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ILEIID 2025 | International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS)

ISSN: 2454-6186 | DOI: 10.47772/IJRISS

Special Issue | Volume IX Issue XXIV October 2025

When East Meets West: Cross-Cultural Challenges in a Tourist’s

Guide to Love

Yasmin Najihah Yazid,

Ahmad Hubaib Adiy Ahmad Muhyuddin, *

Muhammad Nasiruddin Aziz

1,2,3

Akademi Pengajian Bahasa, Universiti Teknologi MARA 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor

*Corresponding Author

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.924ILEIID0021

Received: 23 September 2025; Accepted: 30 September 2025; Published: 29 October 2025

ABSTRACT

This study analyses the portrayal of intercultural communication barriers in A Tourist’s Guide to Love (2023),

with a particular focus on interactions between American and Vietnamese characters. Drawing on Barna’s six

stumbling blocks in intercultural communication, the research applied a qualitative film analysis to examine

how cultural challenges were depicted. Key scenes revealed recurring issues such as assumption to similarities,

followed by nonverbal misinterpretations and language differences. To find out how these challenges were

tackled, DeVito’s Principles for Effective Intercultural Communication was referred to. Education oneself was

found to be the most frequent strategy of all. The study highlighted the value of media representations in

reflecting real-world cultural encounters and underscores the role of films in promoting cross-cultural

understanding. Its insights may benefit professionals working in multicultural settings, particularly in fields

like tourism and international business, by shedding light on cross-cultural challenges that one may encounter

when they are in contact with people of other cultural backgrounds. Future research could extend this analysis

by using different research approaches.

Keywords: Intercultural communication, cross-cultural challenges, American culture, Vietnamese culture,

Barna’s six stumbling blocks

INTRODUCTION

The world continues to witness a surge in the movement of people as they travel across different regions, all

because of globalisation. The recent migration analyses reported that mobility remains central (IOM, 2024).

This is evident as tourists’ arrivals are now more frequent than ever as travel demands and connectivity have

been restored following the reopening of international borders, (UN Tourism, 2024). Such mobility allows

communities to come into contact with one another as they travel to different cities and heritage sites around

the world.

With rising mobility, growing contacts expose travellers to mismatched norms and meanings. Due to such a

fast pace of cultural and conversation exchange, some challenges have been magnified (Astawa & Wijaya,

2024; Ting, 2023), impacting their overall travel experience. For this reason, cross-cultural competence is now

increasingly important, especially for travellers who navigate varied settings (Astawa & Wijaya, 2024; Ting,

2023). Generally, such competence can be honed through structured intercultural learning like collaborative

online international learning (Lyu, 2024; Hackett et al., 2023). In the context of daily practice, one’s cultural

intelligence and skills can be shaped as they prepare, observe, and adapt to the communities that they interact

with. This includes adjusting their language, tone, and timing, apart from many other aspects. Over time, one’s

competence ideally grows as they continue to reflect and observe feedback from their social interactions.

However, honing cross-cultural competence can be a great challenge for many people (Lyu, 2024; Ting, 2023).

As an attempt to address this, the study, therefore, decided to examine cultural challenges and strategies that

travellers can consider in order to grow their cultural intelligence and skills. This was done by studying A

Tourist’s Guide to Love, a Netflix show which highlights the cultural exchanges and contacts between an

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Special Issue | Volume IX Issue XXIV October 2025

American character, Amanda Riley, and the Vietnamese locals. In doing so, two (2) research questions were

put forth: (i) What are the cultural challenges faced by the American character in the film? and (ii) How does

the American character overcome the cultural challenges in the film? The findings are hoped to shed light on

the importance and role of cross-cultural competence, especially in the context of international mobility.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Tele cinematic Discourse as an Approach to Studying Cross-Cultural Communication

Telecinematic discourse systematically examines the ways narratives in films are scripted and intercultural

encounters are staged. A large diachronic corpus study by Werner (2020) revealed the gradual rise of

emotionality and informality in North American films, suggesting that film and TV dialogues are becoming an

evolving, highly complex register. Another study of American mainstream film scripts, through lexical-bundle

analysis, found that formulaic multiword patterns are used in films to conflict, characterisation, and audience

engagement (Xua & Wijitsopon, 2023). These studies suggest that films are indeed a research avenue worth

exploring due to its complexity.

This complexity of films is attributed to the sensory data that traditional text-based methods may not be able to

capture. This includes the analysis of nonverbal cues and body language which are insightful in describing not

just human experience but also social phenomena (Borish et al., 2021; Fitzgerald & Lowe, 2020). One example

of this is the study by Fitzgerald and Lowe’s (2020) involving documentary films. Another reason why films

are a valuable research area is due to the access that researchers may have upon exploring sensitive topics and

lived realities, which may not be viable via conventional means (Baumann et al., 2020; Fitzgerald & Lowe,

2020). Due to the advancements in technology, using films in research has been more feasible than ever as

audio-visual media are now highly accessible.

Barna’s (1994) Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication

Barna’s (1994) framework generally elaborates the breakdowns that often take place when multiple cultures

come into contact. Barna (1994) outlined six (6) recurring barriers to communication across cultures namely (i)

assumption of similarities, (ii) language differences, (iii) nonverbal misinterpretations, (iv) preconceptions and

stereotypes, (v) tendency to evaluate, and (vi) high anxiety. The framework allowed the cinematic moments of

cultural barriers in A Tourist’s Guide to Love, which were integral parts of the film plot, to be broken down

into analysable communicative events.

DeVito’s (2019) Principles for Effective Intercultural Communication

DeVito’s (2019) Principles for Effective Intercultural Communication put forth flexible guidelines that remain

relevant across dissimilar settings. In the framework, five (5) actionable choices were outlined: (i) educating

oneself, (ii) recognising differences, (iii) confronting one’s stereotypes, (iv) reducing one’s ethnocentrism, and

(v) adjusting one’s communication.

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

To explore the cross-cultural communication that took place in A Tourist’s Guide to Love, the study adopted a

qualitative approach. This is in line with Kim & Vietze’s (2023) assertion that such a research approach is a

widely accepted design that can thoroughly capture lived experiences and interpret cultural phenomena.

According to the researchers, qualitative research allows context, language and behaviour (which are

essentially needed to understand cross-cultural challenges in telecinematic discourse) to be extensively

examined. In order to qualitatively study the film, content analysis was employed upon analysing the textual

and visual data to not only identify the challenges faced by the American character, Amanda Riley, but also the

strategies that she took in order to overcome them. According to Alyaqoub et al. (2024), this method is

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particularly suitable for studying film dialogues and scenes. In the study, the analysis of the film contents

involved coding and categorising the film scenes, according to Barna’s (1994) Six Stumbling Blocks in

Intercultural Communication and DeVito’s (2021) Principles for Effective Intercultural Communication as the

guiding research frameworks. This allowed for systematic interpretation of dialogues and character

interactions, thereby uncovering how cultural differences are navigated in a filmic representation (Bingham &

Witkowsky, 2021).

Sample and Sampling Technique

The sample of study included the scenes where Amanda Riley, a travel executive from an American tourism

company, Tourista, was on an undercover mission in Vietnam. Through her short visit, she studied Vietnamese

tourism, with the hope of acquiring a small local tour company, Saigon Silver Star. The company tour guide

Sinh Thach (who was Amanda’s love interest) guided through her stay, showing the wonders that the country

has to offer. What started as a business venture eventually grew into an undeniable chemistry between the two.

The scenes from A Tourist’s Guide to Love were sampled using purposive technique, a non-probability

technique

allowing elements to be selected based on their relevance to the research objectives. The technique is asserted

to be effective when analysing specific cultural or communicative phenomena (Nyimbili & Nyimbili, 2024). In

the context of the present study, purposive sampling allows the researchers to sample only the scenes depicting

intercultural contact, as put forth by the research objectives.

Data Collection and Analysis

To ensure consistency and reliability, the study followed a systematic process of the data collection and

analysis. Guided by a coding guideline, the process began with transcribing relevant film scenes, before they

were coded using a pre-defined codebook as recommended by Saldaña (2021). This aligns with the approaches

used by other studies including Alawi’s (2021) exploration of cultural identity through a semiotic analysis of

two international films and Sabre and Mohandas’ (2023) study on cross-cultural communication challenges in

a film. Using transcripts ensures that verbal and nonverbal cues in the dialogue are captured accurately.

The data was then analysed through deductive coding to identify the cultural challenges and strategies guided

by Barna’s (1994) and DeVito’s (2021) frameworks. A coding scheme, as the research instrument, was

developed according to the two research frameworks. This allows patterns and themes to be consistently

identified and classified across the dataset (Younas et al., 2022). To ensure accuracy and transparency

throughout the coding and categorising process, the coding scheme was enhanced through inter-coder

reliability. This involved comparing the independent coding of multiple coders according to the predefined

code definitions. According to Halpin (2024), this ensures the coding process is systematic and replicable. This

process was eventually followed by a basic quantification process to count the frequency of each category.

Overall, the process took four weeks to allow multiple rounds of reviews and refinements, ensuring that each

scene was extensively analysed for cultural challenges and adaptive strategies.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

RQ1: What are the cultural challenges faced by the American character in the film?

The findings in Table 1 show that the most prominent barrier that the American character faced was the

assumption of similarities (5 instances). She often presumed that Vietnamese customs and behaviours mirrored

her American expectations, which created misunderstandings. This reflects Hall’s (1976) distinction between

low-context and high-context communication, where much of the meaning in Vietnam is embedded in cultural

context rather than explicit words.

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The example of presumed similarities includes the way businesses are done in Vietnam. In the film, Amanda,

who was unfamiliar with the culture, was shocked to learn about the practice of haggling or bargaining. She

thought that the prices of goods were fixed and non-negotiable.

Nonverbal misinterpretations and language differences, on the other hand, emerged as the second most

frequently

encountered cultural barrier by the character, each with 3 instances. In one scene, Amanda who went to visit

Sinh Thach’s (a tour guide who was Amanda’s love interest) village misinterpreted his grandmother’s facial

expressions and intonations as disapproving. In actuality, the grandmother was fond of her presence as she

made his grandson happy. But due to language differences, Amanda was not able to understand Sinh’s

grandmother and so she misread the unspoken messages. For a short period of time, this affected her time at

the village.

Table 1 Cross-cultural challenges faced by the American character

Cross-cultural challenge

Frequency

High anxiety or stress

Tendency to evaluate

Preconception & stereotypes

Nonverbal misinterpretations

Language differences

Assumption to similarities

Total

On contrary, the least frequent barrier was the tendency to evaluate, which was absent in the film (0 instances).

This suggests that implicit form of cultural frictions was evident instead of strong evaluative tendencies, which

may have been observed by other studies. In the film, Amanda did not explicitly judge Vietnamese practices

against American standards. Her lack of overt evaluation suggests a more positive framing of intercultural

interactions. Overall, Amanda’s challenges were shaped more by unconscious assumptions than by negative

evaluation. This aligns with DeVito’s (2023) emphasis on maintaining positivity to foster effective

communication in intercultural contexts.

RQ2: How does the American character overcome the cultural challenges in the film?

Table 2 presents the most prominent strategy that Amanda, the American character, employed was educating

oneself (8 instances). In the film, she consistently sought to learn about Vietnamese traditions, practices, and

values. Her openness to learning enabled her to build stronger intercultural connections. In the film, the

character frequently resorted to the use of a digital platform (namely Google Translate) to help her quickly

learn the ways to say her thoughts. Despite the lack of any kind of prior learning about the Vietnamese culture

and language, the use of digital tools is shown to be effective for immediate interactions. As seen in the part

where Amanda met Sinh’s grandmother (where their dynamic was initially tense). However, by educating

herself, particularly through the use of digital tools, language differences were effectively managed by

Amanda, as she eventually got along with Sinh’s grandmother. The strategy strongly supports DeVito’s (2019)

framework, which emphasises audience awareness, message clarity, and adaptability as key to effective

intercultural communication: all of which was done by the character.

In contrast, the least frequent strategies were recognising differences, confronting stereotypes, and reducing

ethnocentrism (2 instances each). While less common, these strategies were still significant in shaping

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Amanda’s growth, as they reflect her ability to gradually challenge assumptions and accept cultural

differences.

Table 2 Strategies employed by the American character to overcome the cultural challenges

Strategy

Frequency

Educating oneself

Recognising differences

Confronting one’s stereotypes

Reducing one’s ethnocentrism

Adjusting one’s communication

Total

Overall, Amanda’s adaptation relied most on self-education and communication adjustment, supported by

efforts to acknowledge and confront cultural differences. One noticeable discovery was that despite the many

challenges faced by the character, she eventually still managed to have a fruitful relationship and encounter

with the Vietnamese culture. This was possible because most of the cultural challenges were immediately

addressed and tackled by Amanda. In other words, though most challenges are common and inevitable (due to

cultural differences), if they are managed appropriately, it is still highly possible for one to arrive at effective

intercultural communication and interaction. Towards the end of the film, Amanda eventually grew

accustomed to the Vietnamese culture and language. This proves that intercultural competence is an ongoing

process, which grows as one interacts with other cultures. This includes both positive and negative

interactions. The findings align with Goodman and Yan’s (2021) observation that effective cross-cultural

communication is essential to prevent conflict and build mutual understanding.

CONCLUSION

The study highlights the cultural challenges and strategies employed by the American character upon

interacting with Vietnamese characters in the film A Tourist’s Guide to Love. Through an analysis of

telecinematic discourse, the study attempts to shed light on how communication takes place across different

cultures. This was done by demonstrating how telecinematic discourse can serve as a practical tool for raising

cross-cultural awareness, particularly in fields like tourism, education, and international business. Based on the

findings, cultural orientation programmes are suggested to emphasise the tendency of assumptions, nonverbal

cues, and language differences as potential barriers to intercultural communication. While doing so, educating

oneself and adjusting communication can be put forth as effective strategies to ensure seamless interactions.

Future research should consider exploring how telecinematic discourse can be integrated into intercultural

training programmes, particularly in workplace context. Other than that, future research studies on cross-

cultural communication should also consider investigating telecinematic discourse from a different approach.

This can be done by employing methods that combine qualitative and quantitative approaches.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author recognised and acknowledged the contributions of all the authors.

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