It seems that us Brits have stretched the word “sorry” to an extent that it has now lost all meaning. According to a recent survey, on average we say the word “Sorry!” more than 8 times a day, not for things we are genuinely sorry for... but have now adapted to say the word for pretty much anything and for things which aren’t even our fault!
The survey goes on to say that through our lifetime we shall now use the word “Sorry” in passing conversation over 2.3 million times and over 2,920 times per year. We all have now started to use the word “sorry” instead of the simple phrases “excuse me” or “pardon” resulting in the word “sorry” loosing all sincerity.
Straight talking US life coach Nancy Baldwin told the Daily Express that we are all in danger of “turning into a nation of soft-peddlers lacking confidence to say what we mean.” She then went onto say just how much the UK needs to learn how to be assertive. MS Baldwin is running brashness classes for those people who find themselves constantly apologising for no reason.
Ms Baldwin went onto say:
“It is not rude to be assertive and say what you mean and if you are tired of being an over-apologetic Brit and want to be no-nonsense like us New Yorkers then I can give you a lesson in brash.
“I want to show Brits how to tell their boss they need a pay rise, or demand their flatmate cleans up after themselves. And put a stop to unnecessary ‘sorrys’ to the man who steps on your feet on the Tube.
You should be able to look others straight in the eye and leave them in no doubt what you are thinking.”
The survey revealed that one in eight people admitted to apologising over 20 times per day The research, by the New York Bakery Co, revealed that the apology is often used as a response to someone else's mistake – 43 per cent admitted apologising to a person who knocked them and 17 per cent say sorry when someone else treads on their toes.
What a bunch of wussies and light weights we all are! In my life interest, as I know if I want to pursue my career any further, to put no finer point on it, I need to be abrupt, brash and straight to the point. Though actually, I consider myself to be like that already... in the right sense of course. There is that line between brash and rude and I think to some the thought of someone being brash, they see as pure arrogance. The fact is we are all different, some people prefer to float in the background and become a wallflower, where as some are the more outgoing type who don’t sit on the fence... I for one am the latter. I do use the word “sorry” sometimes if I have misheard somebody, which has now become a bit of a habit instead of using the term “pardon” but the fact remains, if we all overuse it, it looses all meaning. If people are trying to save their relationships from break ups for example with more than likely the bloke doing all the apologising on bended needs saying “Sorry!” it can come across either fake, false or desperate... it’s a dangerous word such as “Love” you cannot overuse them, dangerous territory. They don’t have a dictionary definition for nothing you know!
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