From Alex Massie's blog at the Spectator:

[randomness]

What We Say vs What We Mean vs What They Understand:
(achinhibitor's comment reminded me of this.)

Comments

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

I always tease justom that when he says something is "fine" it means "really rather disappointing", whereas "not bad" or "decent" means "good" and "nice" means "really good" :-)

I do think this translation is specifically (though not exclusively) British-inflected; it doesn't work directly for most US subcultures.