[gbjw]

> Fun example from a friend: his family were extremely direct but his girlfriend’s family was very indirect. As a young naive guy he was having dinner with his girlfriend’s family and her father asked: “is there any salt” and my friend looked up at the glass salt shaker and said “yes” and continued with his meal.

Are we supposed to side with your friend here? The fact that he couldn't infer that the father might want some salt is, at best, very shortsighted and pedantic. It's roughly equivalent to a teacher responding to "Can I go to the washroom?" with "I don't know, can you?" -- except in this case it's not said in jest.

[Isamu]

Yeah it’s just meant to be funny, in a haha-been-there kind of way. It’s an example of Asperger’s -like thinking, overly literal. My friend was embarrassed in front of his gf, and he learned what indirect speaking was.

Indirect speakers don’t know they are speaking indirectly. They get upset with literal people, because “how could you not know what I mean? You must be a jerk!”

[wak90]

Every dumbass divorced Dad "she asked if the wash was done and I said yes"

[dqv]

IDK, I just do the normal-person thing of asking my question a different way when I don't get the result I was expecting instead of fuming about being misinterpreted.