Conceptualization questions

I don't know what you're talking about.
You don't know what I'm talking about.
We don't even know that we don't know what we're talking about, respectively.

🎧 I listened to an extra podcast that scotched me and tells this story.
This podcast is one of my favorites, "You are not so smart" by David McRaney.. And in this episode, he invited researcher Celeste Kidd.

🐧 According to a study conducted by Kidd and her colleagues, entitled "Latent Diversity in Human Concepts", if we talk together about a subject, say a penguin for example, there's an 88% chance (or risk?) that we don't have the same concept in mind.
Worse still, it's highly likely that we're not even aware that we don't have the same concept in mind!

🫨 These are questions I've always asked myself, but since listening to this episode, I can't tell you how much my brain is boiling.

🌎 Imagine all this in a cross-cultural context.
When I talk in my lectures or on my podcast about concepts like punctuality, respect, joy, conflict... It's likely that as individuals we're not talking about the same thing.
Just imagine between people from different cultures!

🧳 And travel? What is it for you?
💪 And courage?
😏 Boldness?

🏃🏽‍♀️ It reminds me of when I did my marathon in Rome last year. I met a group of 50-something women running their 3rd marathon. I thought it was great. They looked at me with eyes as round as marbles because I'd come to Rome to run my marathon on my own. (That reminds me... did you see the list of my "mad skills" in the "About" section of the site?)
For me, being fit meant running 3 marathons.
For them, to be balèze was to go off alone to a foreign city.
Not the same concept of "balézitude", not the same definition.

So, how do you go about it?
🗣️ We get into the habit of making things as clear as possible as we understand them, and invite the other person to do the same.
That's the key! One of them anyway.

💡 That's what intercultural skills are for, too. Understanding that what's going on in the other person's head isn't necessarily what's going on in my own head.
And it's ultra-cross-cutting and applicable to all the interpersonal areas of our lives.

⁉️ Have you ever realized that you were having a conversation with someone, but in fact you didn't have the same understanding of the concept you were talking about? What happened?

👫 For me, it was recently on the subject of "there can be no friendship between a man and a woman". Quite a debate!
The question being first and foremost it was "yes but for you, what does friendship mean exactly?"

🔗 I'll give you the podcast link if you're interested: it goes this way!