Merry mix-ups when you think local, speak global

Once I asked a Chinese colleague who visited my place: "Aren't you cold?" "Yes," he replied. So I shut the window, thinking he was feeling cold. I soon realized that he meant just the opposite as he was almost sweating.

When my colleague said "yes", he meant "I confirm the content of your question is right". But for me and other people who speak French, English, Italian or Spanish, the natural answer is "No (I'm not cold)".

Foreign friends who visit China often ask me why the Chinese say "yes" when they mean "no". Being an Italian descendant who grew up in French-speaking Quebec and spent decades in China, I couldn't help noticing the funny misunderstandings when people speak a foreign language while thinking in their mother tongue.