Say "thank you" instead of "sorry."

(This is written basically for English-speaking people in Japan, but Japanese people learning English are welcome too)

Are you an English teacher?

Greetings are what any language learner first try to learn, but it is not easy to learn them. You can't translate one country's greetings into another language because they reflect the country's culture.

If you have lived in Japan, you are supposed to know the greeting "sumimasen（すみません）" (If you didn't know it, learn now!). Probably, you have thought that "sumimasen" equals to "excuse me." This is not accurate.

First, "sumimasen" means both "sorry" and "excuse me." What's the difference of these two. Basically, "excuse me" should be used for an action that is going to happen. Let me give you an example.

Excuse me, but could you tell me the way to the station?

The right moment you said "excuse me" above, you haven't asked somebody to tell you how to get to the station. That is why you are using "excuse me." Instead, "sorry" tends to use when you want to applogize for what you have already done.

I'm very sorry. I did mean to hurt you.

You may want to say, "Sorry?" could be used when you didn't understand what you just heard. But, this is exception. And for the situation, "Excuse me?" "What did you say?" "(Could you) say that again?" "Pardon (me)?" would be more common in the US, I guess.

BTW, if you are teachers of English as a Foreign Language, you may want to teach your advanced student the difference of intonation between these two:

Say that again?

You can say that again. (means "I'll say.")

You need to put strong stress on "that" for the latter.

Let's get back to "sumimasen." It has another usage. Imagine you have dropped something, and the person next to you picks it up and gives it to you. Then, what are you going to say? "Thank you," right? But, you could use "sumimasen" for this situation.

However, I don't recommend that you allow Japanese people to say "sorry" when you did something good for them. This is what I believe. First, people will be pleased more when you are said "thank you" or "You're kind" than "sorry." Second, Since Japanese people use "sumimasen" in their daily life too often, they tend to applogize too much. This custom is making some of the Japanese think that it will be perfectly okay and don't have to do anything for making up for what you have done if you just say "sorry."

This went realy long despite the fact that I explained only one Japanese greeting, which is "sumimasen." But, you may want to know that greetings are as important and difficult as they require me to say this much.