Conceptualization of Culture for Intercultural Communication Training: A Classic Interview with Edward T. Hall

Among the notable early staff members of the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the U.S. Department of State was Dr. Edward Twitchell Hall, Jr. (1914–2009), who is widely credited with laying the intellectual and applied foundations for what became the field of intercultural communications (IC) and especially IC training. The FSI was established as an in-service institute offering graduate-level training to employees, Foreign Service Officers, and others to enhance their development and service at U.S. embassies, consulates, and related domestic offices. Hall’s tenure at the FSI (1951–1955) spanned the eventful and challenging years of establishing this new department and working out ways of developing and delivering training. Hall and his team grappled with how best to carry out this new type of cross-cultural orientation program. The classic interview provided here, which has not been previously published, has been made available to the public by the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. In this interview (in October 1997 at the convocation of the 50th Anniversary of the Opening of the Foreign Service Institute), Edward T. Hall reflects on the early days of his work, thinking, and challenges at the FSI.