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Old 2007-07-13, 01:19   Link #158
WanderingKnight
Gregory House
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Age: 35
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Quote:
By the way this was taken off the j-liet.com website from one of his entries and I do not understand why you can not say that in Japan:
This is a question of Japanese language, but let me exemplify:

English:

"Won't you come with me?"
"Yes, I will".

Japanese:

"Won't you come with me?"
"No, I will" [Yes, I will come with you].

Basically, when you ask them a yes/no question with a verb, they either assert or negate the verb, not the whole idea. When they answer "No" to the question "Won't you come with me?", they are actually saying, "no, it's not true that I won't be coming with you".

To clarify further, in romaji:

Ashita, gakkoni ikimasen ka = [Tomorrow][to school][not go][?]
Hai, ikimasen. = [Yes][not go]

I hope that was clear enough.

Quote:
which is the bane of Japanese people since you have to answer "no" if you mean "yes" and vice-versa
That is actually a really poor way of putting it. It makes me distrust that website even more.
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