How do you say 「元気そうですね」 in English? If your answer uses the word "fine", then you are making a common mistake.

When you started learning English, maybe you learned a basic conversation like this:

John: Hi. How are you?
Suzy: I'm fine. And you?

It might have been translated a little bit like this:

John:　おはようございます。お元気ですか？
Suzy:　元気です。ジョンさんはお元気ですか？

A lot of people think that 「元気」 is always "fine". This is only sometimes true. Remember that jumping to conclusions like that is a trap in learning languages.

Quite often, when I ask my students about why they are learning English, I get an answer something like this:

"I want to brush up my English skill."

It's a nice idiom, "brush up (on)", and it is a very common thing for Japanese people to say. However, I think that a lot of people are misusing it a little.

Some things happen while you are travelling that cause you hassle. When I was staying in Tokyo at one time, I washed my passport in the pocket of my jeans. The very efficient Japanese washing machine reduced my passport to some soggy lumps of paper. So I had to go to the New Zealand Embassy and the Japanese Immigration Department to get an Emergency Travel Document so that I could come home.

Sorry: Image by PoligoHow do you say 「遅れてごめん」 in English?

1. "I'm sorry to be late";
2. "I'm sorry for being late"; or
3. "I'm sorry I am late".