It’s a SORRY story
Me: “”Sorry, can I add something here?”
German colleague: “You don’t need to be sorry.”
Me: “Oh I’m not really sorry.”
German colleague: “Well why did you say you are sorry then?”
??
If you’re British, try keeping a tally of how many times you say “sorry” per day.
If you’re any other nationality, please keep reading!
Sorry is a popular word amongst the Brits. We are sometimes known as the “Sorry culture”.
Did you know it has so many uses?
According to an article published in The Times recently, “Sorry seems the hardest word… unless you’re British” it has 15 different uses and only one of them expresses true regret!
Sofia Zambelli, a cultural and language expert at Babbel said sorry is “a social lubricant, an explanation or a response to mind discomfort, as it is a genuine apology”.
This makes it one of the most misunderstood words in the English language, and to be honest I’ve only really started thinking about how much we are probably misunderstood when we use it.
From a linguistic perspective, sorry can mean “excuse me” if I bump into you, it can also mean “pardon?” if I don’t hear you and if you hit the right intonation and say “I’M SORRY?” it can mean you are outraged by someone’s thoughts or behaviour!
And there are many more meanings – way too many to go into in this blog post.
And then there is another debate about how women in business should stop apologising and “own” the stage – the word “sorry” is not welcome in these circumstances.
And this is where this sorry business starts getting rather complex in the world of global communication.
It underlines that these days we have many layers of culture colliding – lines are blurred between national culture, gender and universal business behaviour. Perspective-taking is needed more than ever and context is key.
But back to our friend SORRY.
? Did you realise that “sorry” has so many meanings in British English?
? Do you have a word in your language that seems so simple yet needs decoding based on context or intonation?
Sometimes we just need to pay more attention to understanding nuances in global communication in order to navigate cultural misunderstandings. A good place to start is talking about communication in our teams so that we can recognise and interpret diverse communication patterns (verbal and non-verbal), which can vary significantly across cultures.
If you have a team that would benefit from global communication training, please get in touch to discuss specific needs. I promise you won’t be sorry!