The Difficulty of Alien Communication

In the Star Trek universe, everyone had a universal translator, which enabled aliens from various planets to communicate with each other. That was necessary to tell the stories on television, but it made the whole idea seem impossibly simple. The fact that beings from different planets would use language to communicate is about as likely as meeting extraterrestrials that had arms, legs, and faces. The 2016 movie Arrival addressed the difficulty of cross-species communication, but Star Trek went there back in 1991 with the Star Trek: TNG episode "Darmok." This one that stayed with a lot of fans. 

Even with the universal translator, Starfleet cannot understand what Tamarians are saying, because their language is not as simple as words and ideas. Captain Picard is challenged to find what their language is really about.  Andrew Muir of The Art of Storytelling explains how profound the difference is, and how Captain Picard learned the way to decipher what a Tamarian is really saying. (via Laughing Squid)