Japanese Has a Phrase That Literally Means I Am About to Be Rude. You Say It First, and Then It's the Politest Thing in the Room.
To say Excuse me. in Japanese, say 失礼します (shitsurei shimasu).
Japanese has a phrase that literally means I'm about to be rude. You say it before you're rude, and then somehow it isn't rude at all.
In this video
- 失礼します。 shitsurei shimasu Excuse me.
- 前を失礼します。 mae o shitsurei shimasu Excuse me, just squeezing past you.
Why this phrase
The gap the all purpose sorry phrase can't cover. This is the line you say BEFORE you intrude: stepping into a room, reaching across someone, squeezing past a seated person, leaving a shop. Three concrete moments, one phrase. Accuracy guardrails from the verifier, keep these: the literal reading is lose plus courtesy, so frame I am about to be rude as the LITERAL kanji gloss and say plainly that nobody hears it that way, it lands as considerate. The set phrase for passing in front of a seated person is the front version, not the announcing you are walking past version, which is flat narration. Keep it warm and useful, not a lecture on manners.
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