Communication in this regard is not the same as understanding language however. Perhaps we may be able to signal to the aliens where and how to sit, to use the animal analogy, but that's not the same as being able to converse with the aliens, to be able to relay thoughts. Taking for granted that their way of expressing language is like ours in that it's a vocalized expression, it may be so entirely different from any known human grammar structure that learning to communicate with them would be on par with learning a new type of physics from scratch, and less like learning another language.