The study of intercultural communication, which concerns the interaction between people of different cultural backgrounds, attempts to discover how people from distinctively diverse cultures endeavor to communicate.

“CULTURE TALK” is both a radio program and a faculty/student collaborative research project, which explores how culture influences communication. Communication is a behavior affected by culture. What one is taught affects the values one maintains and how one behaves. The intercultural interviews conducted in this study explore how culture, which can be thought of as “everything that people have, think or do” (Ferraro, 2006) or “programming of the mind” (Hofstede, 1980; 1984), influences communication.

This research provides empirical data illustrating that an individuals’s culture (mental programming), including the values, verbal and nonverbal behaviors one has been taught, affects the messages one delivers as well as how one communicates. Data were gathered through interviews from a non-random sample of 24 participants (16 women and eight men) representing 20 cultures. A semi-structured interview schedule was used to gather data. Interviewees were asked a series of open and closed-ended questions that explored areas including: identity, verbal communication, nonverbal communication, values, and culture shock.

Ferraro, g. (2006). The cultural dimension of international business (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Sage.; Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture’s consquences: International differences in work-related values. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.; Hofstede, G. (1984). Culture’s consequences: International differences in work-related values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.