The film Arrival is centered around language and its effect on how we see the world. In the movie, a linguist, Louise Banks, is tasked to learn about why aliens called heptapods were on Earth. For them to communicate more efficiently, she teaches them of the English language and learns more of their foreign language. She does this by starting with the basics — understanding vocabulary such as “human” and “Louise”, her name.
While this occurred, their base camp at the United States received information about how the Chinese government communicated with the aliens. They used a game, Mahjong, to speak with them; Banks saw how problematic this was. Competition was embedded in the game. Introducing communication this way set a tone for division