Across cultures: Saying sorry Ask and answer the questions. 1 How many emails, texts and phone calls do you get every day? 2 What presents did you get for your last birthday? 3 Where’s the best place to get good coffee? get = travel, arrive In which sentences does get mean arrive? In which sentences does it mean travel on? 1 You can get the number forty-three bus. 3 If we have too much luggage, we get a taxi. 2 Can we talk when I get home? 4 It’s a bit difficult to get there by public transport. Talk in pairs. How do you get to: ■■ your doctor? ■■ the cinema? ■■ the public swimming pool? ■■ your favourite relative? What is the first thing you do when you get to school or get home after school? 35 36 37 38 The word sorry has a lot of different uses in English. Match pictures A–E with situations 1–5. You can use sorry when: 1 you want to apologise. 2 you don’t understand or can’t hear someone. 3 you ask for information from people you don’t know. 4 you want to complain about something. 5 you give bad news. Read what people from different countries say about saying sorry, and discuss the questions 1–3 in pairs. 1 Does your language have one word for saying sorry, or different words for different situations? 2 Do you think people apologise a lot in your country? What about other countries you know? 3 What do you say in situations A–D above? 39 A B C D E Sorry, but there´s a problem with my shower. Sorry, is this the train to Bristol? Oh, I’m sorry! Sorry? I’m very sorry, your card’s not working. 40 In Spain, you use different words to say sorry. When you can’t hear something, you say perdón? Or qué? When you want to complain, you say lo lamento or discúlpame or lo siento. (Manuel) In Switzerland, the word for sorry is Entschuldigung, but if we can’t hear someone, we don’t normally say sorry, we just say was? Uh? (Nathalie) In Britain, people apologise a lot. When you bump into someone, or when someone bumps into you, both people usually say sorry. (Matthew) In Sudan, if you are not happy about something, you just complain about it, you don’t say sorry. (Khalid) A B C D 103 Language skills Extras Explore 8 Getting around Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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