I don't know, CWMI. Depending on the prominant side of the brain, people communicate differently. He seems to come from a connotative side and you're a denotative style. So he means what he says but it might not be the actual dictionary literal translation.

We get a lot of this with our foreign exchange students when they don't understand slang or casual/conversational English. I typically deal with 7-9 different nationalities other than Americans every year on the soccer team. So communication is pretty big and can take some creativity, patience, and humor in dealing with this situation.

My wife and I are completely differnt temperaments, personalities, and conversational/explaining styles. We have had to learn to repeat and reitterate what we thought the other one said...often what I or she said is not is how it is perceived.

I think when you're operating in a corporation or in an environment like I work in...everyone needs to be on teh same page as far as terminology goes. But I don't think it necessarily has to be that way in relationships. I don't think you have to lead someone to a dictionary to demonstrate that your meaning is more right than the other persons because that's not going to fix anything except possibly make the other person feel belittled. Just so you know, since I have an English degree, I'm very much a literal meaning of the word kind of person...my wife is more of a "you know what I meant" kind of person.

I do think that perhaps in situation like the above if you have an idea of where he is coming from and the meaning of certain words might be different, clarification will go a long way.