Defining cross cultural, multiculturalism, and intercultural.

Culture: In other to better understand the meaning of the words cross-cultural, multiculturalism
and intercultural, we need dig deeper into the word that they all derived from culture. It comes
from the Latin word cultura, which initially referred to the action of cultivating plants (Oxford
Online Dictionary). It has later evolved and became the central concept of the scientific study of
humankinds: Anthropology.
Cross-cultural: This term first emerged in the 1930s from the field of social sciences with a
Yale anthropologist, George Peter Murdock. At first it referred to studies dedicated to compare
statistical compilations of cultural data. It involves the study of cultural interactivity between
people from different cultural backgrounds. In cross-cultural interaction, exist the idea of the
members reaching culture across (The Church of Canada, 2011).

Multiculturalism: This word comes from Multicultural which means: relating to or

containing several cultural or ethnic groups within a society. The New York state is a
great example of a multicultural environment, because there are communities with
different cultures standing side by side. As the United Church of Canada mentioned it:
only superficial and polite social interaction are required between these different
communities.
Intercultural: From the Oxford online dictionary, Intercultural is an adjective used to
define a process that take place between cultures, or derived from different cultures.
Edward T. Hall founded during 1951-1954 the scholar field of intercultural
communication, when he developed the paradigm of intercultural communication and
produced his first publication on Intercultural Communication entitled The Anthropology
of Manners in Scientific American (Everett M. Rogers, William B. Hart, Yoshitaka Miike,
2002). Due the differences that reflects from different cultures, intercultural competence
is deemed crucial in business. To the extent that certain international training and
consulting firms such as Japan Intercultural Consulting are created to help client
improve working relationships in multicultural environments (Japan Intercultural
Consulting). In the political platform, the term is also used in political parlance when
referring to dialogue between cultures, a type of open and respectful democratic
conversation. Basically, a comprehensive mutuality, reciprocity and equality should be
maintained at all time (The Church of Canada, 2011).

References:
1.- http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/intercultural
2.- The Church of Canada (2011). Defining Multicultural, Cross-cultural, and
Intercultural. Creative
Commons.
Retrieved
from
http://www.unitedchurch.ca/files/intercultural/multicultural-crosscultural-intercultural.pdf
3.- Rogers, E. M., Hart, W. B., Miike, Y. (2002). Edward T. Hall and The history of
intercultural Communication: The United States and Japan. Keio Communication

Review,
2.
Retrieved
from
http://www.mediacom.keio.ac.jp/publication/pdf2002/review24/2.pdf
4.- http://www.japanintercultural.com/en/services/default.aspx