I recently got a fortune cookie that stated:

It is up to you to clarify.

How true is this? Is it the responsibility of the speaker to speak in a manner that a listener can or should understand, or is this speaking down to the listener? Is it the responsibility of a listener to ask for clarification if something is not understood? Will one side or the other be inauthentic if this is not done? Does it depend on the self-directedness of either of the two parties? How about if somebody does not have enough experience or context to understand?

Just some of the questions raised from Chinese take-out.

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