Quote:
Originally Posted by mogui
What a great thread this is! 
English speakers in China often carry over their response to questions from the Mandarin. If you ask them, "You don't want a spanking do you?", they will say "yes". Why? Because they are responding to the truth or falsity of the question, rather than the content of it. The response often turns out to be the opposite of what we expect and creates many misunderstandings. But it is great fun to try and teach them the other answer form. |
In Japanese, it's considered polite to ask someone to do something using the negative form. "Don't you want to have a drink with me?" It's thought to be
less aggressive. In order not to be misunderstood, the response would include the action verb with a positive form. "Yes, let's go drinking."
When asking a student 'didn't you do your homework?' and he answers 'yes,' a western teacher will ask to see it, and the confused student will wonder why the teacher doesn't understand that the student didn't do it. He was acknowledging that fact by saying '
yes, he didn't do his homework.'