そうか and なるほど Once, a Japanese language partner point out my habit to use 「そうか」 as rather... cold? He suggest to use 「なるほど」 instead. What I want to ask, is it not good to use 「そうか」? Because on some Japanese television programs I catch people using it and just know it's not polite enough to use between friends. Or there is distinction between women and men (just like how you use 私 and 僕) ? Thank you in advance.Edit: since I think the question seems confusing, let's go with this instead: is 「そうか」 less polite than 「なるほど」 when you use it on daily occurrence?