If the intelligence of a dolphin is so near to ours, why can’t we communicate properly with them? – Secondary 11

Question: If the intelligence of a dolphin is so near to ours, why can't we communicate properly with them?
- Keywords:
  communication,
  dolphin,
  intelligence
Asked by ellascientist to David, Jonathan, Ou, Pete, Sam on 10 Jun 2012.
- Pete Etchells answered on 10 Jun 2012:
  
  That’s a good one! I guess the main reason is that we’ve not figured out how they themselves communicate with each other. If dolphins do have something that’s like language, then I think it will still be completely different to anything that we’ve ever encountered before – it’s not like learning a new language like French for the first time, because we know that French has the same concepts (like grammar, verbs, sentences, and so on) that English does. But who knows? Eventually, we might be able to talk to them properly!

Question: If the intelligence of a dolphin is so near to ours, why can't we communicate properly with them?