Why Communication In International Relationships is Difficult

I think this experience pretty much sums things up.

2 Months Before Our Wedding

Monsieur Right: It's kind of hard to decorate with those ugly orange walls in our living room.

Me: Hmm... They're not really orange. It's more of a dark yellow. We'll need to paint those quickly.

Monsieur Right: No, the walls are definitely orange. You'll see when we go back.

Me: No way. They're totally yellow!

1 Month Before Our Wedding

While moving the furniture into our new apartment:

Monsieur Right: See! I told you the walls were orange.

Me (still seeing dark yellow): Ahhh... I think we don't have the same definition of "orange."

*This photo has been Instagram filtered and the lighting is poor. But I couldn't find any other photos of that funky colored wall. Think dirty yellow/orange.

Note: In France the stoplights are the same colors as in the States: Red, Yellow, Green. But they usually call the yellow light a "feu orange." If you can read French, this blogger wrote an entire article about the linguistic significance of this phenomenon.

Moral of this story: Something you accept as obvious and a truth might be not necessarily be the same for your partner. It's not that you're wrong or he's wrong. You've just been taught to see things differently. Sometimes this difference is beautiful and enlightening. Sometimes it's a pain the butt.

It's all about perspective.