#301 Saying 'Sorry' Like a British Person
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Hello everybody, welcome back to the Level Up English podcast, the best place to come to practice the English language, learn about the British accent and culture, with me, your host, Michael Lavers.

I just want to start by saying today that I am so incredibly, deeply sorry for taking your time today. I know this may end up being a long episode. Maybe I'm going to be talking quite a lot and you're going to be quite annoyed by hearing my voice.

I may also be talking too quickly and that might be annoying for you as well or difficult to follow. And I'm so, so sorry in advance. I know this is going to be annoying and inconvenient for you. So I want to apologize right at the beginning here.

Well, maybe I'm not so sincere, kind of joking, because maybe you've noticed the topic of today's episode is apologising. This is a huge thing in English, but especially British culture. So,

So, everything I'm talking about today is going to be really relevant to, I would say, British culture specifically, but maybe generally in English around the world, apologising or saying the word sorry is quite important. So, today I'm going to be first talking about situations in which saying sorry might be suitable. Some of these may be a surprise to you.

And then I'm going to talk about some phrases that you can use to apologise, show regret or something else. We're going to look at some other situations as well. We'll get to all that later. I'm going to different phrases for different levels of formality and different levels of seriousness, like really small things and really big things as well.

And for each phrase, I'm going to do my best to think about a time in my life where I have made a big mistake. Okay, so in this episode, you'll be hearing about all of my embarrassing, horrible things that I've done, and it's going to be very revealing, personal, and

shameful. So we'll see what secrets come out about me today. Hopefully nothing too bad, but once I get going, I can't stop. So I may reveal something that I later regret. Let's see. Let's find out. But yeah, thank you for being here with me. I

I think we'll get right into it. I'm going to do all this apology stuff. And then at the end, if you don't mind, we're going to say a quick thank you to a few listeners. Got a nice audio message, a really nice quote as well. So lots of great stuff today. Let's get right into it in today's episode, which is 301. The first episode of this new chapter.

in the 300s of the podcast. Very exciting, right? So, as I said, let's start with when we say sorry. You may know that in the UK, sorry is not just used when you do something wrong. That's, of course, one way. But I guess it can be used in

Any situation where you're taking up someone's time or attention or you're inconveniencing someone, even in a really small way, the word sorry can be helpful. So I'll give you some examples. When you go to a restaurant, you want to look at the menu. You might say, sorry, could I have a look at the menu, please? Sorry, do you have a menu that I could have a look at?

So we're not really apologizing. We're just saying, sorry, can you do something to help me one second? So there's a good example of using sorry here. If someone says something and you can't hear them the first time, you could say, sorry, what did you say? Sorry, what was that?

Right, so this is the same meaning as the word 'what' – W-H-A-T – but that word 'what' is quite blunt, it's quite rude, I would say, so it's much better to say 'sorry'. You could also say 'pardon', which means the same, but I would say 'what' is a bit too casual, a bit too rude. 'Pardon' is maybe too formal. I would

I wouldn't use pardon in most situations. I think sorry is a really nice middle option. So if I say, hey, you might hear that and go, sorry, Michael, what did you say? Sorry. And the truth is, by the way, I just said nothing. I just made a sound. Don't worry if you didn't understand me. But yeah, you're not apologizing. It's just saying sorry.

I'm sorry to make you repeat yourself. I know it's going to be some trouble for you to say it again. It's a bit annoying, I understand, but can you say it again? So, sorry is also really good in that sense as well. And maybe you're going to the UK, you want to ask for some directions. Sorry will also be really useful there. Sorry, do you know the way to Waterloo Station?

It's a great way to start a conversation. Of course, you can also use the phrase 'excuse me'. That's also totally fine, but 'sorry' here is just a replacement for the word 'excuse me'. 'Sorry, can you help me? Excuse me, can you help me?' Both the same, no difference really. They can both be used in this case.

A few more examples. Expressing empathy is a really common one as well. Empathy is the ability to connect with another person's feelings. So someone else feels sad, you also feel sad for that person. It's sharing someone else's feelings. Often with bad stuff, that's very common. And this is called empathy.

And we often use the word sorry to express, to describe how empathetic we are feeling. That's the adjective, how we feel. So I could say I was fired from my job. I'm really unhappy because I was fired. And you could say, I'm so sorry to hear that. I'm so sorry. How are you doing? Are you okay? I'm sorry. That's terrible.

So in this case, we're not saying I did something bad. That's not what this means. We're just saying I'm sorry to hear that. That is terrible news. So that's a great one as well. It could also be more serious things like sadly, someone or a pet passes away. Very sad. The person might be experiencing grief and you want to just say,

I'm so sorry. That's horrible. And it doesn't mean that you were the one who caused that passing. But it just again, it shows empathy. It shows that you care. So that's a really nice way to use it.

A couple more. It's very commonly used when you make a little mistake, like you bump into someone in the street, like you hit their shoulder. You may know that in London, it's a very fast paced city. People walk very quickly. And even though I only lived in London for two years, I...

still walk fast and I've never gone back to normal. Once you kind of adjust to the way of life in London, it's very difficult to go back to normal, I found. It really changes you living in London.

So I get quite impatient with slow walkers now. And everyone's so fast. If you're going to London for the first time, you may be looking around, maybe a little bit lost and you bump into people, people bump into you. Sorry is a great phrase to use. It's not too serious. It's, oh, sorry, I'm in your way or sorry, I'm not really aware of where I am. Something like that would be nice.

One more example: when you disagree with someone. There are many cultures around the world where maybe you might say "I disagree, I have a different opinion". You just say it quite bluntly and plainly.

But at least in English, I think it can be quite awkward to disagree and it can come across, which means it can seem right. It can come across as perhaps argumentative, like you want to start an argument. So in order to make it sound less harsh, which means softer, you might use the word sorry. Like, yeah, sorry, but I think I disagree with you. Yeah.

Sorry, but I don't quite agree. Sorry, but I don't quite agree. You know, you're not really apologising, but it just softens your disagreement. It makes it sound more pleasing, you know, less angry, perhaps.

So that's a great one to use. But yeah, I mean, with all of these I'm mentioning today, let me know about your culture. Maybe it's the same in your language, or maybe you do find it weird that we say sorry. Maybe you would just say directly. And this indirectness and politeness in English is a bit difficult for you to get used to.

But yeah, if you like, leave a comment on this episode, let me know where you're from and what you consider normal using the word sorry. And I'd love to hear like these cultural differences or similarities, whatever the case may be. Let's mention two more ways here. There's obviously a lot of crossover. Some of these are quite similar, but I just want to give you a few examples so you understand each way in which we can use it.

One of them will be in replacement of the phrase, excuse me, which means, you know, can I get by? Like physically, can I move past you? This happens all the time here in Bangkok. And it is one of the things that annoys me most, I have to say. Again, maybe it's that habit I picked up in London, but it happened yesterday. I didn't show any annoyance.

mainly because it was quite an old man. Especially in Asia, there's a lot more respect for the elderly compared to in England, maybe. But yeah, there was an old man and there was a really small walking area. There wasn't much room. And he stopped, just suddenly stopped to do something on his phone. And there was me right behind him and loads of people behind me. And we couldn't get past. We couldn't get by.

I try not to say excuse me or the Thai word for that if I can avoid it because I think it can sound rude. At least that's my fear. I don't want to sound like I'm angry, even though I might be angry. I don't want them to think I'm an angry foreigner. You know, I don't want to give a bad name for foreigners, I suppose. So usually I just try and squeeze by politely and slowly. Yeah.

But maybe if I were in England, I'm more familiar with the culture in England, I might say 'excuse me, can I get by?' Or probably I would maybe say 'sorry' and that's also really common. 'Sorry, can I just squeeze by you?' And that sounds very polite. I think sometimes 'excuse me' it can sound rude if you get the tone wrong. I'm always afraid of using the wrong tone. If I say 'excuse me,

It sounds like I'm a little bit impatient. Maybe you can hear that in my voice. Even if I don't intend that, it can come across as rude or impatient. So I think sorry is a little bit safer sometimes. And this is a nice one. Also, just, that word just is really common. And this minimizes the request. It makes it sound rude.

less big, less serious. Sorry, can I just squeeze by you? Sorry, can I just squeeze by you there? Thank you so much. That's super British, very polite, great phrase to use. If you remember one phrase today, use that one. That is an essential London travel phrase, I think. And that they will probably also say sorry. Oh yeah, so sorry. Go ahead. Sorry, sorry. Thank you. Sorry. Kind of like that. So that's a good one.

One final one now is any time that you take up space in a conversation. This might sound a bit too extreme as well, but it's really common when you want to add a point, especially in a group setting. So think about a meeting, maybe on a Zoom meeting with your work, or you're in one of my group classes at Level Up English. It can be quite scary to ask a question

There is a nice feature in Zoom where you can raise your hand, which I always encourage the students to do, but you don't have to. So many of the members in the group classes might say, sorry, Michael, can I just add one more thing? Or sorry, Michael, can I ask a question? So what they're really saying is sorry for the interruption or sorry to take up time or something like that. It's not really a true apology. It's just letting everyone know that they respect you.

The time of the group, I suppose. So yeah, sorry, can I just add one more thing to this conversation? And if your voice is a little bit low and high pitched like mine is right now, is that okay? Maybe? Then that also shows that you're a little bit uncertain and you're not going to be too bossy or too rude, maybe? So that's a good one to use. I think that might be it. Did I mention...

Yeah, I suppose I did mention condolences as well. This word is a little bit advanced, but it's quite useful. You might use the phrase my condolences. It is really only used in one situation, which is when people...

have very bad news usually involving someone passing away. My condolences. Again, it's expressing empathy. Like, I'm so sorry to hear that, you might say. So I actually found a kind of funny joke quote online, which I wanted to share. I wrote down here.

And it's a little kind of, it's kind of dark humour. It's not, it's a little bit dark, but I find it quite funny as well. See if you understand it, but if not, I'll explain it. This is from Dimitri Martin. Saying I'm sorry is the same as saying I apologise, except at a funeral. Does that make sense? So I'll explain it. So Dimitri,

In most cases, sorry and apologise mean the same thing. If I make a mistake, I can say I'm sorry or I apologise. And it's exactly the same. There's no difference there. You can use both. However, at a funeral, when you're expressing, again, empathy about something bad that's happened to someone else,

You can say, I'm sorry, but you can't say, I apologise, because I'm sorry is used to express empathy. I apologise is only used to express fault, like you made a mistake. So if you go to a funeral and you say, I apologise, it sounds like that you were the killer, you were the murderer, right? You caused that person to pass away.

So, very small mistake but a very big difference in meaning. Be very careful with those two. Don't get them mixed up. Obviously there won't be many cases where you'll have that situation, that have that problem. But yeah, if you're not sure which one to use in that case, just stick with 'sorry', stick with the easier one and you'll be safe. But yeah, kind of dark humour but that made me giggle a little bit. A little bit funny.

Okay, well, let's move on to the second part today, which is...

different ways to apologise. So as I said, I'm going to be sharing some of my own stories from recent memories and also a little bit longer ago where I've made some mistakes and I've split these apologies up into three levels. Level one are kind of just quite simple everyday mistakes. They're not too serious but these will be the most common that you need to use.

Level two, it's more serious stuff. It's things that you will do a few times every year, perhaps, that you have to apologise for, but it's a little bit more sincere. We'll be using that word a lot today as well. Sincere, it's kind of like serious. It's the opposite of joking, right? If you're sincere, it means you really, really mean it. You're not lying.

And then we've got level three, which are really big things. There's not so many for that one that I could think about, that I could think of. But yeah, level three is like really, really big mistakes where you need to show how sorry you are. So let's get into these without any further delay. So I think we'll just quickly mention a little bit about intonation.

People will say that English is not a tonal language, not like Thai or Mandarin, for example. But in some ways it is because tone can really change the meaning of a sentence. It can really change the meaning. And I'm sorry is a really good example of this.

So if you order something wrong at a restaurant like I did two days ago, I went to a restaurant and this one thing that I can't eat and I ordered without it. I actually ordered in Thai, which maybe was the problem because my Thai is not that good. So maybe there was a misunderstanding in my ability there.

So I ordered and when it came, it was not exactly what I ordered and I couldn't eat it. So I said, I'm sorry, could you make it without this? Could you take this part off? And that was fine. It was no problem. They could do it. I felt a little bit awkward. Maybe it was my fault. Maybe it was their fault. But I was acting like it was my fault to be polite. And yeah, I said, I'm sorry. It's not exactly what I ordered. I'm sorry.

So in that tone there, that means I made a mistake. I'm admitting fault, right? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. There's different ways we can say it, but something like that shows that you made a mistake. Okay, so that was my example at the restaurant.

Another one, as we said, is mishearing someone. This also happened to me yesterday. I went to the hospital for my legs because my legs are still hurting from my trip to Taiwan last month. I went to get it checked out, make sure I was okay. And at the end of the appointment, the nurse was leaving the room and she said something.

She had very good English, but she did also have a Thai accent. So it wasn't super easy to follow when she spoke quickly. So she said something and I couldn't understand. And I said, sorry. And then she said it again. And I still didn't understand. But I just said, oh, OK, OK.

I have no idea what she said, but I kind of felt it was too awkward because she was already like leaving the room and I was keeping her there by asking her to repeat herself.

And yeah, I think we've all been there, haven't we? We've all had that happen where we didn't understand something, but we just pretended that we did to avoid any awkwardness. I didn't want to keep saying, what? Say again? What? Very awkward. So hopefully it wasn't too important. Hopefully it wasn't a big deal. But you noticed in my intonation there, I said, sorry, sorry. I went up at the end, like a question, right? Sorry, sorry.

So that usually means, I didn't understand. Can you say that again? Sorry. What did you say? Pardon. That up intonation, upwards intonation. So that's one way. That's one meaning. One I haven't mentioned yet is a little bit more complex, but it's kind of showing anger. When somebody says something to you that you're offended by, you can say, sorry.

Very similar to the last one in some ways, but there's a bit more anger in my voice here. And what this is doing, I guess it's kind of like pretending that you didn't hear them, but we know that you did hear them. So what you're really doing is giving them another chance. You're giving them a chance to apologise or take it back.

So if you said, Michael, you look really bad today. You look really ugly. Actually, you look really old as well. Wow, what happened to you? Very offensive thing to say. And I might be so angry, I will say, sorry? What did you say? Sorry? And you can tell I'm a little bit angry. I'm not apologising to you. That's not an apology. It means...

be careful, don't continue down this road, don't keep saying that. And then you might, you know, if you understand the meaning of that sorry, you will say, oh, sorry, you misunderstood me. I didn't mean it in the bad way. I'm just trying to do something nice. You know, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean it in that way. If you didn't understand, if you didn't take the hint, you will keep saying it and I'm going to get really mad and punch you maybe. No, just kidding. Yeah.

But yeah, that's one way. Like, sorry? What did you say? Don't offend me. Kind of like that, that meaning. The final one I'll mention is a sarcastic sorry. And I suppose this is, one situation could be when someone is annoyed at me, but I don't think they should be annoyed at me.

So let's say I'm sick like I was last week. I've got the flu and it's really difficult to breathe so I keep sniffing like that. Obviously sniffing is quite annoying but when we're sick we can't really help it so much.

So someone might get quite annoyed at me and say, "Michael, stop sniffing! It's so annoying! How can you be so annoying?" And I can just say, "Sorry! I'm sorry for breathing! Sorry for being sick! Sorry!" So that intonation there, "sorry", it sounds very sarcastic, right? We're not quite going up as much at the end, but "sorry"

We're kind of emphasising it quite a lot too. That's a very sarcastic sorry. That signifies that we're a little bit annoyed at the other person who maybe is also annoyed at us. Lots of different sorry's there.

Okay, but let's go back to an even smaller one. I think sorry can be really useful. But if it's something very, very small, then you can say my bad, my mistake, or my fault. I think my bad is a really nice one. Oh, my bad. You're admitting that you made a mistake, but it's not so serious. It's something quite small, maybe. So another hospital example, I...

I went to use the lift, which is the elevator in American English, and I was going up. I was waiting for the lift. There were also people behind me waiting for the lift as well, also going up. It came up, it opened, and this was a very fancy hospital where they had staff inside the lift kind of controlling the buttons.

He, I don't know, he kind of looked like he wasn't going to wait for me. So I assumed that maybe he's going the wrong way. So I said, oh, are you going down? And he said, no, we're going up. And then the doors closed before I could even reply. They very quickly closed. And I was like thinking to myself, oh, but.

I want to go up. Why did they close? I want to go up. Let me in. Maybe it was my fault again, because I asked if you're going down when I wanted to go up. I shouldn't. I should have asked about going up. But I kind of made a very awkward mistake and I looked at the people behind me like, like an awkward laugh. And I could have said to them, my bad.

It's not a very serious thing. I don't need to apologise very deeply. It's just waiting one more minute. It's not a really big mistake. But I think this will be a good situation to say, my bad, guys, I messed up. So that's my example for using my bad. Let me know if you can think of your own. Another phrase we can use in level one is...

a little bit more serious. It's maybe a little bit higher than 'sorry'. And this is the verb 'apologise'. 'I apologise'. It sounds more sincere than 'sorry', but it can also be used for quite everyday things. It doesn't have to be too big. And it's also quite... it's not quite formal. It's a little bit more formal than 'sorry'.

So when I get a message from a listener about the podcast and they're having a problem, I might use the word apologise. I think it sounds more respectful than sorry, especially in writing. It's good to use apologise in writing as well.

So this hasn't really happened before. Maybe it's going to happen today where one of you will email me and say, Michael, the episode about apologizing was terrible. I really hated it and I'm never going to watch you again. I hate you.

totally understandable reaction. I might respond to them and say, I apologise for the low quality episode. I really do apologise. And that's quite a nice way to show respect when you are saying sorry.

Notice I also said for. This is really common. We say sorry for, apologise for. The preposition for is very common after these words. So that's also great to know. And maybe this last one, it's, it's, how can I describe it? It's not super sincere. It's used for somewhat small things, but it is more formal. And this is the noun formal.

of 'apologise' which is 'apologies' plural form of the noun I suppose. Apology, apologies. You could either say 'my apologies', that's it, or you just say the word 'apologies'. It's the same as 'sorry' but a little bit more formal. So if you make a really big mistake, this is not big enough, it needs to be bigger.

But I think this would be useful, for example, in a workplace. Let's say you're at work and you're standing in the doorway as your boss is trying to leave and you don't realise he's behind you. And you might be there for one second and your boss says, sorry, can I get by? Can I squeeze by? And then you want to be respectful because it's your boss. So you would reply, oh, apologies.

Very simple, very short, but it's a little bit more formal. So that's a good one to use there. Maybe handing in some work a little bit later than you planned. You could say, apologies for the late submission, but here is my work. Something like that.

Okay, let's move on to level two. Now we're getting a little bit more serious and this is where I want to share one of my biggest regrets with inconveniencing another person. For me, this is something that I still think about from time to time and it really hurts, honestly. It's something that I really regret and...

Maybe you'll have to let me know if you agree that I really messed up, or maybe you think it's not as serious as I'm making it out to be. So I'll explain the story first, then I will use my apology for this. I was in London. I was living in London a few years ago, and I was actually filming a video for YouTube at the time. It's my old YouTube channel, which was English with Michael. You can still watch it on YouTube today.

And I was walking along the Thames River from the centre of London all the way to the east. If you know London very well, I was walking to the Thames Barrier, which is quite far to the east of London. It took a few hours for me to get there on foot. A beautiful walk, though. Very nice walk.

And I was making a video. I don't even remember what it was anymore, but it was a fun video. But later that day, you know, in the late afternoon, I was planning, I had planned to meet a language exchange partner, a nice lady I met on an app. We had never met before. We'd only texted before. And we were going to meet, go get a coffee and exchange English and Japanese together for the first time.

something I was looking to do more in London. And I finished my video and I was like, okay, great. I've got one hour now to go and meet her. And I guess I was so focused on my video that I wasn't really thinking about the time. I also had my longboard, my skateboard with me. And I thought, okay, I'm just going to skateboard back to the center. Probably won't take much time, right? It's like cycling. I'll get there in no time.

So I started going back, I told her I'm on my way and then I got a bit closer and I realised I'm going to be late. I'm making quite slow progress, I'm still super far away. And I looked at the trains, the trains really wouldn't be very quick, it would take like one hour on the trains to get there. So I feel like that wasn't really an option.

So I just kept on running and skating and trying to sprint across the whole of London, basically, to get to our meetup point. And long story short, it was getting dark. I reached, I almost reached Buckingham Palace, right near the centre there.

uh still not quite where i wanted to be and then i had an idea like wait why don't i just get a taxi i didn't even think about getting a taxi i just wasn't thinking clearly i don't know i know it's very expensive in london but it's better to spend money and not be late i would say on that occasion there was maybe 30 minutes left at that point of walking so i just got a taxi for the last 30 minutes had to wait a little while for the taxi to turn up

Uh, but yeah, that's how I got there. When I finally arrived, I don't remember how late I was, but it might have been like two hours late. Uh, and this poor lady, this poor girl was, uh, just sitting there outside. Was it like autumn time? Maybe, uh, for like two hours waiting for me. And she was so polite. Uh, I know from, you know, Japanese culture that, uh,

People tend to not show annoyance too much. She may have been really annoyed with me, but it's very common not to show it too much. Maybe it's similar in the UK as well to some degree. There may be some similarity there between the cultures. But yeah, we did have a chat. We got a coffee and we exchanged a bit. But because I felt so bad about it,

I feel like it went really badly because it was just, I felt quite awkward and I wasn't, I wondered if she was really annoyed at me. And yeah, in hindsight, which means looking back on the moment today, she must have been annoyed. Like she didn't show it. She was very graceful and polite, but there's no way she wasn't annoyed. I was very stupid and I turned up very late because of my own mistakes. I just wasn't thinking. And yeah, we never met again. It just...

maybe she was annoyed and I felt awkward we just never spoke after that so if you're listening I really do apologize that's something I feel so guilty about and I could say I'm ever so sorry this is a really nice slightly more sincere way to apologize I am ever so sorry ever so sorry I'm ever so sorry for being late

Or similar, I'm terribly sorry. I am terribly, terribly sorry for leaving you waiting here so long. I'm ever so sorry. I think that would be a good one for that situation.

But yeah, let me know if I really did mess up in that situation. I fear that I did. I think we can also use the word forgive in a similar way to say that we're sorry. We're asking for forgiveness. Like, please don't be mad at me. Another example, when I went to Taiwan last month, I went to an Airbnb, like a guest house kind of place. And when I checked in on my own,

I got my dirty clothes and I used my own detergent and I washed my clothes using the washing machine there. And then again, long story short, I realised that it was not a public washing machine. I was using their private washing machine. So I...

I felt really guilty. I felt really bad. And I just said, well, I wrote it in Chinese, I suppose. But if it were in English, it would be like, please forgive me for using your washing machine. I didn't realise my mistake. Please forgive me for doing something. Yeah, please forgive me for doing this. So that's a great phrase to use as well. Although...

Again, in hindsight, I don't feel too guilty about it because later when I checked the listing on the website, there was a picture of the washing machine on the listing of this guest house.

So it was their private washing machine. But I kind of feel like if you're going to include a picture, you know, on the website of a washing machine, it kind of implies that it's usable. It's for guest use as well. So once I realized that, I kind of stopped feeling guilty. Like if you don't want guests to use it, then don't include a picture on the website. So at this point, I'm kind of annoyed at them because I felt so guilty and so bad and so apologetic at the time.

and I'm annoyed at them because I didn't need to feel that way in my opinion. So in this case, I don't feel guilty anymore. I just feel a little bit annoyed. I feel annoyed that I felt guilty, which is a bit weird. But anyway, there's that one. Let's just move right ahead now to the final level. Let's get a little bit more sincere for when we do really stupid things.

You may know that I'm quite into health. I try to be as healthy as I can, failing sometimes, but I try my best. And one of the things that I do is I avoid alcohol. I spent a long time or a lot of time in my younger days drinking a lot of alcohol. It's very common in the UK. It's part of

growing up, I think, to get very drunk, which is a whole other problem. It's a whole other discussion, but it's very common, sadly, in the UK. And I also partook. Partook means I joined in with that culture.

And of course, when you're drunk, you do a lot of stupid things. And this is one of the things that I really love about being sober, about not drinking alcohol anymore, is you don't have to apologise for stupid things you did when you're drunk. So in my, you know, when I was about 20 years old, I would go out with my friends, get drunk,

do some really stupid things or say some things that maybe hurt people's feelings that I really didn't mean. But maybe, you know, when you're drunk, you maybe do things to impress people or to show off. Well, you just you say things that you don't really mean, I guess, just to get attention. I don't really know why. So for whatever reason, I would do stuff like that. And the next day when I was coming back to my normal self, I'd have to think about all the things I did.

And some days there would be times where I'd have to apologise. There are a few moments where I'd have to text someone or see someone in person and say, I feel deeply apologetic for my behaviour last night. I hope you can forgive me for what I did. And that's not a good feeling to do that. But of course, apologising is important if we make these mistakes. So yes, the phrase I used was the adjective form, which is apologetic behaviour.

So I feel apologetic, and we can use this word deeply if we want to. I feel deeply apologetic about what happened or for what happened.

I think maybe about would be better with this adjective. I feel apologetic about this situation is a good one to use. If you have any drunken stories to share, you're welcome to share them as well. I think we'll do one more now. I don't want to take too much time and give you too many apologies today. That might be annoying. So sorry.

But let's go way back into the past to my days in primary school. This is below the age of about 11, I think, in the UK. And maybe I was like six or seven years old. And I had a really good close friend at the time. We did everything together.

And also in primary school, each student had a drawer for themselves. And it was, you know, inside the drawer would go their homework, textbooks, pencils, all that kind of stuff that they needed for schoolwork. And it would be a nice way to organize the kids work and homework and stuff like that.

And one day, I don't quite know why, you know, I was quite a naughty boy in those days. I misbehaved a lot in school, maybe because I didn't like school. So I was always misbehaving and being naughty and getting told off by the teacher. And one day I sharpened my pencil. So you might know if you sharpen a pencil...

you use a pencil sharpener and it creates small pieces of wood that you have to put in the bin, you know. And these can be called pencil shavings, pencil shavings. So I sharpened a lot of my pencils. I had lots of pencil shavings. And for some reason, I've no idea why, I put these pencil shavings in the drawer of my best friend, uh,

Again, it's just the mind of a child. I don't know what I was thinking, but I felt really bad about this when I was caught. I don't know how they found out, but the teacher knew somehow. And my friend was very upset about this and I had to apologise. And if it happened today, I would say to him, I'd like to apologise for leaving pencil shavings in your drawer.

So the phrase I used there was 'I'd' or 'I would'. 'I would like to apologise for doing something'. 'I would like to apologise for leaving pencil shavings in your drawer'. That's just a great structure to use there in that sentence. Just one bonus thing here, we can also use words like 'really', 'truly' or 'sincerely'.

These just show how strong you feel. I'd like to truly apologise. I deeply apologise. I sincerely apologise. This is like the highest level, really big stuff that you feel very bad for. Okay, so I did apologise to my friend. Don't remember how. It was, you know, 25 years ago. But yeah, that was a bit of a stupid thing that I did. Don't know why I did it, really.

Obviously, I feel guilty because all these years later, I still remember about that stupid thing. So there we have it. There's just a few stupid things I've done that I feel guilty for. They might stay with me forever. Okay, maybe they're not the biggest things, but...

We all have these things that stick in our minds for some reason. And yeah, please feel free to share your own. Make me feel less bad by sharing your own in the comments and pretend you're writing to the person you wronged. And you can use one of the phrases today to apologize to them. That would be good practice as well. And also, I would love to read your comments.

apologies in the comments. So I think just to summarise before we end the topic is many cultures around the world may say sorry less than in the British culture. So you might have to get used to saying sorry much more. You might say sorry much more than you feel is comfortable for you. And I think that's a really important thing to remember. So basically, sorry is

doesn't mean that you did something wrong. So get rid of that idea that sorry is admitting fault. It can be, but as we've spoke about today, there are many ways and many, many reasons to say sorry. So it's a really good word to use. It doesn't mean that you're wrong. That's the first step to understand.

Also, we say it to anyone. So there's some cultures I know where in certain positions you have to be kind of less formal maybe or less apologetic. For example, staff in a restaurant, you might think, well, they're getting paid to help me. So I don't need to say sorry or please or thank you. Maybe not, but at least in British culture or probably all cultures that speak English, I guess,

it's very important to treat them the same as a stranger. So I would say, "Sorry, can you help me?" to a stranger, but also in a restaurant, "Sorry, can I see the menu?" As we said, you would treat them the same. So that's another point to mention. Yeah, maybe same in your culture, but I just, I think it's good to mention that anyway. Okay, let's just say a quick thank you now. I wanna talk to Luke.

My good friend Luke, who left a very nice audio message. So let's listen to this audio message and see you afterwards. Hello, Michael. I'm Luke from Japan and 20 years old. Thank you for your wonderful podcast every time. Whenever I go to my university, I always listen to your podcast. Thanks to your support, I have improved my English from A1 level to B2 level.

It helps me not only broaden my curiosities but also improve my English too. My speaking is still bad, but I'll keep mimicking your speaking. I hope you are healthy today and you will keep doing podcasts. Have a nice day. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Luke from Japan. That was so kind of you. I really appreciate you taking the time to leave that really well-spoken message. It's amazing that you've already made that progress to B2, still at a fairly young age as well, still just going into university. So really, really encouraging to hear that. I'm

so super happy that you like the podcast as well and hopefully you'll stick with us through our in future episodes but yeah thank you once again luke and yeah big uh good luck and encouragement and gambate for our future what can i say your future english studies as well so yeah thank you once again

If you want to leave an audio message just like Luke did today, you can go to the website, which is levelupenglish.school slash podcast. Or just click on the button at the top that says podcast. And then further down the page, there'll be an option to either leave an audio message or a written message.

But of course, audio messages are much nicer to play on the podcast. So that would be really appreciated if you wanted to say hi or maybe ask a question as well. I also want to say one more thank you. And I think this actually might also be from Japan. They didn't say, but I'm just guessing from their name. This is a review on Apple Podcasts from Minami-san.

who said, I'm not usually a big fan of podcasts, but Michael's gentle and friendly tone has made his show a regular part of my routine. I love the topics he chooses, self-growth, compassion, appreciating nature, curiosity, time management, emotional management, etc.,

Not only do I learn new vocabulary, but I also gain insights into these areas, which I really appreciate. I've been a loyal listener for some time now, and I look forward to many more episodes. Thank you, Michael. I aspire to speak English as naturally, gently, and softly as you do.

Well, again, super kind. Thank you, Mainami-san. Really appreciate that. I would recommend you to aspire higher than me. You can speak better than me. Don't use me as an example, but thank you all the same. Yeah, it's amazing to hear how you've been listening for a while, I guess, and obviously getting something from the show. So thank you so, so much. That's from Apple Podcasts. So yeah, that's really nice.

I think we'll just go to a quote now, a nice quote about apologising from Lynn Johnston, who said, "'An apology is the superglue of life. It can just about repair anything.'" I think I might change this, honestly. Maybe not life, you can't repair a house with an apology, but maybe an apology is the superglue of relationships, right? It can repair anything in a relationship, perhaps.

There's a lot of power behind an apology and saying sorry. And hopefully you have, you know, got a sense of that power in English today. But yeah, thank you so, so much for watching or listening. Sorry for taking up your time. And I'll see you in the next one. Goodbye, everyone.

You have been listening to the Level Up English podcast. If you would like to leave a question to be answered on a future episode, then please go to levelupenglish.school forward slash podcast. That's levelupenglish.school slash podcast. And I'll answer your question on a future episode. Thanks for listening.