My Japanese instructor apologized to us today

I really respect her, and want to know what I should say If I were to email her back? Should I just accept it and not reply, or should I say something? Because the mistake she made wasn't something that needed and apology ( she said we needed to memorize more characters for a quiz than we actually needed to).

lawsonsan,

I think she (or you) were just lost in translation. I don't think anyone can give you advise with such little information.

Maybe you can just ask her, "Why apologize?" the next time you see her.

Just let it go.. making something of it just makes more of a mountain out of a molehill...

and btw.. as I'm sure you know, since you're studying Japanese, one never refers to oneself as 'san' so calling yourself Lawsonsan is a big no-no

Often you will find that Japanese traditional cultured people apologize- instinctively-with a polite nature rather than offend.

I noticed a friend who apologized instantly, breaking our conversation, when something fell and we were in another friend's house. I asked her why-- and she replied puzzled faced- she was unaware she had done so automatically.

This really sounds like a non-situation.

Her "apology" is just the way that she has been culturally trained to convey that she inadvertantly provided you (her students) with the wrong information, and wants to correct it. While an American professor might write, "Ignore the syllabus for this week. You only need to study 20 kanji for the next quiz, not 50," using similar phrasing in Japanese might seem abrupt and impolite, and evading responsibility for the fact that the teacher made an error. (The teacher is expected to be much more capable and responsible than his or her students, and so an error is a "serious" thing. Not "stomach-slitting" serious, but serious enough that the teacher needs to take responsibility or else possibly lose respect in the eyes of the students.)

A teacher writing such a message to his/her students is probably going to use polite, somewhat formal speech, and certain stylized patterns. (Obviously, different teachers will take different approaches, I'm just trying to explain what is likely going on in this case.) In Japanese, if one party has conveyed incorrect information to another, framing the corrected information with stylistic phrasing that translates as apologetic is simply how one acknowledges that they made an error and that their error has conceivably caused the other party some inconvenience (or whatever you want to call staying up until 3:00 a.m studying 50 kanji unnecessarily).

The apologetic phrasing in this case does not convey true "remorse" like we think of it in English, at least not any more than a corporate automated phone system's "Your call is very important to us" is felt to be a sincere expression of appreciation by callers who have been on hold for 20 minutes. Rather than remorse, it is more of an acknowledgement that she made a mistake and of course will not reat that mistake in the future. Believe me, though, she won't be losing sleep over whether her students will accept her apology or not. (But please understand, I don't mean that she is being insincere about the apology, either.)

In short, your teacher is not thinking of the e-mail as an apology. It was a correction of erroneous information couched in apologetic phrasing that is frequently used as a social lubricant in Japan.

Writing your teacher back with a note to the effect of "You don't need to apologize for that" will likely strike an odd chord with the teacher, and will be cultrually tone deaf. At the most, you should acknowledge that you received the e-mail by thanking her for the corrected information. If you *really* want to go overboard in a Japanese way, you can express your thanks for her tutelage and how it has inspired you to redouble your efforts to master all of the kanji for the quiz to perfection.