Within the context of a global pursuit towards higher education internationalisation, this article critically explores student discourse in a globally linked classroom between learners in the USA and Singapore. It makes manifest some of the cultural beliefs and tensions that support students’ discourse in collaborative international exchanges. It is claimed that technological innovation can increase campus internationalisation efforts by supplying chances for groups of students to intersect and interact across cultures. Such chances for social connection can produce a transformative third space wherein domestic students and their international peers can engage in meaningful and productive dialogic exchanges. Though, as this inquiry proposes, the sole chance for connection will not inevitably manifest outcomes matching internationalisation ideals and may instead end in shallow exchanges and concretized stereotypes. Specifically, findings from this inquiry show various tensions in US students’ discourse, disclosing ways in which they concurrently dismiss and represent American identity, defy and reify national stereotypes, and emulate open-mindedness while upholding ‘strong convictions'. Lastly, as a practical application of findings, the inquiry proposes training students to self-reflect via critical exploration of their own and others’ discourse as a means for pushing beyond the superficial towards authentic cultural learning.