Why I’m Sorry Doesn’t Always Translate: Class 9 English Exercise

📖 Reading Text

Even after decades of cooperation in business and politics, America and Japan still trip over a seemingly simple concept: the apology. Neither culture appears to fully understand what the other means or expects. For instance, most Americans were unmoved by Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda’s effusive apologies in 2010, after widespread reports of malfunctioning Prius accelerators. Japan, for its part, bristled when a U.S. submarine commander didn’t immediately apologize after colliding with and sinking a Japanese fishing boat off Hawaii in 2001.

The confusion over the meaning of and occasion for “I’m sorry” extends beyond those countries; indeed, it seems that virtually every culture has its own rules. In India, other researchers have noted, that apologies are far less common than in Japan. In Hong Kong, they are so prevalent and ritualized that many people are inured to them.

Core Finding: Our own work found that a core issue is differing perceptions of culpability: Americans see an apology as an admission of wrongdoing, whereas Japanese see it as an expression of eagerness to repair a damaged relationship, with no culpability necessarily implied. And this difference, we discovered, affects how much traction an apology gains.

In an initial survey of U.S. and Japanese undergraduates, the U.S. students were more likely to say that an apology directly implied guilt. The Japanese students were more likely to apologize even when they weren’t personally responsible for what had happened. Perhaps for this reason, they apologized a lot more—they recalled issuing an average of 11.05 apologies in the previous week, whereas U.S. students recalled just 4.51.

Statistical Insight: U.S. students participating in a study apologized 4.51 times in the previous week, while Japanese students apologized 11.05 times.

In a second study, we looked at the utility of apologies for repairing trust. We asked undergraduates from both countries to imagine that they were managers and showed them a video in which an applicant for an accounting job apologized for having deliberately filed an incorrect tax return for a prior client. The Japanese students were more willing than their U.S. counterparts to trust the candidate’s assertion that she wouldn’t engage in such behaviour again and to offer her a job. We believe that this is owing to Americans’ inclination to associate apologies with culpability.

The finding that Americans link apologies with blame is in keeping, we’d argue, with a psychological tendency among Westerners to attribute events to individuals’ actions. Thus it makes sense that in the U.S., an apology is taken to mean “I am the one who is responsible.” It also stands to reason that in Japan—which, like many other East Asian countries, has a more group-oriented culture—apologies are heard as “It is unfortunate that this happened.” Researchers who’ve compared apologies in America and China have found a similar pattern: U.S. apologies serve to establish personal responsibility, while Chinese ones focus on the larger consequences of the transgression.

Only with a deep understanding of such differences can executives make effective use of the apology as a tool for facilitating negotiations, resolving conflicts, and repairing trust. And misunderstandings over apologies are just one aspect of a broad semantic disconnect between East and West that’s too often ignored in the rush to globalization. Managers would do well to tune in to other cultural nuances that are easily lost in translation.

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📷 Understanding

Look at the picture and answer the questions. Apologising is a crucial social skill, but its meaning varies significantly across different cultures, particularly between Western and East Asian societies.

Q: What does the picture say?
➡ It says, 'I'm sorry' which expresses an apology.

Q: How do you apologise? Talk to your friends.
➡ We apologise by saying 'I'm sorry'.

🔍 A. Vocabulary: Meanings from the Text

Find the words/phrases from the text for the following meanings based on the first letter given:

Word/Phrase	Definition / Meaning
trip over	to have difficulty saying something clearly or correctly
effusive	showing too much emotion
bristled	became annoyed or offended
inured	accustomed to do something
culpability	the fact of being responsible
assertion	a statement saying that you strongly believe something to be true
attribute	to say or believe that something is the result of a particular thing
semantic	connected with the meaning of words and sentences
nuance	a very slight difference in meaning

🔗 B. Sentence Matching

Match the first halves in column A with their endings in column B:

Column A	Column B (Correct Match)
Americans didn’t show	iv. sympathy to Akio Toyoda’s effusive apologies.
People are accustomed	iii. to an apology in Hong Kong.
Japanese use an apology	v. to repair their damaged relationship.
American participants seemed	i. less interested in a second research.
Researchers found	ii. similar patterns in East Asian countries.

❓ C. Comprehension Questions

a. Why did Japan become annoyed with the US submarine commander?

Japanese became annoyed with the US submarine commander because he didn’t apologise after colliding with and sinking a Japanese fishing boat off Huwaii in 2001.

b. How do Americans and Japanese perceive an apology?

Americans see an apology as an admission of wrong doing whereas Japanese see it as an expression of eagerness to repair a damaged relationship with no culpability necessarily required.

c. What is the average result of an apology in Japanese and American students?

According to the survey, the average result of an apology in Japanese students is 11.05 and in American students is 4.51.

d. What was displayed in a video show?

An applicant for an accounting job apologized for having deliberately filed an incorrect tax return for a prior client was displayed in a video show.

e. Who was the respondents of the second study?

Undergraduates from both countries were the respondents of the second study.

f. How can the executives apply an apology?

The executives can apply an apology as a tool for facilitating recognitions resolving conflicts and repairing trust.

📝 Grammar I: Present Continuous Tense

A. Underline the Verb Forms

Hello everybody! Look at this nice picture. Here is one of the moments I prefer when we are all together on a nice Sunday afternoon. But let me introduce myself! I’m Bob, I am standing in front of my father who is reading the newspaper.

Mum is listening to her favourite songs on the radio. My two sisters, Rose and Sally, are playing with their dolls. My grandfather is having a nap and granny is drinking a cup of tea. The cat is running after the birds as usual and only my cousins are doing real activities; Ken is watering Mum’s flowers and Mike is cleaning the windows.

B. Sentence Completion (Verb Forms)

Show Solved Sentences (a-n)

1. Be quiet! The baby is sleeping.
2. It is raining cats and dogs here in the Monsoon season.
3. John is busy. He is working at the moment.
4. Please keep quiet, I am listening to the radio. You know I listen to the news in the mornings.
5. What time does the first bus leave for Kathmandu?
6. I usually don't wear a scarf, but today I am wearing one because it's unusually cold.
7. She is travelling to Dhangadhi next weekend.
8. Pasang is in the classroom at the moment. He is studying History.
9. These days most people write emails instead of writing letters.
10. What sort of clothes do teenagers wear nowadays?
11. What are you doing tonight? Would you like to come and watch the game?
12. You look worried. What are you thinking of?
13. She usually drives a taxi. But today, she is driving a lorry.
14. These kids are not doing what I’ve asked them to do.

Study Note: Remember that the Present Continuous tense is used for actions happening right now, while the Present Simple is used for habits or general truths.