Make Believe and Communication

While working with Sarah and Matthew one of the days they both decided that they wanted me to play a game they had each made up with them. Sarah was first. We were to choose from selected creatures and then pretend to be the creature. I was a centaur - yes, I chose the easiest beast I could be; I love to play with them, but sometimes fatigue hits a little harder. I convinced Sarah to let us go for a walk which made the pretending easier (we often take walks pretending to either be or have along mythical creatures). After the walk, Sarah declared the game done.
Next was Matthew's game. Matthew decided he wanted to create a game with a playing board, scores, and magic animals. I started, received my magical animals and was then informed I had to train them. "Where do I go for that?" I asked.
"To the carnival."
"Ok, where's that?"
"You have to guess. You can either go to the dark woods or the village."
I opted for the dark woods but was still befuddled at the whole process and Matthew's small explanation. I had my suspicion that the game was based heavily on an online game he plays called Wizard 101 and he was imposing those rules on his constructed game. I was informed that I was to start training, and was loosely told how, but when I tried to proceed I could see a frustrated look come across Matthew's face. I obviously was not getting it.
I could tell he had thought it through. I could tell it made absolute sense to him. But I also knew his explanations were lacking. So I gently told him that - that I knew it made sense in his head, but he needed to be patient with me because it wasn't making sense to me yet. Could he try explaining it again so that I could understand? He did, and I got it (though I didn't last much longer at the game).
Looking back at that I realized that I was teaching some basic communication. So often we have a concept that makes absolute sense to us; we've thought it through and know the ins and outs. Yet, when we try to explain it to someone else they miss it. This is even further exasperated if trying to communicate cross-culturally. We need to learn patience and humility - realizing that our words and concepts may not make sense to others and take the time to think through ways to explain that the other person can truly grasp.
Then, we will al be able to play together :)