Most people involved in the field would probably entertain a deep-seated ideal of international education leading to increased understanding between national groups. Many argue that such international understanding is contributing to a new global culture, which seems to be replacing separatist constructions of culture. We are finding that cultures across the world have more and more in common. Further, many people counter charges of the imperialistic spread of the English language through international education, by claiming that English is now a language of wider communication, the domain of native and non-native speakers alike the world over, rather than the predominantly Anglosaxon countries of the world, such as Australia, Canada, Great Britain and the United States. The goal of increased international understanding implies a mutual process of learning.
International education is a one-way street.
Below are questions and comments from several readers of the Journal of International Education around the world. That, of course, is only one side of the argument. In other words, to learn other perspectives that they have not heard before. It's the outsider coming in to each community that should bear the burden of adaptation, as Parkinson so nicely argued. He notes that when Japanese students are speaking English in his class, he has different expectations about how they will express ideas and converse than instructors do in classes in the university where Japanese is spoken.