We are famous the world over for our generally good manners (although I think some of this reputation comes from other countries having a bad reputation :). We open doors, we ask if strangers need help, we give back money if given too much change, and we only haggle once or twice for the fun and never for profit. AND we're sorry...a lot.
Here are a few of our famous sorrys and what us darling Canadian's actually mean by them. Disclaimer: we aren't actually always nice with them...
The 'Excuse me' sorry.
You didn't see them coming until its too late. You are doing the left-to-right mambo of who goes in that trajectory first. You both laugh and say 'sorry' with your most traditional Canadian smile that you use on the daily in public.
The 'Oh you surprised me' sorry.
This one just happened at my local coffee shop as I left for Qi Gong class. There was no where to walk. Bodies filled the seats, bodies waiting for lattes (its a goooood coffee shop). So I chose my exit and voiced 'excuse me' to which both kind Canadians moved to let me through and both charmingly saying sorry.
The 'I'm confused' sorry. You are at the movie ticket line. Someone comes up to hand you a coupon for something in the mall. You have no idea what they just said. “Sorry?' This one gets over used in my house. Did you know that teenagers mumble...a lot?
The 'I don't give a f*#& what you want' sorry.
SO you're at work, and a coworker asks you to cover their weekend shifts AGAIN when they haven't returned the favour. Not even once. Sorry?! Like get your head out of your a&*.
You know,
...we are not really sorry, us Canadians. For example, lets take our first sorry. What we are really saying is 'oh look how funny we are trying to out polite each other. We are so adorable!' However, that does take a long time to say that, and we were rushing off somewhere... so... sorry!
In China its 'yes' or shushu. In India its 'whatever you like' in English and *head-bob* in Hindi (I love that they have a node for yes, no, and everything else :). Please add more cultural umbrella words in the FB post!
Some honourable mentions of the Canadian sorry:
The 'Ooops you caught me looking at your cleavage.'
The 'I totally bumped in front of you to be ahead of everyone going nowhere.'
The 'Your lips were moving but I wasn't really listening.'
Please add yours to the FB post :)
And lets not forget ACTUALLY being sorry, whether in print, voice mail, or everyone's favorite, in person with flowers, candles and and a cool DVD...maybe popcorn and chocolate. Yeah. Good manners are always in style.
Some other fodder for thought:
1. Carrie Barr & Jackie Gillberry's research paper on the Canadian Sorry. Yes a research paper :) http://www.queensu.ca/strathy/sites/webpublish.queensu.ca.stratwww/files/files/publications/volume8/Barr-Gillberry-Wp8.pdf
2. A beautiful moment when a politician seemed pretty genuine. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/justin-trudeau-labrador-residential-schools-apology-1.4417443
3. John Oliver's piece in Justin Trudeau's Apologies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geUaExNq9-Y
4. Australia did it first. https://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/our-people/apology-to-australias-indigenous-peoples
5. 'How to be useless at apologizing' by United Airlines. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/business/united-flight-passenger-dragged.html