Quote:
Originally Posted by noodle
The reason I ask is because a lot of the descriptions about Japanese I see on this forum are not what I experience with Japanese exchange students... One of which is this apology thing. I agree that they never try to make an excuse and they never try to explain, but NEVER, in the past four years of helping out the exchange students have I heard someone say something along the lines of what Nyoronin just put! So, do you guys know if they follow the principle of "when in Rome, do as the Romans"? or do they still act as though they're in Japan? or is it simply a new generation thing (all the students are never older than 23)?
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What I wrote was more a generalization than a specific translation of what people actually say. It`s more the general feel of the apology and the stuff that follows.
In Japan "I`m sorry" carries that meaning - it`s sort of one of those things that you don`t have to put into words. If someone says "I`m sorry" (which is really a basic translation as in most cases what is said isn`t really the same meaning as that, but there is no better way to translate it into English) the person receiving the apology accepts it to mean a certain thing - that certain thing being somewhat along the lines of what I wrote.
Simply saying "I`m sorry" doesn`t carry that same meaning in English - but there isn`t really a handy phrase in English that does... So I would imagine that they are saying it with the same feeling behind it whether they say it in English or Japanese.
I can`t really judge whether they are following the norm of where they are - but I can guess that they are apologizing with the same feeling behind as in Japanese. However, language isn`t words alone - culture is a huge part of it - so saying the closest words in English won`t necessarily convey the same meaning as in Japanese.