Hey, this is Gregory Warner, international correspondent for NPR.

Okay, so I'll feel a buzz on my phone.

We live in a world that is more connected than ever before.

And it will have her picture and Chinese characters.

We can cross a continent or an ocean with a single click.

I click on the translate option and voila.

So that's how you communicate with the woman who's baby you're having.

You're most of the time.

But even when we can use the same words.

Ni Hao.

Hello there.

We're having a hard time understanding each other.

I said I'm looking forward to meeting you and she said,

hoping to understand a little bit about what you said.

It's one thing to translate the words.

It's another to understand where people are coming from.

As a journalist, no matter where I am, no matter how remote the place I'm in,

I can always find something that's, oh yeah, I know that.

But then do I?

Often the things I think I recognize get repurposed or rewired.

It's a color, right?

It's like a brown.

...