Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Patrick Woodward.
Speaker 2: And I'm Megan Nolette. Spotlight uses a special English method
Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
Speaker 1: I am sorry. This phrase is one of the most
Speaker 1: powerful phrases in the English language. It's something that is
Speaker 1: often difficult to say. Saying I am sorry means that
Speaker 1: you regret something you did or said. Saying I am
Speaker 1: sorry is a kind of apology. It's a way to
Speaker 1: admit that you were wrong. Today's Spotlight is on the
Speaker 1: power of apology.
Speaker 2: On the streets of Nalanda, India, a man sits wearing
Speaker 2: very dirty clothes. His clothes are made from old cloth bags.
Speaker 2: Old shoes hang around his neck. His name is Shayam
Speaker 2: Narayan Sharma. He has a dark past. Years ago, he
Speaker 2: admitted to the murders of sixteen people.
Speaker 1: As a young man, Sharma worked as an assassin, a
Speaker 1: person who kills other people for money. He was fifteen
Speaker 1: years old when he killed his first person, but this
Speaker 1: was not his only crime. In nineteen eighty six, he
Speaker 1: stole a child. He asked the parents to pay him money,
Speaker 1: then he would return the child, but After three weeks
Speaker 1: holding the child, Sharma let the child go. He said
Speaker 1: he felt sad for the child. The story became famous,
Speaker 1: but the police never caught him.
Speaker 2: Sharma also owned a factory. Like many people in Nalanda,
Speaker 2: he made guns. Making these guns was illegal, but it
Speaker 2: made Sharma a lot of money.
Speaker 1: But after years of crime, Sharma went to the police.
Speaker 1: He admitted his crimes. The police put Sharma in prison
Speaker 1: for a few years, but when he was released, Sharma
Speaker 1: went back to a life of crime. He went back
Speaker 1: to the police again in nineteen ninety five and finally
Speaker 1: again in two thousand.
Speaker 2: During his time in prison, Sharma read many books. These
Speaker 2: books changed his life. Some of the books were religious
Speaker 2: books like the Christian Bible. Sharma says that these books
Speaker 2: changed the way he looked at life. He started teaching
Speaker 2: other prisoners how to read. He then changed his name
Speaker 2: to Daya Sagar. This new name means ocean of sadness
Speaker 2: and caring.
Speaker 1: After four years in prison, he was permitted to leave,
Speaker 1: but Dia Saga would not leave the prison unless the
Speaker 1: police promised to keep teaching the other prisoners how to read.
Speaker 1: The guards had to force Diasaga to leave the.
Speaker 2: Prison After prison, Diasagar sold his home. He used the
Speaker 2: money to start a school for poor children. He called
Speaker 2: the school Naisuba, which means New Morning. Diasagar teaches sixty
Speaker 2: children from the village. He does this for free.
Speaker 1: At the beginning of this program, we described Diasaga's strange
Speaker 1: clothing clothes made from cloth bags with shoes around his neck.
Speaker 1: His strange clothes are away for him to recognize his
Speaker 1: crimes and ask forgiveness. The school and his clothes are
Speaker 1: away for Diasaga to apologize.
Speaker 2: Diasagar apologized for all the bad things that he did,
Speaker 2: but can a person apologize for things that other people did? Well?
Speaker 2: In the year two thousand, Pope John Paul did just that.
Speaker 1: The Catholic Church has existed for more than a thousand years.
Speaker 1: In this time, the Church has done many great things,
Speaker 1: but in his apology, the Pope said that the Church
Speaker 1: has also hurt people. Church policy has caused division and suffering.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people have died as a result.
Speaker 2: So the Pope apologized. He apologized to several special groups,
Speaker 2: including Jews, Gypsies, women, and native people. He apologized for
Speaker 2: the pain the church caused to people who were not Catholic.
Speaker 2: He apologized for many historical events.
Speaker 1: The pope even apologized to Galileo. Galileo was a scientist
Speaker 1: in the seventeenth century. He was one of the first
Speaker 1: people to say that the earth moved around the sun.
Speaker 1: At this time, the church leaders did not believe this.
Speaker 1: They thought the sun moved round the earth, so the
Speaker 1: church put Galilea on trial and sent him to prison. Today,
Speaker 1: scientists and the church agree that the earth moves around
Speaker 1: the sun. Pope John Paul wanted to show the world
Speaker 1: that the Church cares about the truth. He wanted to
Speaker 1: show that any personal group can be wrong sometimes.
Speaker 2: Many church leaders were not sure if it was a
Speaker 2: good idea for the pope to do this. They thought
Speaker 2: that the church should not admit that it was wrong.
Speaker 2: They believed that people would not trust them, that it
Speaker 2: would take away from the church's authority. But the pope disagreed.
Speaker 2: He thought that it was important to apologize.
Speaker 1: Many doctors agree that apologizing is import and apologies are
Speaker 1: good for the giver and receiver. When a person receives
Speaker 1: an apology, they begin to feel emotional healing. Apologies help
Speaker 1: people move past anger. When a person does something wrong,
Speaker 1: they feel bad about it. This feeling can be emotionally damaging.
Speaker 1: Apologizing helps to heal these emotions. Apologizing shows that you
Speaker 1: respect the person you wronged. Apologizing also helps keep the
Speaker 1: person from doing that bad thing again.
Speaker 2: Is there something that you have done that you feel
Speaker 2: bad about? Is there a person who you have treated badly?
Speaker 2: Do you need to say I am sorry to someone?
Speaker 2: Here are five things you can do to have a
Speaker 2: successful apology.
Speaker 1: One make your apology real. Mean what you say. People
Speaker 1: can tell if you make responsibility for what you did
Speaker 1: or if you are lying.
Speaker 2: Two do not make excuses. An apology is not explaining
Speaker 2: why you did something, It is saying that you were
Speaker 2: wrong to do it.
Speaker 1: Three make a promise to change. A real apology shows
Speaker 1: that you've learned from what you did. Show that you
Speaker 1: mean what you say.
Speaker 2: Four make it clear that you are apologizing. Just saying
Speaker 2: I am sorry is not enough. Talk about what you
Speaker 2: did and then say that you feel bad about doing it.
Speaker 2: It is important that the person knows you are apologizing
Speaker 2: to them.
Speaker 1: Five. Be prepared for the unexpected. Sometimes an apology is
Speaker 1: followed by the other person apologizing. Relationships can be healed,
Speaker 1: friendships can be formed, but sometimes an apology does not
Speaker 1: solve all the problems. It may take time for the
Speaker 1: person to accept your apology. The person may stay angry
Speaker 1: with you. You never know how things will end, but
Speaker 1: an apology can usually help.
Speaker 2: Whom do you need to apologize to today?
Speaker 1: How have you apologized to those you have heard? What
Speaker 1: gives you hope that your apology can change a relationship?
Speaker 1: What happens if you apologize and the other person does
Speaker 1: not accept your apology. Tell us what you think. You
Speaker 1: can leave a comment on our website at www dot
Speaker 1: Spotlight English dot com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok,
Speaker 1: Blue Sky, and x. You can also get our programs
Speaker 1: delivered directly to your Android or Apple deevice through our
Speaker 1: free official Spotlight English app.
Speaker 2: The writer of this program was from the Spotlight team.
Speaker 2: The producer was Michio Ozaki. The voices you heard were
Speaker 2: from the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes
Speaker 2: were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. You
Speaker 2: can listen to this program again and read it on
Speaker 2: the internet at www dot Spotlight English dot com. This
Speaker 2: program is called The Power of Apology.
Speaker 1: We hope you can join us again for the next
Speaker 1: Spotlight program, Goodbye,