The problem of intercultural communication is one of the essential problems of our time. The authors note that this exchange and cultural interaction, historically lasting although changing, has always been asymmetrical. The asymmetry is realized in full when we consider civilization differences typical of this or that community. The paper stresses that it is necessary to change the balance of the above mentioned asymmetry for gaining authentic cultural development. The authors see it as the realization of the idea of equality in intercultural communication. The paper does not represent a theoretical platform providing for immediate change in favour of one or another actor and totally changing the existing balance – such a project would require combining various, interdisciplinary methods as well as much more space. It rather aims at drawing the attention of the academic community to the fact that if one insists on differences between cultures, this only leads to their global oversimplification by reduction to universalism, traditionally known as well as tabooed as its social and cultural consequences expose themselves only too well. The authors focus on outlining some of the basic ideas concerning altering the existing situation in intercultural communication.
cross-cultural communication, cultural imperialism, cultural exchange, domination in culture, independent communication.
Philosophers have often posed the question how inter cultural communication took place and whether it was possible at all. It seems that the latter question has in a way become redundant, for cultural communication happens, one way or another. Linguistic studies have long shown that cultural exchange bears mutual incomprehension to a certain point, since different languages are not translatable “one for one” (the so-called indeterminacy of translation) [2; 3; 12; 13]. But no matter how impoverished, no matter how (not) satisfied are all the parties involved in exchange, inter cultural exchange indeed takes place. If one approaches the issue of inter cultural communication in principle, it can be observed that inter cultural communication is primarily an issue of linguistic exchange. Naturally, every language constitutes a world unto itself: all what can be said in one language is at the same time all what can be said whatsoever. Therefore, on the level of logic, inter cultural exchange primarily refers to the compatibility (or incompatibility) of different world possibilities. The connectivity of possible worlds becomes real only if the entire sphere of life joins the linguistic sphere. Even if one agrees with Derrida that every relation is only a relation of signs, the fact remains that, although the acts of sign exchange can be symbolized, there remains something more except the purely linguistic exchange. This “more” is life itself and its authenticity [7; 8]. That, in turn, means that the gap of imperfect linguistic compatibility is bridged by and in reality — reality, wherefor almost no one today can say what it is, at least not in the registry of founding knowledge speech.
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