Victor

Are you concerned about how to apologise to someone? Is it always too late to say sorry like Justin Bieber told you? Come with me, perhaps you may pick up some communicative skills on apology from the intercultural aspect.

First of all, you should be aware of five main types of apology strategies that Olshtain and Cohen (1983) classified. They are: explanation, expression of apology, promise of non-recurrence, acknowledgement of responsibility, and offer of repair.

A. Explanation, literally, is to make excuses or account, that is help to transferred offenders fault like in “The bus was late”.

B. Expression of apology, is just to say “sorry,” “excuse,” “forgive,” or “apologise.”

C. Promise of non-recurrence means the offense is promised not to happen again. Typically, you can find this strategy from cheating husbands who are trying to their marriage.

D. Acknowledgement of responsibility means the offender recognises his fault in causing the infraction. Simply, to shout “I did it. It was my fault”.

E. Offer of repair is to offer compensation as a means to apologise. For example, many merchants will sorry with a voucher despite of consideration on their business strategies.

In terms of various linguistic realisation patterns amongst different languages, the productions and perceptions of apologies vary (Wang, 2017:40). In other words, language, as an aspect of culture, influences language speakers’ strategic preferences and evaluative opinions on apology. Sari’s research (2016) discussed American English native speakers’ apology strategies and she found out that the most effective strategies are to offer repairs and take on responsibility whilst promise of forbearance seems not to be working amongst them.

In contrast, Japanese apologisers attach more importance on expression of regret and their own responsibility, however, refusal offer fair compensation (Lingley, 2006). Naotsuka and Sakamoto (1981:166-167) explain that, apology is one of honorific forms in Japanese systems, aiming beyond the speech acts itself to keep things running smoothly for both the hearer and speaker (eg. defusing an awkward situation by apology). Interestingly, even though the strategy of warranting repair works effectively for American, when their role turns an apologiser, they tend not to offer nothing to maintain their autonomy (i.e. like mentioned in the blog on ‘Face’, to maintain their negative face).

Apart from language, also, the context, the degree of familiarity, level of the offence and other factors require the speaker to make different and complex utterances for apology. For instance, females takes explicit and indirect apology strategies used more frequently than males (Wang:2017); instead of offering repairs reluctantly, superiors’ simply but sincere apology is more acceptable by the subordinates (Al-Adaileh, 2007); from the perspective of Chinese-Australian, frequent apology in daily conversation is considered to be impolite (Chang and Haugh, 2011).

Dealing with apology strategies is actually handling cultural differences. Is it too late to say sorry? Well, I would say in some cultures or context, a sincere or appropriate apology can make it up. I know this suggestion sounds tricky but what I really want to say is that apology is not a facile work and there’s no such formulaic strategies that cover all the situations. What’s more, not every offense is able to be forgiven. But as long as you are attempting to formulate intercultural competence, no matter it’s for politeness or offense, apology you give or receive is more likely to be understood and accepted.