Written by: Aarav Timilsina - 28028, Grade IX
Posted on: 19 June, 2024
Apologies are what we call an expression of many emotions, regret, sorrow, grief, hindsight etc.“I'm sorry” seems like a harmless and effective phrase to blurt out everyone you caused inconvenience or trouble but qualified researchers are actually doing reports on just this broad topic. Their findings, which are quite surprising, actually states that people with different cultures ethnic backgrounds have different views on apologies. Cultures and mannerisms are known to be different all across the world and apologies are no exception. An apology is defined as a regretful acknowledgement of one’s offense or failure, but that is just the textbook definition, as we learned from the report discussed previously in English; The West have different definitions to apologies than the East. Since the report proved that the striking differences are between the East and the West, I will be discussing the differences in apologies between the Swedish and the Chinese.
When it comes to the Chinese, or if speaking on a, studies have shown that, saying sorry is a pretty common practice and they apologize to show respect, or express grief. Apologies are quite common and used almost everyday, there is a chart for those too. For example; there is a certain word for sorry in Chinese which is only used when a dish is broken by accident. Using grammatically correct words is also seen as noble in China. Older people tend to get offended when youngsters use crude apologies to them. People apologize on many occasions in China. It’s customary to apologize to friends and relatives if leaving a place or leaving to go to the restroom. So, we can conclude that the Chinese take apologies very seriously and one’s way of apologizing also determines themselves in the eyes of others .
An article submitted by Business News Daily summarizes the cultural differences in apologies in Sweden from the rest of the world very well. In Sweden, punctuality is considered the most important virtue to have and in most cases it is probably the only time you’ll apologize in a day. Swedish people also appreciate honesty, so being frank about your wrongdoings is also greatly smiled upon in Sweden. Swedish people dont waste their time with lengthy apologies and reasons and instead just want you to acknowledge that you’re wrong and go on with your day. They believe that wasting your own and other’s time with meaningless rambling, defending yourself from a crime which is not even serious is useless.
Though, the idea of apologizing remains the same, the way of executing it and when we execute it is different. In China, apologies are used as words that show respect and understanding. Being a cultural country, the apologies are important and are focused on a lot. Even though the culture of using different apologies for different scenarios is wearing out, saying the right thing at the right time is still considered useful in China.
While in Sweden, apologies are sort of abbreviated and shortened. Apologizing does not hurt anyone, not apologizing can. An example to really tell the difference between the apologies in China and Sweden. If a friend informs a Chinese person of a bad thing that’s coming his/her way. Their first reaction would be to say sorry and see if there’s anything they can do to help but a Swedish person informed of the same thing would first admit that it’s bad and offer help. They don’t think an apology is necessary.
