Most important thing to learn from this movie
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Arrival
Puzzlerff — 9 years ago(January 15, 2017 04:19 PM)
Is that no matter if you're talking to aliens, the Chinese, or your co-workers. Everyone has their own interpretation of what words and language mean. And while most of us grasp this concept fairly intuitively, we often forget it in our daily lives. Almost all tension in interpersonal relationships are grounded in root to the idea that when you say "Tool" the other person hears "Weapon". and Vice versa.
If you ground your daily language in games, which by their very nature has a winner and a looser, you are setting yourself and the other person up for a win/loose scenario.
Often times, it's best to validate meaning and intent and not react too soon to what may sound like a declaration of war, and really is an offer of help.
We can all see this exact situation played out on every news station we turn on. No matter your politics or views, someone, somewhere will interpret the meaning as hostile, when I'd venture to say most of the time it is not.
The biggest mistake we can make is to assume our grasp of language is absolute. Secondly, to assume the other parties grasp of language is absolute. We all translate, we all make mistakes in judgement and execution.