Chapter 18 Towards Culturally-Aware Virtual Agent Systems

In the not so distant past, everyday conversations were generally held between people from the same geographical region who shared a common ground in social norms and expectations. Experiencing different cultures was only possible for a very small group of people that ventured out into the unknown, often ill-prepared with knowledge about other cultures. Due to globalization, a larger group of people is able to get in touch with other cultures nowadays. Through modern communication devices such as the Internet or teleconferencing systems, communication across different cultures is possible, even without traveling. As a result, communication is much easier on the one hand, but ABSTRACT