Communication is the Key to Getting What You Want

Last week I went to Shake Shack (happiness!!) with my fam. Since there were so many of us, it took some effort to secure a table with 5 chairs. I went up to a family and asked if I could take an extra chair. If only I had asked in a clear, succinct way. Instead, the following happened:

Pretty much no matter how they answered, there was no way I could understand what they meant. "No, that's not an extra chair"? or "Yes, that is an extra Chair"? Not realizing at the time how confusing my question was, I stood staring at them, perplexed. "Wait, so I can take this chair?" I had set myself up for failure and had to rephrase to get the answer I needed. (It turned out, it WAS an extra chair! YAY!)