Offering, the Jap way

Japanese express their feelings and opinions with hesitation and so, in most cases, they speak up what they really want or think, the indirect way.

For example, they want to offer coffee. 
A.
Nihongo:  Kohii ha ikaga desu ka?
English:  Would you like to have coffee?
B.
Nihongo:  Kohii demo ikaga desu ka?
English:  Would you like to have coffee...or anything?

Vocabulary Check:
Kohii - coffee
ha -  (pronounced as wa) a particle in English grammar
ikaga desu ka - an expression of offering something; means "would you like?"
demo - expresses hesitation

A is the direct way of offering coffee while B is the indirect way.  And Japanese are too good at using indirect statements to show hesitation.  And so, B is the most commonly used statement because A is rather too direct.

So, given a situation when someone is looking for a boyfriend or girlfriend and you would like to offer yourself, when you're in Japan, you can say, "Watashi demo ii desu ka?" (or "Watashi demo ikaga desu ka?") instead of saying, "Watashi ha ii desu ka?"(or "Watashi ha ikaga desu ka?").  The latter is rather too direct. 

Vocabulary Check:
Watashi - me, i
ii desu ka - is it alright?

In English, that means, "Is it alright to have me...? or someone else...?".  In reality, the speaker only wanted to say, "Is it alright to have me?" or "How about me?".  Note that demo is the key word here.  And without demo, the statement becomes direct.

Interesting, isn't it?