I need a consensus
 

Ok...I want opinions. Do you think the phrase "o.k." is neutral or affirmative? This is sort of a leftover from last semester's Russian class that still bugs me in Russian II. My teacher insists it's an affirmative phrase that doesn't really have an equal in Russian. Russians have a word that, spelled with english letters with english letters phonetically, sounds like "narmaya" (pronounced like narm-eye-ah) and it's completely neutral. Not good or bad. I contend that "o.k." can be completely neutral but doesn't have to be. Thoughts?

I think its neutral.. although at times i think its affirmative.. it matters how you use it I think..

Right...I think it depends a lot on the inflection of the user. I mean...I could say "I'm ok" with a downward inflection and it becomes either neutral or negative (depending on how much I emphasize the inflection). However if I use an upward inflection it can become an affirmative statement. The trick is, I can do the same in Russian. I'm not going to argue with my teacher, but her theory seems flawed to me.

I agree that it's dependent upon the speaker's tone of voice now.

umm, yeah, ok, whatever

you need to get out more son

It depends on the conversation. How its used. The context of the conversation.
like "Hey wanna go for a beer " "OK!" :)

Or "Hey sorry about your loss" :( "ok"

or neutral
"wanna grab a bite to eat" "Ok"

Steve I think it all depends on the tone. I don't think that it fits in anyone where as it has it's place in all of them.