Shame! – A South African Custom
You hear people say ”shame” quite a bit in South Africa.  But it has nothing to do with a sense of sorrow (or shame!) – it’s all about expressing concern for the other person.Â
 ”Shame, I’m sorry to hear you are sick.”  ”Shame, that’s too bad you had that accident.” “Shame, I’m sorry to hear you are such a jerk.” (ok, that one may mean something else…).
I typically did a double take when someone said ”shame” to me – what did I do wrong? But soon I figured out that people were expressing true concern about some situation I was in. Now I do a double take when I hear the expression in the U.S. – shame!
What do you think? Click on the title above to make a comment  (Shame!-A South African Custom)…
Raymond Pechacek lives in the U.S. and is married to a wonderful South African lady (BG!). He writes about the people, customs, wildlife, and places of South Africa, runs a consulting firm to help companies improve their global trade processes, and imports products into the U.S. - with an emphasis on supporting South Africa!
September 12, 2009
Tags: shame Posted in: .First Time Here? Some Good Posts To Read, Culture and Customs
Pat on 
Alicia on 
One Response
Well, when I was growing up as a country boy in south Texas, it was fairly common for me to hear someone say, “That’s a shame, I’m sorry you are sick.”
If someone had a misfortune, and you wanted to show sincere concern, it was common to start the sentence with “That’s a shame”, or “It’s a shame”. Even now, when I revert to my “country talk” as Patsy calls it, I still use the phrase.