Say Anything to Anyone, Anywhere: 5 Keys To Successful Cross-Cultural Communication

Chapter 11

Understanding Communication

How Do You Describe a Tree?

Communication and the words we use are all about association—because words mean something different to every human being. They are entirely subjective and don’t convey the exact same thing in any language or culture. It doesn’t matter whether a word is from the same language or not; it’s all about what someone associates with that word. The word hot will probably mean something quite different to someone who lives in Iceland than it does to someone who lives in Arizona. In Dallas, we always laugh when the weatherperson says we have a cold front coming through, which usually means the temperature will drop from 100 to 85 degrees farenheit (38 to 29 degrees celsius)!

Take, for example, the word tree. What does it mean? Since the word tree is a symbol, or an assigned sound, that represents what one associates with a tree, its meaning is determined by an individual’s interpretation of that association.

We often ask attendees in our cross-cultural communication courses to describe what a tree is to them without using the word tree. They proceed to describe something with a big, brown trunk; long brown branches; and green leaves on the branches that turn brown and fall off in the autumn. What I just described is an association of ideas that represents a particular type of tree. Other attendees will describe a similar association of ideas for a tree and add various types of flowers, fruit, and nuts. We now have a variety ...