6). When looking at communication through other cultures it is indeed paramount that beliefs and values are placed highly. .
Having now crossed into the new millennium, these barriers and benefits must be looked at more closely. The 21st century will, according to Chen (1998, IRE2), confront ever shifting social, cultural and technological challenges. The rapid development of intercultural communication requires that we see things through others eyes and develop a new way of living together. This universal mindset can only result from competent intercommunication among people of diverse cultures (p.1). Thus the need for effective intercultural communication becomes critical.
The consequences of cross-cultural contact have had many benefits. Brislin (1981) suggests that these include technological development, globalisation of the economy, widespread population migrations, multiculturalism and the demise of the nation state (p. 2). These benefits have highlighted the need for intercultural communication, i.e. communicating across cultural boundaries. According to Brislin (1981), when analysing cross-cultural contact, culture can be defined in two ways. The first of these is the actual people with whom an individual comes into contact with and secondly, as a more abstract concept, that is focussing on characteristic behaviour, ideas and values (p. 4).
The former is easier to conceptualise. People interact with others who have a different skin colour, speak a different language, or claim a different ethnic heritage. The second, abstract concept, so Brislin (1981) states, "allows an analysis on how culture may affect behaviour and how subsequent contact with others from a different cultural background may be problematic" (p. 5). The valuing of ethnic and cultural diversity must, according to Hadley (1993), continue to be a high priority in education as students learn to live in an increasingly interdependent world (p.
