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Comment by Daub | Hacker News Reader

> On a more personal note, the California Yes is super frustrating when making plans with people. Just because someone said Yes, does not mean they have any intention of actually showing up. They might get a headache an hour or so before the planned meeting time. Headaches are very popular in California it seems.

The Californian 'Yes' sounds like the Japan one.

British understatement gets me in trouble when communicating with americans. In the British to American dictionary, 'I would prefer not' becomes 'I wont'.

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In geek terms, the Japanese hai is not "yes", it's "ack": it's an acknowledgement that your message has been received, not validation that the receiver agrees with it, much less intends to do anything about it.

I have found the Japanese “ok” more confusing than hai, since its an English word used slightly differently. I have tried to explain to Japanese people that the English “ok” is like a minimal agreement not showing any great enthusiasm, but because it has a neutral or even positive nuance they keep using it in English in situations where it makes it sound like they are reluctantly agreeing.

> British understatement gets me in trouble when communicating with americans. In the British to American dictionary, 'I would prefer not' becomes 'I wont'.

It seems quite a few of the Americans you speak to haven't read Melville's "Bartleby". You'll not find a more emphatic, "I would prefer not" in literature.

I realised that “It’s okay” can have three very different meanings:

“It’s okay!” => (reassuringly), it’s fine, perhaps even great.

“It’s okay” => (honestly), it’s neither good nor bad.

“It’s okay” => (politely) This is terrible.

For some reason non-native speakers and the occasional yank have problems with this.

> For some reason non-native speakers

Here's where it gets even better as a slavic person – when I say "This is okay, but have you thought about flaws A, B, and C?" it means that your idea is so good that it's worthy of critique. To an American it sounds like I just started a scorched earth campaign against their ego.

Huh. I wouldn't take it that way (depending on tone of voice). I would not quite take it as "it's good enough to criticize", either. I would take it as my idea was neutral, and here are some flaws, which if I could fix them might turn it into a good idea.

"Would you like to donate to [x cause] today?"

"That's okay" => No.

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