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When I knew we would have an intercultural collaboration with students from the University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM), my first thought was “what?!” It’s never that easy to cooperate with people you don’t know at all, not to mention it was a telecollaboration. We are going to have trouble, I thought.

Moreover, it turned out I was right. We ran into a challenge even before our telecollaboration began—we were unable to get in touch with the ULM members of our group. There appeared to be a transmission issue because I got no response for a few days after I emailed them. Oh, it was not a good sign. I felt nervous again.

After experiencing some twists and turns, we finally got together online. Our group consisted of five members: Jasmine and Sydney were from America, Usman was from Pakistan, and I was from China. It was quite interesting that China and Pakistan are high-context cultures, and America is a low-context culture. A very diverse and opposite team, right? And I had never worked with people from different cultures. Therefore, it was not hard to expect that we would run into certain challenges and difficulties in our communication.

My prediction came true again. The first telecollaboration was not going smoothly. Initially, Usman and I had a disagreement with Jasmine and Sydney on the decision-making of the first assignment. They told us they felt uncomfortable because they were excluded from the decision-making process, believing there was a communication issue, although I thought the decision was made by consensus. As a person who always avoids conflicts, it was really a challenge for me. But luckily, we exchanged our thoughts friendly and made a mutual understanding, not making the situation get worse.

Things always turn out like this. People will get to know one another better as they communicate more. When we did the second assignment, we had a casual and relaxing con-call, talking about the featured food of our home countries and what breakfast we usually have, like friends. I can’t say there was no misunderstanding at all after that, but at least our following communication went more smoothly than it did the first time.

I did not expect that I would play the role of leader and coordinator in our group because I had no confidence that I can handle such a multicultural team, especially using English, which is not my mother language. I undertook the responsibility to promote every process and remind members to complete their parts on time. To be honest, it was a bit of a chore but I’m glad that I made it.

If I were asked to summarize this collaboration experience in short words, I would respond as I wrote in the title: May be difficult but worthwhile. Although working with people from other cultures might be difficult, it also gives me a chance to recognize who I am afresh and widen my perspective on the world. I think it is worthwhile.