Intercultural competence as an aspect of the communicative ...

4.4.2.3. Socializing
As an important part of university and professional life, socializing was present in
three critical incidents. Here the aim was to see whether the participants knew the reasons
for one’s communication style, moving away from only non-verbal behaviour.
The following table gives answers coded and the number of references for Critical
incident 3.
Table 4.29 Critical incident 3 codes
Codes
No. of references
directness 1
cultural difference 2
individual 4
communication problem 1
uncomfortable 1
bridge 1
*don’t know 2
The episode presented time management and organization of time (Trompenaars
and Hampden-Turner 1997). Also, the answers of the interviewees touched upon the ingroup
vs. out-group orientation, and finally, the expectations that one had from people
one was on friendly terms with.
The attributions offered were aimed at the individual features, with three
interviewees trying to explain the incident by offering a possible solution without a
prompt from the researcher.
I don’t know, maybe they have some obligations, maybe they don’t want to.
(I3)
Maybe they simply don’t want to hang out with him. I do the same here, I
meet somebody, and we say let’s call and then we have some more pressing
obligations. (I4)
Maybe they’re too busy or simply don’t care. They say ‘OK’ and then they
forget. (I5)
Two interviewees who recognized the differences in phrasing invitations provided
these explanations:
They simply talk like that, ‘let’s hang out’ but nothing happens. Vuk
should’ve asked them directly, to suggest ‘see you on Friday at 8’. It’s a
norm there, if one does not say it directly, nothing happens. (I2)
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