The Most Common Barriers of Successful Intercultural Communication

Globalization, advances in communication technology, educational and labour mobility, the internationalization of higher education require people to understand cultural differences and communicate across cultural borders. Intercultural communication occurs when “(...) a message produced in one culture must be processed in another culture” [1]. This circumstance is quite problematic because, “(...) culture forges and shapes the individual communicator” [2]. Due to the differences that interlocutors have to face in intercultural communication misunderstandings, problems or even conflicts can arise. If someone cannot function well in another culture, it can be a physically and mentally stressful, and disappointing experience. Therefore the aim of this paper is to describe the most common barriers of successful intercultural interactions and support the points with examples. The first part presents the problems that can occur during verbal and nonverbal communication. Then the second part shows how the lack of attention, interests or distractions can lead to miscommunication. After that, the third part discusses the differences in perception. Finally, the fourth part deals with the issues of prejudices and stereotypes.