How to politely respond tentatively to a request?

[Shiroisan]

So I'm fully aware of politely declining with ちょっと, but sometimes you don't want to actually decline like that- you want to feign that you actually may have interest in doing so if possible.

In other words.... How could you replicate this kind of response:

"Hey, you like dance, would you like to join my afterschool dance club?"

"Oh neat, maybe. I'll consider that!"



I was thinking of perhaps using たぶん, but doesn't it imply "probably" more so than "maybe"? Does Japanese even have a real word for maybe? I would imagine that かもしれない may come across as rude. A "It's possible that there's a chance I may have interest" type of deal... I really have no clue on such subtleties... What do you guys think?

[shin1ro]

"Oh neat, maybe. I'll consider that!"

へえ、そうですか。まあ、一応、考えておきます。
-- this sounds mostly negative, with faint interest at the moment.
Negative rather than positive.

へえ。まあ、いいかもしれませんね。考えておきます。
-- this sounds rather vague but also sounds with slight interest.
Very slightly positive.

へえ、いいかもしれません。考えておきます。
-- This sounds with some positive interest.
sounds positive.

I think かもしれない is the most similar word for "maybe". And this word doesn't sound rude (unless overused).

ちょっと alone doesn't express declining, but it sounds declining when you use ちょっと... or それはちょっと... with a pause (or following a negative sentence).

But I know many Japanese people tend to speak English word "maybe" for Japanese たぶん (closer to "probably" IMO) and the usage of "maybe" is wrong in many cases.

-shin1ro

[Shiroisan]

That was helpful, thanks. I didn't really know the connotations of such things yet.