Yes or No?

As said a few times before, Japanese and English are totally different languages (See Japanese and English are Completely Different Languages).

Let me give you an interesting example.

When I started living in the U.S., I was very confused by different meanings of "Yes" and "No."

Assume someone asks you, "Aren't you hungry?"

American people would respond by saying, "No, I'm not hungry." or "Yes, I'm hungry."

Japanese would use Yes and No oppositely by saying, "Yes, I'm not hungry." or "No, I'm hungry."

What we Japanese mean here is as follows:
Yes, I'm not hungry. ---> Yes, [that is right.]  I'm not hungry.
No, I'm hungry. ---> No, [that is not right.]  I'm hungry.

If we say the full sentence like above, maybe we can communicate with American counterpart OK.

But if we just say "Yes" or "No" in the above situation, then we would confuse our American friend.

In fact, I confused many American people because I was being confused by how to use Yes and No to a negative question.

But I found a very simple rule one day, which is "No is No", and "Yes is Yes" in English or at least in the U.S.

Hence, I should say "No, I'm not hungry." if I'm not hungry regardless of the way how my American friend asks the question.

I haven't been confusing American friends since then.

Free Kanji Translation (English)

Free Kanji Translation (Russian)