I met my (Japanese) wife in Australia, where we decided to get married. I later agreed to come to Japan to meet her parents and seek their permission to tie the knot.

Conversation with the father was quite agreeable, (I understood almost nothing) but most of the time he just said "yeah, yeah, yeah" and I was pleased that he seemed to be actually agreeing with me.

When the time came to ask my future father-in-law the big question (in English), he made a serious face and said "yeah, yeah" and a whole lot more in Japanese. I was relieved and happy that he had agreed.

I responded "Thank you, thank you." There was silence. My wife-to-be was frowning at me deeply.

"I need to get this news to my folks," I said and got up. My wife followed me outside and growled, "What are you doing?" I couldn't see why she was so angry.

"He approved, didn't he?" I asked her. "No; he said no!" Huh?

Turned out that my father-in-law was actually saying "ii-ye, ii-ye" (Japanese for "no-no"), which he had been doing since the first day I met him. -- Jai in Nagasaki