Interactions through a Common Language

Most of the time, when we think of a conversation, we think of two people talking, taking turns, and exchanging ideas in a common language. Maybe that language is English or Spanish or Italian. Along with this spoken language there is another dialogue that is happening in parallel; a visual dialogue of non-verbal language; gestures, facial expression, and body language. Culture would also influence this conversation. Culture created from the ideas and concepts that we derive from the people and artifacts that are around us, that influence our perception of the world that we are immediately part of. 

When we visualize the ideal conversation, it looks very easy. It has an uninterrupted flow, where both people have equal time to both speak and listen – symmetry. There is a back and forth exchange of ideas and dialogue – serve and return. Both parties are focused and interested in what the other person is saying. There is no misunderstanding. There is a shared topic. There is a commonly understood language.

What happens when there is no basis for a common language? When there is no concept of I  talk, you listen – You talk, I listen. As seeing hearing people, we have prior visual and auditory experience with conversations. We are able to visualize what the ideal conversation might look like in our mind. We can imagine what the words might sound like – we can hear the language people are speaking.  Is it English? Is it a foreign language, whose words we don’t understand but can still recognize it as spoken language because we have the concepts of what spoken language and words are?