Don't say "yes"!
"Yes" can get you into trouble.
Most people who are interested in learning languages have seen YouTube videos with the startling title “Don’t say ___!” The word the title tells you not to say is always some extremely common word that everyone is taught in their foreign language lessons and that you typically can’t do without. However, then it’s followed by the line, “Say this instead.” What they’re trying to do is get you to expand your vocabulary of words and idioms.
This isn’t that kind of post. In this case, I’m telling you to actually avoid the word “yes” in some situations to prevent trouble or humiliation.
Anybody socializing with a group of people who are speaking a language that he is just learning will find that from time to time someone will turn to him and say, “Right?!” or, “Gotta love it, huh?” or, “But you’re on my side, I’ll bet!” or in some other way solicit your one-word agreement. The trouble is that at the beginning, you’re probably not going to understand a lick of what the guy said before that. Maybe you won’t even understand his question. This predicament usually has several important aspects:
1. You didn’t understand what the guy was talking about.
2. The group is just chatting, and you sense that whatever he said doesn’t matter anyway — and even he doesn’t think it matters.
3. He only asked for your opinion to make you feel included.
4. You have to find some answer to give, so that the conversation will start moving again.
5. If you tell the truth and say, “I don’t understand,” everyone will spend time trying to explain it to you, and the conversation will get snagged on something that’s not important. Maybe you’ll never understand their explanations anyway.
You have to think fast and say something, so your interlocutor can start talking again. You’re on the spot. What do you say? Whatever you do, don’t say YES! Never say “yes” if you don’t understand what you’ve been asked. I don’t care how much you trust your new pals, just don’t do it! Even people of the greatest goodwill — even the elderly — can’t resist having some fun if they figure out you’ll answer “yes” to anything you don’t understand. And the more cheerfully and enthusiastically you say it, the more fun they’ll have. I met an American exchange student in France one time, and once the very kind, generous, pious family we were eating with realized she returned a hearty, cheerleadery “yes” for every question, you wouldn’t believe the things the family (mainly the dad) were getting her to agree to. Your best bet in that situation is to say, “I don’t know,” or, “Maybe,” or something similarly noncommittal.
By the way, this fun with yes-people is about the only razzing I’ve ever seen an adult undergo for not knowing a language. So don’t let this “yes” warning make you think that foreigners everywhere are going to pick on you all the time. They won’t. Most people are kind and sympathetic, so don’t worry.