| This study is an investigation of the differences between the apology strategies used by Jordanians and Americans. The researcher has used two tests to get her data, the first designed by Sugimoto (1997) in her study of the differences of the apology strategies used in Japan and the USA, and the second designed by this researcher from scenarios she got from students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, USA, and both Yarmouk University and Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan. The sample of the study consists of 100 (50 females and 50 males) students from each culture for each test (n = 400 students).; 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 between the two cultures' use of apology strategies 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 on the other hand used more compensation, and tended to blame others as well as themselves when trying to apologize for the committed offense.; Jordanian females and males used different apology strategies. Males used more types of the statement of remorse while females used less non-apology strategies and assigned the blame to themselves more than others, to name a few differences. American females tended to apologize more than males and thus used the statement of remorse more than males did; females also used less non-apology strategies and more apology strategies than males. |
