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From: geddis@polya.Stanford.EDU (Donald F. Geddis)
Newsgroups: sci.misc,sci.psychology,comp.ai,comp.ai.neural-nets
Subject: Re: Learned Behavior vs. Hard-Wired Behavior
Message-ID: <5550@polya.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 8 Dec 88 21:19:06 GMT
References: <1824@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU> <208@logicon.arpa> <3768@hubcap.UUCP> <292@internal.Apple.COM>
Reply-To: geddis@polya.Stanford.EDU (Donald F. Geddis)
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 37

In article <292@internal.Apple.COM> ems@Apple.COM (Mike Smith) writes:
>The Japanese nod up&down for no... don't know how they pronounce it ...

I think this is an inaccurate condensation of a cultural difference.  To
be more specific, in Japan/Japanese, the question is answered literally,
whereas in English we state the correct fact.  This doesn't matter for
positive questions, but it reverses the sense of the first word on negative
questions.  Thus:

"Is it raining today?"
English:	Yes, it is raining today.
		No, it isn't raining today.
Japanese:	Yes, it is raining today.
		No, it isn't raining today.

"Isn't is raining today?" (Literally, "Is not is raining today?")
English:	Yes, it is raining today.
		No, it isn't raining today.
Japanese:	Yes, it is not raining today.  (Yes, you are correct...)
		No, it *is* raining today.  (No, your statement was false...)

When you give the whole fact/sentence, this confusion usually clears itself
up.  The problem often comes from the very common shortcut of just saying
yes or no.  This often causes miscommunication between Japanese learning
English and English speakers learning Japanese.  (Since it is symmetric, the
problem occurs when communicating in either language.)

Thus the Japanese nodding up and down for no isn't quite accurate.  They nod
and shake the same way we do, but it can mean something different.

Just for trivial:  Yes in Japanese is pronounced "hi" or "ee" (short vowels),
whereas No is "e-a" (both long, as though you were just listing the letters
of the alphabet).

	-- Don
-- 
Don Geddis			"You lock the door, and throw away the key
Geddis@Polya.Stanford.Edu	 There's someone in my head, but it's not me."