Apologizing in Turkish and Korean: A Cross-cultural Study

Abstract

This study investigates the apology strategies of native speakers of Turkish (NTR) and native speakers of Korean (NKR) in varying social situations in terms of social distance, social dominance and the severity of the offense. The study further aims at examining the similarities and differences in the apology strategies of NTR and NKR. The data of the study are collected through the use of a written discourse completion test (DCT) which consists of sixteen situations, twelve of which include different social situations and four of which include filler situations to prevent the participants from giving automatic answers. The analysis of the findings is done manually, and the apologies of the speakers are coded. The apology taxonomy of Hatipoğlu (2012) which is the modified version of the apology strategies of Cohen & Olshtain (1983) is adapted and used for the coding of the data. Later, the percentages of the apology strategies used by NTR and NKR are calculated for running descriptive statistics of the findings. The study tries to explain the differences and similarities of the apology strategies in the light of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (1981, 2001) and Politeness Theory (1987). The results of the study reveal that both speaker groups use explicit expression of apology commonly, however it was also observed that NKR use the strategy of explanation only when the addressee is in a hierarchically equal or lower position.