The other
day I was speaking with a friend and I eventually used the expression “you've
taken the red pill” and he did not understand me. I was assuming that, as long
as we speak the same language, we are about the same age and he has seen the
movie The Matrix he would understand.
When you ASSUME, you make an ASS of you and ME.
- Jerry Belson, scriptwriter
He did not
remember the part of the movie when Morpheus offers Neo two options: taking a blue pill to stay in a fabricated
reality, taking a red pill to escape
from that reality into the true one, even though harder and more difficult.
There are
phrases in every language that you won't understand, even if you know all the
words (are you pulling my leg?). There are shared metaphors (skeleton in the closet, elephant in the room). We also use references to movies, books, TV, … whatever. And the expression will have more content than just the words (go ahead, make my day). Some of them may be understood as part of the language, but some of them are not.
Sometimes you
are part of a conversation in a group and they'll start to refer about things
they've lived together, and you'll be out of the game.
Sometimes there are terms that are not used with their proper meaning (methodologies, cloud or
agility). You may spend an hour discussing with someone and both were meaning
different things.
It is not
about the language or about the culture; it is just that you don't share the
same knowledge. Or the same understanding.
So, if you
are in doubt, check for understanding.
