I recalled on several conversation that I encountered with folks that have visited Indonesia for business purposes (and enjoy the tourism along the way ).

In various conversation that I heard, quite a lot of english-speaking natives find it difficult to understand Indonesian that speaks English.

One of the common misunderstanding is about the word 'Yes'. Here goes the story ...

For various english common usage, yes mostly refers to agreement. i.e.: "yes(, I agree)" or "yes(, correct)" or anything similar to agree-ing with the sentences coming from the other party during conversation.

Indonesian are one of the most polite group of people. On daily conversation, they usually responded with 'Ya' (translated as 'Yes' in English). However, the 'yes' that comes from Indonesian folks means 'Yes, I understand (what you are saying), which is for various native english-speaking folks seldom translated this way.

Therefore, it is likely that during business agreement, quite a number of misunderstanding happens because if this 'yes' magic word. Native english-speaker translated Indonesian 'yes' as agreement, while Indonesia responded to 'yes' as in 'Yes(, I understand)'. It is not surprising that several business agreement 

For those reading this article and already in deep problem trying to understand why several process stuck after passed on to Indonesian folks, read the short explanation above .

Now for those Indonesian that just managed to learn English language, please try to absorb foreign culture and start using 'yes' as agreement (please!).

Some example of understanding responses are: uh huh (equal to he-em from Indonesian slank), I understand that (without using 'yes', or just 'yes'), and some other example that we can learn it from movies, novels, and other foreign language sources.

Hope this short information help avoid misunderstanding of the magic 'yes' word.

^{P.S.: there are other yes meaning in English language that sometimes does not intend to be as agreement or understanding. e.g.: yes as enjoyment in ... some activities (you know what I am referring to right? ), like sports, achievements, (... sex ...), etc.}