When You Just Can’t Say No

Well, sometimes you literally cannot say, “No.” Nepali has no directly translated word for the English equivalent of ‘no.’ There are at least three words that portray some sort of negation or non-affirmative response: chhaina, hoina, and chhahudaina (Romanized spellings vary). These three words all sort of mean ‘no’ but also don’t entirely get the idea across. So, as a result you have to use a verb in the negative form to say no.

There are some interesting consequences of a culture where you can’t simply say no. For one, everyone always knows how to get everywhere even if they don’t. There are also lots of ways of saying and using body language to say ‘maybe.’ The sub-continent head wobble that is so popular is a good example. In my experience, receiving a head wobble as an answer to a question without any verbal assistance means one of four things: 1) Yes, 2) Maybe 3) I have no idea what you just said, or 4) I need a second to make something up because I can’t say no.

I have fully adopted the use of the head wobble (I recommend using it if you’ve never tried). Just don’t rely on it for directions.