A break with hot green tea and...
a nice conversation on the use of sumimasen.
In Japanese language, sumimasen (often shortened to suimasen) is a word useful for an incredible variety of situations. Beside being mainly used for expressing apology, sumimasen is also used in order to attract attention and thanking someone.
Let's briefly summarize together some of the different uses of sumimasen.
(1) If you have made something wrong, well, a good doumo sumimasen and a polite bow are the right way in a wide range of situations.
(2) If someone handles you some gift or helps you with something you may reply with a nice doumo sumimasen.
(3) If you want to attract someone's attention, you may use anou sumimasen.
(4) if you want to kindly refuse an invitation or something similar, well, sumimasen is surely the word you are looking for.
