Introduction

A massive number of contacts between people located all over the globe require attainment of the skills of developing intercultural understanding, tolerance and sensitivity towards cultural differences. We need to learn to live in the globalized world. It is a world where others, members of various communities, including those representing a different-than-ours system of values and beliefs, live beside us. This is also a world where our more and more frequent sojourns or travels lead us to interactions with members of these communities.

For these reasons, the readiness to face the challenges of meeting others emerges as an elementary skill which every global citizen needs to develop. This requirement concerns both all of those people whose professions, and often private curiosity, lead them to visit more or less distant corners of the globe and those who interact with immigrants in their home countries. Intercultural communication skills are perceived as essential by Dervin (2010: 23), who states that “Intercultural competence, which is the expected outcome of the insertion of interculturality in language learning and teaching, is a vital competence in our contemporary world, especially (but not exclusively) for specialists involved in mediating between people (diplomats, language teachers, consultants, journalists, translators…).”

In the globalized world, where the only way to co-exist peacefully is to have respect for the different values and perspectives, there is an urging need to establish a fair dialogue between our own and other cultures.