Valorile culturale românești - cheia comunicării interculturale

In this paper, we have emphasised the importance of intercultural communication, which contributes to harmony between people and the establishment of collaborative relationships. A major role in people's lives is attributed to culture, as a dimension of our lives that defines a people's level of education, history, values and norms of life, the language we speak, the way we dress, how we communicate and relate to others. This paper is a brief foray into the realm of culture and intercultural communication. I wanted to bring to the audience's attention some of the essential aspects of our culture so that the cultural values of the Romanian people can be fully understood. I also defined the concepts of culture and intercultural communication in the sense of established writers. According to researchers in the field, intercultural education "is a necessary opening towards the other, towards intercultural dialogue between different ethnic groups". [3, p. 34] Through intercultural education and communication students become aware of the value of their own culture, increasing their self-esteem and they will also get to know and perhaps appreciate the culture of those belonging to another ethnic group. We have paid attention to the iceberg of the culture model so that the conceptual delineation of culture is logically supported. The examples underlying the description of the 'iceberg of culture' can easily constitute the concrete exploration of the reality we all know. I want to bring to the fore the importance and awareness of the cultural values of our people. By knowing ourselves we can better understand others, who belong to groups, communities, ethnic minorities or other nationalities with whom we come into contact or live together effectively. The world is in a constant state of flux; people come into physical and virtual contact with "others" and therefore in our mission as teachers we have an obligation to inform, research and train pupils in intercultural skills and competences in order to "learn to live together with others" (UNESCO's International Commission on Education for the 21st Century, whose constant concern is with this concept - intercultural communication)