ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a story passed on at various meetings associated with intercultural trainers, Linda and Wanida. The story of Linda and Wanida in the chapter is a good example for different attitudes. The chapter explores three major ways in which culture is given form for understanding the relationship between culture and communication: worldviews, values, and norms. It examines the relationship between culture and communication or human behavior. The monolithic force perspective holds that human behavior is caused by independent variables, such as culture, and that these causal relationships are consistent across communities, allowing for prediction and control. However, the causal relationship between culture and communication was shown to have problems in specific applications. Although this perspective has definite worth for initially understanding general tendencies and the reasons for cultural misunderstandings, it may lead to a distortion of the culture/communication connection.
