(no subject)

[numberoneblind]

today -- an impromptu trip to Chicago avec la famille. so easy to forget that it's only an hour and a half away. navy pier (only because I'd never been there, somehow), and bookstore, and shopping, and food, and a bit more shopping, and back. and lots of photography throughout because I am like that.

and tomorrow? back to college. what? ew. don't wannaaaa.

how is it that the English language lacks a non-awkward way to accept an apology? because "it's okay" is the natural response for me, but that implies that the action being apologised for required no apology and what if that's not the case? but "I forgive you" sounds so fucking pompous and condescending. and "don't worry about it" is a brushoff and "apology accepted" is the same plus condescension. in the however-many years the English language has been around, and with as much apologising as people do, how is it that no un-awkward way of responding to an apology has developed? mind you, part of it is the connotations things develop -- for example, there's no linguistic reason that "I forgive you" is pompous, really, but it's got such heavy connotations of such that you can't use it. I don't know. Stupid language. I wonder if other languages have this problem.

that was babbly. sleep now.

Comments

[dreamfilleddays.livejournal.com]

There's the same problem with "thank you" though, if you think about it. "You're welcome" is too pompous, and something like "no problem" seems too informal and like a brushoff.

[numberoneblind.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's true...

[kirideth.livejournal.com]

I would think that ideally, context would make it clear that even though you're saying "it's okay" to accept the apology, the action really wasn't okay. Most languages that I'm familiar with will have a general apology-accepting phrase and rely on vocal intonations to express what you really think about what happened.

On the other hand, a conversation that goes something like "I'm sorry I shot you in the face." "Oh, that's allright." seems rather comical.

I wonder if a "don't worry about it" may be more appropriate?

[numberoneblind.livejournal.com]

True... although when the apology occurs over IM, the vocal-intonations thing doesn't work as well. Which is why the inaccuracy of language was bothering me so much, heh.