Our primary audience for this book is the sojourners whose roads pass through unfamiliar cultures, who will navigate the language and nonverbal communication cues that are found in their interactions along the route. Beyond the learners, diaspora and visitors emerges a second audience: the hosts of the sojourners who want to understand their new acquaintances and embrace what makes them different. Whether the sojourners are temporary guests or permanent co-inhabitants, they will need interactants who understand that intercultural communication is a two-way process and that nonverbal behaviors are a part of the reciprocal giving and taking that characterize the effective interpretation of each other's communicative intentions. For this reason, readers will find throughout the text that we use terminology such as 'interactants' to include both parties in the responsibility to negotiate intelligibility. Although it has been said that variety is the spice of life, intercultural interactions are laden with the potential for misinterpretations. We hope that as they progress through our text, teachers and learners – in both foreign and second language contexts – participate in conversations concerning each individual's ability and/or willingness to question his or her own cultural norms and beliefs. Active discussions of mutual respect for different cultural backgrounds, conversations about learners' changing identities, and recognizing the complex mixture of desires, motivations and sociopolitical contexts for language use will enlighten both private and public discourse. Both within groups and within individuals, people will differ in their approach and willingness to adapt to the target language culture. Therefore, because our focus is on ways in which nonverbal communication helps to recreate meaning, when we use terms such as 'effective' or 'successful' communication, we are talking about messages that are sent and/or received that are interpreted much as the interactants intended.

In the weave of our chapters, one of the common threads is that differences exist among cultures, and we hope that these are celebrated.