Sigh... yeah, ain't that the truth. My friend and I only seem to get around it when we're both being a lot more careful about repeating back what we think the other person is saying (i.e. You've just said that you hate cheesecake. Are you saying that you hate all cheesecake in general, or that your stomach is upset after that last piece of cheesecake and you only hate it temporarily?).
And that can be pretty silly sometimes, so the side benefit is that we both start laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.