Cross-cultural communication frequently refers to inter cultural communication. It looks generally at how people from different cultural backgrounds engage themselves to communicate or in the communication process.

It does not only indicate towards the understanding of visible parts of communication but also towards the understanding of invisible or hidden parts of communication like hidden signs and signals. These hidden symbolic elements embedded in the culture give meaning to the visible communication process. As we know, culture influences almost everything about communication or we can say that culture influences all attributes of communication like language, non-verbal signals, word meanings, time and space issues, rule of human relationship, traditions, backgrounds, outlooks, experiences, attitude, behavior and degree of respect.

But generally, the common crowd experiences problems or lacks comfort while interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds. The main causes for such uneasiness are the sources of differences like race, gender, sexual identity, ideology, age, nationality, body structure, family background, appearance, socio-economic status, occupation, language, caste, ethnicity, etc.

For the above mentioned sources of differences it is obvious that the importance of culture is becoming more and more relevant in the modern times as international business is fast gaining importance. People of different countries and diverse cultural backgrounds are meeting each other for various purposes.

So the question arises as to how do we make our communication effective while dealing in business in the diverse culture. We are aware of the fact that when we come into the contact of different people, their culture profoundly influences influences ours and vice versa and there we find complex problems. Therefore it is needed by everyone in the business profession to understand

• culture as a difference
• culture as a sensitivity