In order to help international students break the barrier of intercultural communication and better communicate with Chinese teachers and students from different countries, the School of International Exchange invited Dr. Han Xi, Director of Peking University-Israel Hebrew University Confucius Institute, to give a lecture on Intercultural Communication to international students.

Intercultural communication is the knowledge, skills, and thinking required to communicate appropriately and effectively with members of other cultures, and it is internationally recognized as one of the core skills for citizens in the 21st century.

Dr. Han began by introducing the different perceptions of identity: country, religion, class, gender, ethnicity, etc. People from different perceptions of identity often encounter barriers when communicating, which requires basic intercultural communication skills in order to minimize misunderstandings and conflicts.

Then, Dr. Han introduced the major culprits of intercultural communication barriers: intercultural communication anxiety, ignoring cultural differences, racism, stereotypes, non-verbal communication barriers, and language communication barriers. Dr. Han explained in detail how to improve intercultural communication skills: first of all, we should recognize the different cultural backgrounds of the people we are communicating with, keep an open mind to different cultures, enhance empathy, abandon racist ideas, and respect the cultural behaviors and customs of different countries. At the same time, we should also recognize that in intercultural communication, mistakes are inevitable. Only through continuous communication and extensive learning of other countries' cultures and customs can we improve our intercultural communication level and truly become messengers of cultural exchange between countries.

In the interactive session, international students raised their cross-cultural communication problems in their study life, and Dr. Han answered them one by one to help them improve their cross-cultural communication skills.