Intercultural quiz

Evaluating your intercultural competence

Patrick Schmidt
Take this quiz and measure how much you know – or don’t know – about your intercultural
knowledge and skills.
For each statement, choose an option that is the closest to your experience and though. If your answer
is “never”, write 1; if it is “always”, write 4 etc.

1 2 3 4
Never Occasionally Frequently Always

1. When I am in a new country, I try to learn some of its history, geography, manners, etc.
2. I look forward to having new intercultural experiences.
3. I identify and compare basic cultural differences and similarities with my own and other cultures.
4. Although I may not always understand why people in the other culture behave differently, I seek
to understand their internal logic.
5. I enjoy acting as a cultural bridge between people from different cultures.
6. When meeting somebody from another culture, I assume difference until similarity is proven.
7. I can change my behaviour to adapt to the other culture’s norms.
8. I reflect on situations in my own culture based on my practical knowledge and facts of other
cultures.
9. I use my skills and foreign experiences to help reconcile potentially difficult cross-cultural
situations.
10. When in an intercultural situation, I can see my own and other cultures from an outsider’s and
insider’s perspective.
11. I interpret values and behaviours from a variety of frames of reference so that there is never only
one possible way of viewing things.
12. I try to see the connection between language and cultural behaviour.
13. I am aware that my culture is neither inferior nor superior to other cultures.
14. When communicating interculturally, I check if my perceptions are in line with the other party by
asking “If I understand you correctly, you say that…”.
15. I think of culture as the collective programming of the mind.
16. I recognize that so-called primitive societies also have highly developed and complex minds.
17. I am conscious of my own ethnocentric tendencies ad work towards keeping them in check.
18. Before participating in an international negotiation, I anticipate the effect of cultural differences.
19. I analyse an intercultural situation through the process of first observing and resisting immediate
tendencies to interpret and evaluate.
20. I try to use cross-cultural conflicts to deepen my knowledge of myself and others.
21. I try to incorporate opposites into mutual, synergetic solutions.
22. I believe that the real aim in intercultural relations is not so much understanding foreign culture
but understanding my own.
23. I am comfortable with the notion that there are no absolute right or wrong answers in intercultural
relations.
24. In working in a cross-cultural setting, I actively seek to understand the other person’s perspective.
25. I use my language not only for communicating but also as a system of organising my perceptions
and thoughts.
26. I understand cultural misunderstandings more as a clash of differing realities.
27. I am conscious how my mother tongue acts as a “conditioner” of reality, which can prevent me
from considering new values or mental approaches.
28. I keep checking for shared understanding in intercultural situations.
29. I actively use stereotypes as an initial guide for understanding foreign behaviour and, if need be,
modify them when the actual experience proves it to be otherwise.
30. I find it stimulating to be in situation where I have to question my own way of thinking and
behaving.

Overall score / 120

Answer Key:

 If you have chosen “always” for each statement, you will have a perfect score of 120. A sum total
between 90-120 indicates a competent and skilled international person. This does not mean you
should stop learning; you can always deepen and improve your knowledge and skills.
 If you marked 70-89, you have some catching up to do, but you are not committing too many
intercultural faux pas. You need, however, to develop your skills further.
 A score below 69 strongly suggests that your skills are limited and that you need to hone your
global competence considerably. Identify your weakest areas and try to understand why you did
not answer correctly. That alone is the first step to becoming interculturally competent.