The example of intercultural communication that I have chosen to describe and analyze involved an Asian supermarket checker named Linda, according to her name-tag, and a lady from my neighborhood called Dionne Carter. The incident occurred mid-morning in early Summer, approximately nine months ago, in a large market at the checkout counter. Linda was a middle-aged woman with a heavy accent and Mrs. Carter, an African-American school teacher, is about 40 years old. Although it cannot be reproduced in the following account Linda's accent was very strong and she tended to run her words together in one quick stream, while speaking very loud.
Dionne had a dozen items or so in her cart and as she moved up in line and started placing them on the counter Linda greeted her--without smiling--in a flat, harsh-sounding voice, saying "How are you today?" Mrs. Carter smiled at her and softly said "Just fine." Half of the way through scanning the items Linda came to a carton of Diet Coke. She slapped her hand down on it and said "You need two of these." Clearly Dionne did not hear her well enough. She was writing a check and looked up as though she was startled and confused. Linda repeated, a bit louder, "You need two of these" and Dionne replied "No, one's fine for now."
But Linda persisted and said, "Two, much better. I put two for you," while gesturing toward the cash register. This left Mrs. Carter with nothing to say except to repeat herself. But Linda said again, while speaking more slowly, "Two, much better" and paused, looking expectantly and a little impatiently (it seemed) at Dionne. Then she added, "Today." Mrs. Carter looked around at the people in line behind her. She was very puzzled and did not seem to know what to do. She finally asked "Why do I need two?" But Linda replied "No good . . . One. Two, much better. Today" and appeared to wait for a response.
Mrs. Carter finally said, "But I only want one,"...