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I know this is more a question about behaviour and cultural differences rather than about the german language but I still hope that it fits into this forum. If not please let me know and I will have my question removed.

In

What could be expressed by "Ja, klar" in different situations?

the accepted answer is:

I think that there are three main meanings for this expression.

  1. First and more literal one is one you want to say that you agree with what the other people just said.
  2. When you want to say that what the other people said is obvious and unnecessary.
  3. In a sarcastic way when you want to say what the other people said is just no sense.

I have been living in Germany for almost 15 years and even after all these years this still bothers me a lot because they often look stunned when saying it and even do not add anything to that answer. Even if the question asked was not trivial at all. This makes them appear to be very arrogant although I know they aren't (many germans I love and know very well do it).

Thank you very much in advance for any good hint.

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    VTC as opinion based (although should have been "needs more focus"). This is a pretty broad question which can not be answered here. We'd need more context to venture a guess. But even then, without knowing the person, it's hard to tell.
    – infinitezero
    Feb 10, 2021 at 17:28
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    I think the way "Ja, klar." appears is very dependent on the context and the tone. It definitely can sound very arrogant. It can also sound very normal and express agreement. In general I would suggest you to not add color where no color is.
    – akuzminykh
    Feb 10, 2021 at 17:38
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    I agree with @akuzminykh on this. The notion that "Ja klar" means it was unnecessary seems to go too far to me. "Ja, klar" from someone can also show strong support for your opinion or proposal.
    – HalvarF
    Feb 10, 2021 at 17:43
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    Please notice that although "Ja, klar" is exactly a litteral translation, it doesn't carry the same connotation as portuguese/spanish "claro", which is very often used with a negative connotation.
    – embedded_dev
    Feb 10, 2021 at 19:29
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    I think this is really a cultural issue. Some Germans find it annoying when people from other cultures ask "Wie geht's ?" each time they meet them. They know that they are not really asked for a report about how well they are doing and that they are asked this question simply out of politness but they find it annoying when they are asked such a question when actually no honest answer is expected.
    – RHa
    Feb 10, 2021 at 21:22

1 Answer 1

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Actually it can be seen as quite the opposite, i.e. as an attempt, not to be rude. To answer simply with yes or no is in both cases mono-syllabic. (Even more so in case of several subsequent questions.)

While I have currently no educational source at hand, I remember oh ja, gerne or ja, da hätte ich Lust dazu to be the kind of answer considered as more acceptable when I was a child. I admit, that ja, klar is not convincingly better than a simple ja, but at least it remains quite context-independent and therefore universal.

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