Language and Design Communication

Have you ever had the experience that you just seem to be unable to communicate with someone about design (or some other topic for that matter)?
Your inability to communicate may be because they are an idiot (ignoring the most obvious explanation for any situation is not a good idea).
Odds are that they, however, do have at least normal intelligence which makes proving the “idiot” hypothesis something of a challenge.

It could be that you are having issues explaining something to each other because you grew up speaking different languages.

Some languages, such as French, German, and Italian, assign gender to nouns—but not all languages classify the same nouns as masculine and feminine. In some languages “chair” is masculine and in some it is feminine, for instance.

If in the first language you spoke a particular noun, say bridge, was feminine, you’ll favour versions of that noun that share attributes of a stereotypical woman, even if you’re later speaking and even thinking in a different language. The reverse is true for nouns that in your first language were masculine, they ideally share masculine attributes.
An example: if you grew up speaking a language where bridges are feminine, you’ll have good things to say about later bridges you encounter if they are beautiful and elegant, while if your first language classified bridges as masculine you’ll have positive associations to bridges that seem sturdy and strong. Also, of course, it’s unlikely that you’d be aware of this bias on your part.

If someone is suggesting that you add a certain chair, etc., to your home and all you can vocalize is that it doesn’t seem right, and they persist in thinking its addition is very important, your conversation may be challenged by the fact that you few up speaking a language where chairs are masculine and they one where they’re feminine.
Language matters more for how we live our lives than is often readily apparent.