Language and intercultural communication problems

Intercultural communication problems can occur as a result of the interaction between people from different cultures. This article describes the difficulties encountered within the German speech communities after unification in 1989. These two speech communities, although sharing a language, found that the separation of the countries led to unexpected problems in unified Germany.

Language was being used both consciously and subconsciously to emphasise perceived and real problems and to illustrate group identity and this was hampering the building of new relationships.