In this book, we invite the reader to follow us on ajourney into the realm of foreign language learningapproached through the lens of cross-culturalpragmatics. Foreign language learning is a fieldwhich encompasses applied linguistic research on howforeign learners acquire their target language. Wefocus on one major area in foreign language learning– second language pragmatics (henceforth L2pragmatics) – which deals with thepragmatic aspects of foreign language learning.Cross-cultural pragmatics, which isalso often referred to as contrastivepragmatics, involves research through whichscholars systematically compare language use acrossdifferent languages and language varieties, in orderto understand a particular phenomenon. While‘contrastive’ and ‘cross-cultural’ pragmatics areoften used as synonyms, ‘contrastive’ is more oftenused to describe a pragmatic methodology, and theexpression ‘cross-cultural’ refers to a broaderfield in which the researcher engages in both basiccontrastive research and other non-contrastivemethodologies, such as interviews and surveys. Inother words, ‘cross-cultural’ is a morecomprehensive expression than ‘contrastive’.Cross-cultural pragmatics has appeared in appliedlinguistics mainly in the framework of interlanguagepragmatics, focusing on phenomena such as pragmatictransfer from the learner’s first language(henceforth L1) into his or her target language(henceforth L2). However, cross-cultural andinterlanguage pragmatics do not cover exactly thesame terrain: the interlanguage pragmaticiannormally studies a whole set of issues surroundingforeign language acquisition, while thecross-cultural pragmatician normally approachesforeign language learning from a comparative angle,as the name suggests.