Interpersonal Communication around the World

Zaklady Mezilidske Komunikace (a Czech translation of Essentials of Human Communication, 6th edition) has just been published and arrived today (I’m very happy to say) and reminded me of something I read in an introductory interpersonal textbook: “formal study of interpersonal communication occurs almost exclusively in the United States.” This statement is simply untrue and gives the impression that people in other countries don't recognize the importance of interpersonal communication study. A few examples from my own books (and I’m sure other textbook authors could add their own examples): Three editions of my Interpersonal Communication Book have been published in Chinese (two by Chinese publishers and one by a Taiwan publisher), two editions of Messages have been published in French, and editions of Essentials of Human Communication and Human Communication (each dealing with interpersonal communication in some depth) have been published in Indonesian, Czech, and Greek as well as in adaptations published in New Zealand and Canada. The study of communication in all its forms is definitely not unique to the US; it is alive and well throughout the world.