This paper explores intercultural academic discourse in an international research project including German and Southern African scholars, with an eye on the use of figurative language in authentic communication. It unites intercultural pragmatics with a cognitive approach to figurative language as an expression of conceptual, cognitive patterns. This article means to display how international academics involved in intercultural communication actively and creatively apply metaphoric and other forms of figurative language to co-construct and conceptualize academic subject matter in transculturally understandable forms, and to forge a group identity in what has been called a “discursive interculture.” The quality and communicative success of figurative language for such aims depends on diverse factors, for which both pragmatic and cognitive linguistic perspectives supply explanations, which is why an interdisciplinary integration of methods is advisable.