Culture

Comes from Latin « cultura », in narrow sense it refers to finesse, arts but in wide sense it refers to all Human products.
Culture is a complex whole with interrelated parts that is shared & learned. It influences biological processes & characterizes members of a society. It includes knowledge, values, art, laws… It influences what we do, think & have.
There are 3 levels in culture: perceived, unseen (beliefs…) & unconscious (values…).
Collectivity of culture has a function of inclusion/exclusion (ingroup vs outgroup).

Intercultural communication

Communication between people from different cultural backgrounds (not necessarily from different countries). Opportunities & challenges. It needs to encounter differences, language & ethical issues. It also has some personal, academic & instrumental dimensions. How do you deal with IC and how you can overcome your own limitations?

You need knowledge to deal with IC, you reveal your identity (disclosure) & fill in info about the other (closure), you construct knowledge about self & other in interaction (dis-closure). You share to reduce uncertainty.

Punctuation

Process of perception by which people organize their ongoing interactions into recognizable closing, causes & effects.
People from different cultures define their collective identity by drawing boundary lines between them, looking for a mutually acceptable boundary fit.
Boundary can be constructive (confirm identity) or destructive (disconfirm identity); hard or soft, but anyway they’re bound to change with time.

You define which of your characteristics are common with the other and what your differences are and you draw a line to separate common points from differences. Then you know better how to interact. To draw this line you have to explain to the other what your identity is, then he can react in positive or negative way (accept your identity with sympathy or reject it by ignoring you or using racist language…).

For a