It wasn't a complete misunderstanding. The sheer amount of information to absorb was the primary cause of Geordi's complaint, though the information he was attempting to learn was likely different from that Aibghalien was searching for.

Nevertheless, the assumption was correct enough that Geordi didn't have to take more than a moment to understand what the comment was about. "It's a huge task, all right. At this rate, two months might not be enough."