Immigration: American Friend

Nine Times Dept: Nine times out of 10, when I've heard "I'm sorry" uttered in a foreign country, and here where I live in the U.S. , and I say, "You must be Canadian," I've been told, "How did you know?", according to Montreal Gazette. This cracked Granville up. "Why," he asked me, "are Canadians always saying they're sorry -especially when they haven't done anything to be sorry for?" Canadian politeness is so notorious, it's practically our international greeting, our very own version of "shalom." My American friend Granville Van Dusen loves to tell this story: A few years ago, he was employed for a time in Winnipeg. One day, anxious to get upstairs to his apartment after returning home from work, he rushed the elevator as the doors opened, and bumped into the man coming out. The man said, "I'm sorry." To which Granville replied, "No, it was my fault, I'm the one who should say 'I'm sorry.'" The man replied: "Oh. I'm sorry." As reported in the news.
@t van dusen, politeness