Geert Hofstede's Theory Identifies Six Dimensions

Geert Hofstede's Theory Identifies Six Dimensions
Introduction
Language emerges as one of the most significant elements which shape intercultural communication worldwide. Therefore, it influences how people from varying cultural backgrounds interact and perceive one another because their language is closely tied to their worldview, identity, and positioning (Chen, 2017). Today, the world is dominated by the new world order in which a new economy has emerged that restructures capitalism to a global scale. Therefore, the new world order and its new economy have steered individuals from varying linguistic and cultural backgrounds to get into contact more often. Notably, the contact between cultural and linguistic contact is bound to occur in various instances; the information and mass media flows and the flows of actual people in migration and tourism (Chen, 2017). Hofstede's intercultural communication is a model applicable in explaining the interaction between linguistics and culture. In this scenario, linguistic concepts are applied in analyzing the intercultural discourse experienced in an exchange between an Arab seller and a Chinese customer in Oman.
Intercultural Communication
Geert Hofstede's theory identifies six dimensions: individualism-collectivism, short vs. long-term orientation, power distance, masculinity-femininity, restraint vs. indulgence, and uncertainty avoidance (McSweeney, 2002). Notably, not all of these dimensions apply to the exchange between the Arab seller and Chinese customer. Considering that the Arab seller conducts business within his home country, he tries to communicate with the Chinese customer in a language that would be commonly shared, English by many tourists. Despite the linguistic flaws that might be noted in the morphology of the Arab seller's spoken English, he first seeks to initiate communication by inquiring whether the Chinese customer speaks and understands English.
The first significant element that characterizes the intercultural discourse ...