Yes or No? (5/25投稿の「YesかNoか」の翻訳）

In Japanese, questions asked in the negative such as Aren`t you satisfied? are usually met with replies such as No, I`m satisfied, or Yes, I`m not satisfied. On the other hand, in English, as you know, Aren’t you satisfied? is met with either Yes, I am satisfied, or No, I am not satisfied. In other words, the intention behind yes and no is reversed. By the way, French and German also share this in common with English.

That also brings to mind an exchange I once had in English with a Russian coworker, where I was quite taken aback.   After prying more into the matter, I discovered that in Russian, you do not respond to questions asked in the negative in the same way that English natives respond, but in fact, you respond in the same way Japanese do. At this point, I realized that even when speaking English, they often use the Russian (or Japanese) way of responding.

My Russian acquaintances and friends are, like myself, getting up there in years, so they do not have to be wrapped up in the current conflict in Ukraine.  However, they must wisely look at the conflict from both sides and be deeply affected by the tragedy of the current conflict. I concur with them and the rest of the world wishing to see it end soon.

When I brought up the Yes/No subject at home, my wife indicated that I, in fact, always respond the English way! Perhaps due to my previous job or spending so much time overseas and using English for so long, it just became a habit even when I returned to Japan, or maybe I`m just getting a little too up there in the years...