{"id":7154,"date":"2026-06-01T07:27:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T07:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jolliffe.de\/?p=7154"},"modified":"2026-06-01T07:27:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T07:27:44","slug":"sorry-about-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jolliffe.de\/en\/uncategorized\/sorry-about-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Sorry about that …"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I have just returned from a wonderful holiday in Madeira with my seven \u201cPoly Dollies\u201d. This year was special because we were celebrating 50 years since we first met as students at Birmingham Polytechnic. We spent a week laughing, reminiscing, and enjoying beautiful Madeira and the sunshine. But one thing struck me once again: how often they said \u201csorry\u201d!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a recent BBC Travel article <\/a>points out, \u201csorry\u201d in Britain is far more than a simple apology. It can be used to show empathy, to attract someone\u2019s attention, to soften a disagreement, or even to acknowledge a minor social awkwardness. In some situations, Brits will say \u201csorry\u201d when someone else bumps into them, almost as a way of maintaining social harmony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of my Dollies illustrates this perfectly. Whenever she phones, she starts with: \u201cOh, sorry, am I disturbing you?\u201d Usually, she is calling at a perfectly reasonable hour when I am probably relaxing with a cup of tea. No disturbance has occurred, yet the apology arrives right on cue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I noticed the same thing a few years ago while walking with my uncle in the pretty seaside town of Swanage. On a crowded promenade, a woman politely asked, \u201cOh, sorry to disturb you, would you mind if I just squeezed past?\u201d Her request was so charmingly courteous that I almost wanted her to say it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Brit myself, I must confess that I am also a fully paid-up member of the British apology culture. I often catch myself saying \u201csorry\u201d for things that are not my fault, or apologising before asking a perfectly reasonable question. It seems to be deeply embedded in our national character. So, if you ever find yourself talking to a British person who says \u201csorry\u201d a dozen times in a single conversation, please be patient with us. And if our constant apologising occasionally gets on your nerves, well\u2026 sorry about that.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have just returned from a wonderful holiday in Madeira with my seven \u201cPoly Dollies\u201d. This year was special because we were celebrating 50 years since we first met as students at Birmingham Polytechnic....<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["de","en"],"languages":{"de":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jolliffe.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jolliffe.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jolliffe.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jolliffe.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jolliffe.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7154"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.jolliffe.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7158,"href":"https:\/\/www.jolliffe.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7154\/revisions\/7158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jolliffe.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jolliffe.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jolliffe.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jolliffe.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}