultures and creed (Suttles, 2017).
This paper shall elaborate on discussing about the differences in values, beliefs and customs
that make intercultural friendship difficult. Furthermore, it shall also shed light on how the
different barriers of intercultural friendship can be overcome.
Friendship is considered to be the purest form of relationship. Every individuals in
this world needs a friend with whom he or she can share their secrets, happiness, sadness
(Adams & Plaut, 2003). However, having friends from different cultural ranges is sometimes
is very rewards and is also becomes quite challenging to maintain. It is to mention that
cultural is a multifaceted phenomenon. According to Schiek (2015), gender, mental abilities,
age, physical abilities, sexual orientation, education level and socio-economic groups are
some of the different characteristics that comprise of the different cultures. All these elements
individually carry with them some different beliefs, attitudes and behaviours that further are
the attributes of their culture. Having friends or friend circle from diverse cultural group
offers rewards to one’s own identity (Owton & Allen-Collinson, 2014). According to French,
Bae and Pidada (2006), intercultural friendship offers greater freedom for enjoying other
ways of being, while providing the individuals an ability of finding out more interests and
passions along with some increased knowledge and resources.

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If one is from a Western country, he or she shall lay much emphasis on the trust and
reliance on others and they always want to be able of communicating about the strengths and
struggles with the friends confidently. However, when shipping to other nations, people
interact with new people and engage in making intercultural friendships (Kudo & Simkin,
2003). However, as mentioned above, intercultural friendships could actually provide some
highly rewarding experiences of life for each and every one involved in it, but at the same
time, they could also sometimes end with challenges. According to Gareis, Goldman &
Merkin (2019), intercultural friendships have higher possibilities of developing
misunderstandings and hard feelings among the individuals involved and these are the
outcome of cultural differences. It is to mention that diverse cultures have diverse beliefs and
attitudes regarding life, expectations from people in the society, events and diverse
understandings about what friendship actually means.
One of the biggest barriers of forming intercultural friendships is that of cultural
differences that exists among the individuals involved. It is very easy to make friendship with
someone who shares most of the similar assumptions regarding life as they themselves do.
However, one might not learn as much regarding the world as one could by means of making
friends with the people who perceive the world differently (Kudo & Simkin, 2003).
Notwithstanding these facts, differences in assumptions and attitudes could make
communication very difficult. According to the study by Baba and Hosoda (2014), “exchange
students from Asia tended to have less positive experiences in the U.S. than did exchange
students from Europe”. It could be basically because of greater differences in culture in
between United States and Asia.
Furthermore, the next barrier that one can face in this regard is that of in terms of
communication issues. It is to mention that cultures often differ from one another’s in terms
of the role that an individual plays in the society (Choy et al., 2015). For example, the

3INTERCULTURAL FRIENDSHIP
Australian culture tends to be much more individualistic as compared to the other different
cultures (Mortimer et al., 2015). Again, the culture of Asia is much more reluctant for voicing
opinions in class or going against the opinions or beliefs of others (Choy et al., 2015). Hence,
friends from different cultural backgrounds should always remember that they all are shaped
by the culture in which they are grown up and this is why, opinions can differ and none of
them is right or wrong. Apart from these barriers, the effect of geopolitical tensions on the
interpersonal and international relations can never be ignored. Marginson (2014) in this
context have claimed that “Conflicting views of international political and social situation can
sometimes lead to intense hostility between international and local students”. This is why, the
international students usually become more careful while making friendships with their peers
in the host nations.
There are many ways in which one can ensure successful intercultural friendships.
Firstly, one should always help in being positive and providing assistance to their friends
from different backgrounds. The involved individuals should always respect and
acknowledge the cultures and beliefs of the one another (Sue et al., 2019). Also, they should
focus more on exploring and emphasizing on the similarities among them while exploring
and celebrating all the dissimilarities. They should understand that it is due to the cultural
differences that their opinions differ but their friendship will always help providing them the
ability of finding out more interests and passions along with some increased knowledge and
resources. It is to note that as per the study of Young and Schartner (2014), about 55 percent
of the international students feel better after they manage to make friends with their new
friends in international borders, regardless of the language issues that they possess.
Furthermore, according to Du and Wei (2015), while making friends, there is absolutely no
substitute for coming together with the other students around a common interest or
community. They should seek out for different multicultural resources that could bridge the

4INTERCULTURAL FRIENDSHIP
gap in between them. One needs to ignore all the barriers in order make cross cultural
friendships focusing more on the positive sides of the same.
Hence, it is to conclude that intercultural friendships can only work if each and every
individuals involved respect and understand the cultures and beliefs of one another. They
must understand that they all are shaped by the culture in which they are grown up and this is
why, opinions can differ and none of them is right or wrong. Furthermore, it is also to
conclude that the major barriers to intercultural friendships are cultural differences and the
differences in values and beliefs, language barriers, and sometimes, the geopolitical tensions
interpersonal and international relations. However, all these barriers can easily be ignored if
the involved individuals in the intercultural friendships focus more on exploring and
emphasizing on the similarities among them while exploring and celebrating all the
dissimilarities. They should understand that it is because of the cultural differences that their
point of views and opinions differ but their friendship will always help them in positive
manner, providing them the ability of finding out more interests and passions along with
some increased knowledge and resources.

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References:
Adams, G., & Plaut, V. (2003). The cultural grounding of personal relationship: Friendship
in North American and West African worlds. Personal Relationships, 10, 333–347.
Baba, Y., & Hosoda, M. (2014). Home away home: Better understanding of the role of social
support in predicting cross-cultural adjustment among international students. College
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Choy, S. C., Sedhu, D. S., Liew, Y. L., Lee, M. Y., Malenee, A., & Anuar, N. (2015).
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French, D. C., Bae, A., Pidada, S., & Lee, O. (2006). Friendships of Indonesian, South
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