いいえ Is Lame

Textbooks teach you that Japanese people use “いいえ” for “no”. But in real life people rarely say “いいえ”. They would say either “いや” or “いえ”. When speaking casually, most of the people say “いや”. Yet, it seems like books fail to introduce this super common word that Japanese people use all the time. As a result, many Japanese learners don't even know how to say “no” just like Japanese people say it. Furthermore, “いいえ” is hard to pronounce. Don't waste your breath on “いいえ”.