Decoding The Maybespeak Of Javatown

If you ever plan to visit Seattle or interact in any way with someone from the Pacific Northwest, it might be helpful to learn about the Seattle NO. In Seattle, for whatever reason, people shy away from directly expressing a No in any situation. Those of you not from the area may be confused: how can someone avoid saying No?

Well, it’s tricky. Often we mean No and whatever we do say instead of No, we assume the listener knows that what we mean is NO. If you invite someone from Seattle to an event and they respond, “Hmm yeah that sounds interesting, I’ll have to check,” that means NO. If they say “Maybe” and then you don’t hear from them for a while, that means NO. If they say “I don’t know” that means NO.

It should be noted, sometimes any of these responses may actually mean that they have to check or maybe or that they don’t know and any of these responses could conceivably lead to an eventual Yes. Except usually what they mean is NO. 

Continues