[zarzavat]

I realised that “It’s okay” can have three very different meanings:

“It’s okay!” => (reassuringly), it’s fine, perhaps even great.

“It’s okay” => (honestly), it’s neither good nor bad.

“It’s okay” => (politely) This is terrible.

For some reason non-native speakers and the occasional yank have problems with this.

[Swizec]

> For some reason non-native speakers

Here's where it gets even better as a slavic person – when I say "This is okay, but have you thought about flaws A, B, and C?" it means that your idea is so good that it's worthy of critique. To an American it sounds like I just started a scorched earth campaign against their ego.

[AnimalMuppet]

Huh. I wouldn't take it that way (depending on tone of voice). I would not quite take it as "it's good enough to criticize", either. I would take it as my idea was neutral, and here are some flaws, which if I could fix them might turn it into a good idea.

[mbg721]

"Would you like to donate to [x cause] today?"

"That's okay" => No.