Intercultural competence is very important when traveling to countries that have different beliefs, routines, and way of doing things. Peter Hessler got the opportunity to travel to Fuling, China in order to teach young college students English literature. During his time there he learned a lot about their culture and the many differences between how they do things in Fuling verses the United States. I believe that Peter wasn't able to meet intercultural competence for a couple reasons such as actions made by him in class that go against cultural norms, and the incident when Adam and Peter played basketball. I also believe that he came close to reaching cultural competence because he was able to speak the language, talk to the people that were from there and he was actually interested in the culture and wanted to learn more about it. It's important for those that are traveling to another country to have cultural competence because without it they could disrespect the other culture and create problems between each culture. .
In chapter 6 of The Peace Corps Cross-Cultural Workbook, it shows the four levels of cultural awareness. The levels of culture awareness are listed like this; Unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence (Storti, pg. 199). The levels of cultural awareness go from the lowest amount of competence which is when the person pays no attention to cultural differences or cultural mistakes, to the highest which is achieved when a person that has gone to a foreign culture is able to act in a manner that is culturally appropriate, and is able to do it subconsciously. The third level is called conscious competence, and this means that one knows the cultural differences, and they are trying to adjust their behavior to match those around them, but they have to make a conscious effort to match their behavior to others instead of doing it subconsciously.