British people have always been good at saying "I' m sorry". They used to be so good at it that they would apologize (道歉) for things that weren't even their fault.
However, the British seem to be losing touch with their art. According to a new book by British writer Max Davidson, instead of saying "I'm sorry?" when they do something wrong, British people prefer to choose their words carefully.
In this book, Sorry…The Hardest Word and How to use it, Davidson writes about a number of recent apologies. One example is of British television host Jeremy Clarkson. He described Gordon Brown (Brown is blind in his left eye), the UK prime minister, as "a one-eyed Scottish fool". Clarkson was forced to apologize. He said:" In the heat of the moment, I made a remark (评论) about the prime minister. Now I apologize of reflection." Davidson says the apology was just "going through the motions".
Clarkson is not the only one. The best example may come from the UK MP (议员) Tessa Jowell. She said publicly: "If you feel our government falls short of what you expect, then I say sorry for that" Jowell said "sorry". But she is actually saying it's not the government's fault but the voters' fault for expecting too much from the government.
Perhaps those people with influence feel they may lose too much by apologizing. But as a teenager, would you really want to lose a close friend, just because you couldn't say something as simple as," I'm sorry"? That would be hard to forgive.