ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a story passed on at various meetings associated with intercultural trainers, Jimmy and Van. Trainers' personal identity is their understanding of themselves as unique, idiosyncratic individuals. The chapter explores the impact of identities on intercultural communication by discussing the difference between personal and social identities and the fundamental role of similarities and differences in understanding these forms of identity. It discusses the nature of expectations created by identities, the relationship between identity and communication, and the pathways people take to establish and recognize particular identities. Trainers' social identity is tied to the roles they play in society and their group memberships ranging from occupations to gender to ethnicity and nationality, to various other communities with which they affiliate. The chapter also discusses two pathways to establishing their social identities: avowal and ascription. Culture and identity are intimately related and, if trainers' want to understand their own and others' cultures.
