Our Shared Shelf discussion

I am currently struggling with a concept. It is quite bothering me to be honest.

This might be something that transcends unto all levels of the English Language itself. Also to those who are also not native English speakers (such as myself, grew up with the German Language but have been living in the USA for 5 years so far) I will try my best to explain this as clear as I can.

Today I ran across the concept of the following:

Having a question that answers in two different ways.

1. Is this a red pen or a blue pen?
Answer: Red

2. Is this a red pen or a blue pen?
Answer: Yes

What the fuck... Now I don't curse a lot but this here, is utterly confusing. I have had three people at my job trying to explain this to me. I don't get it. Either they are trolling me or my way of thinking is really not as open as I thought.

They say apparently the answer can be "Yes" because, Yes, it is a blue or a red pen.

Can someone maybe explain this to me? Hint at it? Or maybe show some other things that in the English language that might cause comprehension issues?

My brain at the moment cannot comprehend this fully, maybe I need a nap and then I will get it tomorrow.

Ohhhhhh! ...
I get it but I don't hahaha.

I think I understand... damn... that is confusing!

Thank you for that! Are there other things that might translate this towards other things in English maybe?

You could do that in danish as well.
I remember my mother doing that every time we would ask her to choose between ice cream flavours. Usually she really didn't care, so it would go something like this:

Me: do you want chocolate or strawberry?
Mom: Yes (meaning she wanted either chocolate or strawberry, but didn't care which one I got her).

Jason wrote: "I had a customer that called the other day.

What really happened, was that he was looking to buy printer ink.

"Yes, I want to know if you have any printers on sale. Mine's a 624/625."

"Okay, jus..."

Very funny! I hope you had a successful outcome with the customer :)

Eternal wrote: "I am currently struggling with a concept. It is quite bothering me to be honest.

This might be something that transcends unto all levels of the English Language itself. Also to those who are also..."

The most clear explanation might come from mathematics:

1. Is this x or y?
Is this (a red pen) or (a blue pen)?
Answer: Red

2. Is this (x or y)?
Is this (a red pen or a blue pen)?
Answer: Yes

Haha, in German one can answer some questions with both 'yes' and 'no'. :)

I just don't have an example right now, sorry