You must have, at least once, been at a house party where a Polish host offers one of their Polish guests something to eat. Salad?, the host enquiries. Nie, the guest replies.  Bread? Nie, again. Soup? The third suggestion must be the final one, you’re thinking. But then, the guest says no.

A minute later you see the host serve hot tomato soup with noodles (the Polish way) to the guest. The guest seems really up for it. But he said no, didn’t he?!

To make sense of this situation, you will need to switch off the English-speaking part of your brain. Just the way you would do when listening to a conversation in any foreign language. ‘No’ only means ‘no’ in English (and some other languages but not in Polish). In Polish, no means ‘yes’. A bit of a lazy, informal, laid back kind of ‘yes’. The only way to say ‘no’ in Polish is nie.

This knowledge can come in handy when you’re listening to someone’s argument and your point of view is completely different than theirs. When you say no, no, no, you will signal to them that you’re listening to and sympathising with their point of view. But in your head, in the English-speaking part of your head, you will just be saying ‘no’ (no way you’re right!).