Cultural Schema Theory explains the familiar and pre-acquainted knowledge one uses when entering a
familiar situation in his/her own culture. Nishida (1999) defined schemas as “generalized collections of
knowledge of past experiences which are organized into related knowledge groups and are used to guide our
behaviours in familiar situations” (p. 401). When one interacts with members of the same culture over and over
again, or talks about certain information with them many times, cultural schemas are created and stored in
his/her brain. Subsequent similar instances cause the cultural schema to become more organized, abstract, and
compact. As this occurs, communication becomes much easier. “If people are not equipped with the appropriate
cultural schema, they may not be able to make sense of culturally unfamiliar situations”