Communication is, by definition, the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs. Everyone in the world has a way of communicating; whether it is by speaking, writing, or using sign language, everyone communicates in one way of another. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode we viewed in class, Captain Picard is taken from his ship by an alien race. No one on the ship knows what is going to happen to Picard because they cannot communicate with the alien race.
To some, beaming a ship's captain to the surface of a foreign planet may seem like a hostile act, but because the crew can monitor Picard's health status, they know that he is not in any immediate danger. Instead, they try to understand the language of this alien race. The act of capturing Picard was to get both Picard and his crew to try to understand them. The reason that those aboard the Enterprise had so much trouble understanding the alien race's language was not because it was a difficult language to learn, but because the alien's had a completely different way of communicating. They communicated by telling stories that convey emotion. Their way of speaking is in some ways inferior to human's, but they are very adept at communicating emotion, something many humans have a hard time doing. .
When humans think about communication, cell phones, computers, TVs, and radios probably come to mind. There are many forms of communication as well as many ways to communicate your various thoughts. When Picard encountered the aliens for the first time, he was not as open-minded about the numerous ways one can communicate. However, once he understood their thought process, he understood their language. This completely different thought process made it a very arduous task to understand each other's language, but with a little ingenuity, the communication gap was closed.
