A Culture Building Approach to Intercultural Communication: Japanese Women in International Wives' Groups

Abstract

Culture building does not occur in all intercultural communication situations. The Japanese women's accounts show that what they enjoyed, appreciated, and found special about the groups was the culture building talk, and that it was culture building intercultural communication that they wished to experience more. However, for the Japanese women, culture building and intercultural communication were intertwined with the problematics of speaking English, making the experience ambivalent and multifaceted.