fill in the blanks with the following words. Ambiguity, nonjudgmental,mutual, contacts, universals, frustrate, barriers, invisible In intercultural encounters, people will have many 1.___________experiences. One of the biggest 2. _______is the assumption of similarities. The assumption makes people believe that there are many 3. __________ among people from different cultural backgrounds, and affect people's 4. __________understanding and communication. In fact, in spite of the apparent similarities of cultures, there are differences 5. _________to the untrained eye. For this reason, 6. ________only will not necessarily lead to better understanding. The improvement comes from first-hand experience, an investigative and 7. ________________attitude, and tolerance for 8. __________. Only by learning to reflect on our own values and assumptions can we have better intercultural communication.