There is a growing interest in learning in the multicultural classroom. More and more universities offer a wide variety of programmes and courses in English. It is important to understand the influence of cultural factors on student performance in the multicultural classroom. This article discusses the writer’s experience of teaching an intercultural communication course at Kristianstad University College, Sweden. It also presents an in-service course, “Teaching in English”, for lecturers and teachers whose mother tongue is not English. The second half of the article focuses on Chinese postgraduates and discusses the cultural factors affecting their performance in writing classes.