Addressing the needs of one of the fast growing courses in the US, the second edition of this inter-cultural communication text demonstrates how to overcome the stereotypes we attribute to people who are unknown or unfamiliar strangers when we first meet them. The revision is a thorough updating and reorganization. In addition, the book stresses competent communication, with applied theory and research as its base. The book provides a framework for understanding core theory, using the concept of the "stranger" - that is, anyone who is met from the first time, such as someone from another cultural group, and the assumptions we automatically make about that person. It also examines the cultural, sociocultural, psychocultural and environmental influences on intercultural communication, and shows readers how to decode "messages" others send, both verbal and nonverbal. This edition includes new coverage of interpersonal relationships and conflict across cultures, and concludes with an entirely new chapter on building community through diversity including a discussion of ethics. Finally, there is an extended discussion of ethnic identity and and coverage of uncertainty and anxiety reduction, of mindfulness and of the sources of communication behaviour.