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Chapter1Interculturalencounters
ryone’scultureturnsintoculturalityanincessantcreationofculture
andeveryone’sidentityintoidentification(HallandduGay,1996).As
weliveinaworldwhereweconstantlymeetpeoplephysicallyorvirtu-
ally(acquaintances,friends,strangers,etc.),weneedto“identify”(i.e.
showresemblanceordiferentiate)andcreatecultureeverytimeencoun-
tersoccur.(Dervin,n.d.)
Undoubtedly,thephenomenaindicatedbyDervinrequiretheredefi-
nitionofsomecrucialconcepts,suchascommunicationprocess,com-
municativecompetence,interculturalencounter(orcross-borderinterac-
tionDervin,n.d.),andtheeliminationofafixedidentity.Similarly,
Katnić-Bakarsić(2002:42–43)suggeststhechangeofperspectivewhen
defininginterculturalinteraction.Forher,themetaphorof“building
bridges”seemsappropriatetodescribethechallengesthatintercultural
communicationbrings.
Researchers(cf.BystrovandYermolenko2011:20;Dervin,n.d.;
Katnić-Bakarsić2002)agreethatthevalueofstudiesonintercultural
communicationliesinexaminingandinterpretingrealculturalcon-
tacts.Holmes(2014:1)saysthat“interculturaldialogueisnowinwide
currencyandofersmuchhopetopeaceandharmonyamongnations.”
ThiscorrespondstothepolicyoftheCouncilofEurope,whichrevolves
aroundtheissuesoflanguageawareness,cross-culturalinteraction,
plurilingualism,andhands-onexperiencewithinterculturalcommuni-
cation.Martikonis(2012:143)statesthatmultilingualismisafunda-
mentalvalueoftheEU.TheCouncilofEuropestrivesforstrengthen-
ingtheidentitiesofindividualsandmaintainingdiversityatthesame
time(www.coe.int/plurilingualeducation).Theprincipleofrespectfor
linguisticandculturaldiversityisstatedexplicitlyinArticle3ofthe
TreatyontheEuropeanUnion.
AbranchofresearchinitiatedbytheCouncilofEuropedealswith
popularisingaswellasenjoyingdiversity:interculturalawarenessand
multilingualism(Lamb,inBoeckmannetal.2011:73;Holmes2014:1).
TheaimsoftheCouncilofEuropeconcentrateonpromotingplurilin-
gualandinterculturaleducationasawaytopreparepeopleformobility
andaplurilingualsociety.TheAutobiographyofInterculturalEncounters,
introducedin2009,isanexampleofaconcreteinitiativesupportedby
theCouncilofEuropewhichresultedinapracticalandwidelyacces-
sibletoolthatcanhelppeopletocopewithinterculturalencounters.
Thepresentresearchwillexaminecommunicationandefectiveout-
comesofthephenomenon.