Class 9, Compulsory English || New Course || Unit 5 Ethics, Norms and Values || Why I'm Sorry doesn't always translate

 Class 9, Compulsory English || New Course || Unit 5 Ethics, Norms and Values || Why I'm Sorry doesn't always translate

Unit 5.

Ethics नैतिकता, Norms मापदण्डहरू and Values (standards of right or wrong)

 

Why "I'm Sorry" Doesn't Always Translate

 

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.

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.

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.

by  William Maddux, Peter H. Kim, Tetsushi Okumura, and Jeanne M. Brett

 

Word Meanings:

Trip over                 - to fall over, to stumble on, to slip on something

unmoved                - not emotionally affected

Effusive                    - showing or expressing gratitude, pleasure

widespread             - universal, common, global

malfunctioning      - go wrong, break, fault, failure,

bristled                     -  to become rigid with anger or irritation

colliding                   - hit by accident when moving

prevalent                 - widespread

ritualized                 - revolve into a ritual system

inured                       - accustom to something (unpleasant)  

core                           - central, key, basic, fundamental, principal, primary

culpability               - guilt, blame, fault, accountability, responsible for failure

traction                    - grip, friction, adhesion

utility                        - something useful or designed for use

counterparts          - equivalent, opposite, parallel, equal

assertion                  - declaration, statement, claim

inclination               - tendency, disposition

attribute                  - quality, feature, trait

transgression         - offense, crime, wrongdoing

negotiation              - discussion aimed at reaching an agreement

semantic                  - related to meaning in language or logic

rush                           - move with urgent haste

nuances                    - a very slight difference in meaning, expression or sound

 

Key points:

• Different views on "I'm sorry" between in America and Japan
• Even after decades of cooperation in business and politics, America and Japan still appear not to fully understand what the others think of a simple concept 'apology'
• For instance, most Americans were unmoved by Toyata CEO Akio Toyada's effusive (effective) apologies in 2010, after widespread reports of malfunctioning Prius accelerations. Japan, for its part, bristled when a US submarine commander didn't immediately apologize after colliding with and sinking a Japanese fishing boar off Hawai in 2001.
• The core issue is that the two countries have different perceptions of culpability.  Amerians see an apology as an admission of wrongdoing, where as Japanese see ti as an eagerness to repair a damaged relationship,
• In an initial survey, American undergraduate students were more likely to say that apology directly implied guilt whereas Japanese undergraduate students apologize even when they are not presonally responsible for what had happened. For this reason, American students recall apology 4.51 times a week by comparison with 11.05 times by Japanese.
• In a second study, we looked at the utility of apologies for repairing trust. After showing students a worker's deliberate mistake in accounting job, the Japanese students were more willing to trust the workers'assertion that she wouldn't engage in such behavior again and then they were willing to offer her a job.
• So, in keeping with today's theme, I'd like to point out that with the deep understanding of such differences can executive make effective use of apology as a tool for faciliting negotiations, resolving conflicts and repairing trust.
• A mis understadnign over "I'm sorry."is just one aspect of semantic disonnection. So if you have any chance to meet foreigner for business, study, or whatsover, you would do well to stay tuned for other cultural nuances,

A. Find the words/phrases from the text for the following meanings. The first letter has been given.

 

a. Trip over             to have difficulty saying something clearly or correctly,

b. effusive                showing too much emotion

c. bristled                 became annoyed or offended

d. inured                  accustomed to do something

e. culpability           the fact of being responsibility

f. assertion              a statement saying the you strongly believe to be true

g. attribute             to say or believe that something is the result of a particular                                                  thing,

h. semantic              connected with the meaning of words and sentences

i. nuances                 a very slight difference in meaning

 

B. Match the first halves in column A with their endings in column B to make complete sentences.

Column A                                           Column B.

a. Americans didn't show  - iv. sympathy to Akio Toyada's effusive                                                                                 apologies.

b. People are accustomed                       - iii. to an apology in Hong Kong

c. Japanese use apology                          - v. to repair their damaged relationship

d. American participants seemed        - i. less interested in a second research

e. Researchers found                               - ii. similar patterns in East Asian countries

 

C. Answer the following questions.

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

Ans:-  The US submarine commander didn’t immediately apologize after colliding with and sinking a Japanese fishing boat off Huwaii in 2001 that's why Japanese became annoyed with him.

b. How do Americans and Japanese perceive an apology? 

Ans:- For Americans to apologize is to admit wrongdoing but Japanese to apologize is to an eagerness of expression to repair a damaged relationship with no culpability necessarily implied.

 

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

Ans:- The average results of an apology in Japan and America, according to the survey, are 11.05 times per week and 4.51 times per week respectively.

 

d. What was displayed in a video show? 

Ans:- The video show displayed an applicant for an accounting job apologized for having deliberately filed an incorrect tax return for a prior client.

 

e. Who were the respondents of the second study?

Ans:- The respondents of the second study were undergraduates from Japan and America.

 

f. How can the executives apply an apology? 

Ans:- The executives can apply apology effectively as a tool for facilitating negotiations, resolving conflicts and repairing trust.