The debate over the source of cross cultural communication difficulties is confounded by methodological divergences. Interactions between Canadian and international students are often encumbered by communication problems even when the non-native speaker (NNS) has high levels of fluency in English and/or French. Students of Asian cultural background often do not get their message across in an effective and acceptable manner even though they have a high TOEFL score and were accepted by a Canadian university. According to researchers such as House (1997), cross-cultural pragmatic failure may occur because of mother-tongue and native (Canadian) culture interference. Acting on what is pragmatically acceptable in their native culture, such as in China, Japan and Korea, NNSs may misinterpret the intentions of Canadian English/French native speakers or speak in ways that are culturally unacceptable.