Looking back now, I realised that it the things that are huge and unknown to me that I tend to associate my own manings to it. Cement mixers are giant balloons, the moon's the sun at night and many more. Nobody taught me so i just inferred and associated these things with things that I know now. Childish toughts, I know. This shows how we humans associate things since young.
We naturally have this need to associate meaning to things. My parents did not tell me what it is, so I just inferred. As such, I have misunderstood these huge objects of my youth As such my intensional orientation was based on my own definitions. My parents were left wondering what was I refering to when I pointed to a cement mixer and said: 'Giant balloon!" Hence, they adopted more extensional orientations and pointed to that cement mixer and asked me if I meant that. They have to constantly check the meaning behind my words.
This did not improve till I was primary 6, the meanings behind my words are never what they actually meant. I guess I was a creative kid back then. I thought monopoly money was real money as well, and my parents did try to correct my mental definition of things but maybe I was too caught up in my own world that I refused to understand their teachings. Due to my inability to express as a kid, it is no surprise that misunderstanding occur every now and then.
Now, twenty one years later, after countless misunderstandings, I can't say I have mastered the art of expressing myself. Misunderstandings do still occur. However, i have learnt to minimise it, by asking the meaning behind certain words and listening out for tones and looking at the situation. The different people I hang out with communicate differently hence, I have learnt to be flexible and change my commincation styles accordingly.
As such, to my the meaning behind each word a person speaks is important to minimise misunderstanding. It can lead to painful scenrios when the misunderstanding blows out of propotion.
