Communication across cultural boundaries: learning from and with others through dialogical semiospheres

[Abstract] Learning from and with others is significant for the sustainability of cultures and the effectiveness of global communication. Experiencing different cultural settings is essential for the development of one’s cultural understanding. Interacting with other cultures demands courageous navigation through unfamiliar cultural boundaries. Empirical observations of a cross-cultural program in Egypt have stimulated a deep understanding of learning from and with others and augmented the theoretical framework of this paper. Through a dialogical «semiosphere» members of different cultures can reach an interpretative understanding of the differences between their ideological biases and discover high-leverage points for cultural vitality. Communication is perceived not only as a condition for the existence of culture but also as a criterion for recognizing cultural identity. To communicate is to cultivate significance, and to cultivate significance is to communicate — a reciprocity that can be maintained by cross-cultural interaction and the capacity for dialogical semiospheres.