Bataineh, R: Apologies

This study is an investigation of the differences between the apology strategies used by Jordanians and Americans. The researcher has used two tests, the first ed by Sugimoto (1997) in her study of the differences of the apology strategies used in Japan and the USA, and the second ed by the researcher herself from scenarios suggested by students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA, and both Yarmouk University and Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan. Not only has the researcher found differences between the Americans‘ and Jordanians‘ use of apologies, she has also detected differences related to the variable of gender within the same culture. The main differences she found lie in the facts that Jordanians used more types of the statement of remorse, used the strategy of promising not to repeat offense more than compensation in order to talk their way out of the offense, and invoked Allah‘s (God‘s) name and used proverbs and sayings when trying to apologize; Americans used more compensation, and tended to blame others as well as themselves when trying to apologize for the committed offense.