Cross Cultural Communication

Communication...
What happens when the person you are communicating to cannot communicate back clearly?This is the case of a 2 year old Asian boy I was babysitting for these last two days. He understands what I am saying in Chinese, but he cannot communicate back to me except by repeating words and phrases that I ask him.

"Do you want a drink?"
"Drink?" comes the reply in his little high pitched voice.

"Do you want something to eat?"
"Eat?"

"Are you cold?"
"Don't want it."

And so the conversation goes. I start to wonder if anything is going to be communicated. Suddenly the child runs toward the bathroom and shouts out
"Niu niu!" which means... well, you can probably guess. Cross cultural communication is a very tricky thing. One must communicate the words correctly in the other language however, there is a cultural element to it as well. No matter how well a person communicates the words, if one does not understand the cultural meaning behind the words, the communicated words are useless.

By the way, he has a new baby brother!
Weight: 7 pounds 5oz
time: 12:00pm
Name: Fang Zhou.