How can I differentiate agreement with the person and agreement with the idea?


A zillion years ago, before I came to Japan, I took a short introductory
course on Japanese. In it, they showed a video of a business meeting where an
American businessman is speaking to a Japanese businessman.

The Japanese businessman kept saying `「はい、はい」` throughout the business
meeting. The result being that the American assumed that the Japanese guy had
agreed to the proposal they discussed. However, the Japanese person was only
saying `はい` as a way of expressing agreement that he heard and understood what
the American was saying.

From there, it was explained that in Japanese, agreement is often about the
person making the statement, not the topic. `はい` can be used to mean "I agree
to the degree that it allows this conversation to continue." A little like
saying "sure, okay" in English.

In English, I can differentiate between agreeing with a premise and agreement
with a person. If I say "yes", I am definitely agreeing with the premise. If I
say "sure", I'm going along with the person, leaving room to be ambivalent
about the premise.

I'd like to get better control of the same thing in Japanese. Without
resorting having to express myself with lengthy sentences or explanations, how
can I be sure I'm conveying that I agree with a premise or with the person?

Are these appropriate for stating definite agreement with a premise:

> 確かに
>
> そうだ

Are these more ambivalent?

> はい
>
> うん
>
> ええ

Are there other phrases and words I can use to be clear in differentiating
whether I'm agreeing with a person or a premise?

**_Please note_** I'm specifically looking verbal ways of handling this, not
other contextual clues like gestures or facial expressions. I would like to be
able to express myself clearly in writing and on the phone as well as in
person.




I would say that ええ (not え) is even more vague than はい, and that even to a
direct question, ええ _could_ mean that you understand the question but are
still thinking about it.

うん is a colloquial version of はい, and I wouldn't use it at business meeting.
On the back-channel-scale, I'd put it approximately in the same place as はい.

確かに _does_ mean surely or certainly, but it carries the nuance that there
might be a "but" coming, so I wouldn't use/read this as an absolute
affirmation.

そうだ/そうです are in the affirmative end, while そうだね/そうですね can be quite back-
channel.

Even if you don't want gestures or facial expressions, in verbal communication
a lot can be told from prosody and intonation. For example はいっ with a glottal
stop after the い sounds more affirmative and less back-channel than just はい.

If you want there to be no doubt, you should really give/expect a full
sentence, like

  * おっしゃる通りです
  * その通りです
  * そう致します
  * 全く同感です

etc.




The はい you are talking about are the ones said _while the other person is
speaking_. They are not really answering anything. This is as you said : "I'm
paying attention and understand what you're saying.". You can _never_ assume
they are agreements.

You want to convey that you agree with what the person is saying ? Use
そうです（ね）、確か（に/です）、、私もそう思います etc.

But, if you ask a question, and then the person says はい; it is a "yes". If
they want to start with a "Alright, I listened to you, understood, let me see
now" will be a ま or そうですね (the ね is important here, without it, it is a "yes")
or both and they will then, answer.

