Both government and non-government agencies have decried how poorly today's students are prepared to thrive in the global marketplace. One area of concern, cross-cultural understandings and cross-cultural communication skills, is the basis for this study. A qualitative study using a phenomenological design was chosen in order to collect rich descriptive data of the phenomena of using cross-cultural understandings and communication skills in a foreign environment. A purposeful sample, consisting of 11 informants, was questioned using a semi-structured interview protocol focusing on five research questions. Interviews were transcribed from recorded digital audio and video files. Using Bryman's (2008) four-stage process of coding data, responses were reviewed multiples times while identifying categories, themes, and keywords. Three emergent themes of observation, immersion, and language elucidated the phenomena identifying the common experience the informants shared. The significant findings consisted of informants stating that language learning was important but fluency in the target language was not as important. Most participants commented on the necessity of immersion for learning culture and language. Participants also spoke of perspective and empathy when speaking of cross-cultural understandings as well as how immersion contributed to culture and language learning. Both of which were congruent with the literature. This information was taken one step further by developing a list of recommendations for curriculum change that can be applied to a tenth-grade world history classroom in order to improve student achievement in cross-cultural understandings and communication skills. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]