This study examines the breakdown of professional and personal communication and relationship through the lens of cultural differences. The case is based on the experience of two female adult educators--an American and a Saudi--working within continuing education at a private women's college in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Graduates of the same U.S. doctoral programme, and good friends, they expected that their working styles would be consistent and complementary; yet that proved very different in real experience. Findings demonstrate that absence of preliminary understanding of cultural differences may adversely impact both personal and professional relationships. The theoretical framework includes cultural dimension theory and face negotiation theory, as well as the binary concepts of collectivist and individualistic culture, high-context and low-context culture, and politeness theory.