ISTVAN KECSKES is Distinguished Professor of the State University of New York System, USA. He is the President of the American Pragmatics Association (AMPRA) and the CASLAR (Chinese as a Second Language Research) Association. Dr. Kecskes’ is the founding editor of the journal Intercultural Pragmatics, a book series in Pragmatics as well as the bilingual (Chinese-English) journal CASLAR.