Ah-So!

"I don't like that man. I must get to know him better." - Abraham Lincoln

Keith Varnum's Survival Guide for the Holidays has a nice little paragraph on Japanese diplomacy:

If you can’t wholeheartedly agree with what someone is saying, you can respond in the spirit of the famous Japanese phrase, “Ah-So.” This diplomatic response translates literally into: “So it would appear.” Without compromising your integrity, you can respond to almost any relative’s narrow-minded statement with: “I can see how you can see it that way” or “I understand how you feel.”

I read that to my dad, and he said you have to be careful saying "Ah-So" out loud, 'cause people might think you're calling them a bad word.