Causes of Misunderstandings in Intercultural Communication: with Illustrations from Conversations Between Norwegian Public Officers and Oromo Refugees, South West Norway

This work discusses the challenges of intercultural communication at micro level. Challenges I encountered as an immigrant in Norway, and my career as an interpreter inspired me to focus on issues of this nature. This is an assessment as to why parties under consideration communicate the way they do and why they often misunderstand and are also misunderstood by their counterparts. As this study is based on participant observation, several of the observed episodes are referred to mainly to illustrate the dynamics of cultural impact on communication behavior. Values and norms are basic elements around which the work revolves. The world, moral and religious views, social and political structures are taken into account in order to stress the complexity of intercultural communication. Scientific theories are used to reason arguments. Reading this work may evoke a deeper interest in intercultural issues. Anyone working with immigrant cases, and private and public sectors working across cultures may find some useful information in this work. As it also contains illustrations based on scientific theories, it may be useful as a reference for students studying cultures and communication.