A trivial incident the other day reminded me how important it is to check that the person you are communicating with understands your words in the way that you intended. Just as I was heading off to work I noticed that we were running low on milk so I left a £5 note on top of the TV and sent a text to Sam (who was coming home with Laura) saying "please get milk £5 on TV, keep the change". I thought my meaning was crystal clear, but when I got home the was a little tower of coins on top of the television, I looked across at Sam and said "I told you to keep the change" he looked puzzled and said "I did keep it, I kept it on the TV". My meaning wasn't clear, I had intended to say keep the change for yourself, but he had understood the words to mean keep the change safe.
It reminded me of an incident when Sam was about 8 or 9, he were staying at a hotel and when we went to breakfast the waitress asked each of us what we wanted. She asked Sam if he wanted his egg boiled, scrambled or poached, suddenly Sam looked very confused and very quietly he asked me if the eggs were stolen. He had never had a poached egg before and he was only aware of one meaning for the word poached.
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