How to use "shy, embarrassed and ashamed"?

[Lehrer Kathy]

I'm a teacher and I have a question on how to use "shy, embarrassed and ashamed". It seems that the book I read confused me of what I learned and how I've used them in the past. Kindly help me on this...

Thanks,
Kathy

[NinaZara]

How about considering these sentences:

1. Japanese men are very shy around girls.

2. I mistook the new professor as one of the boys in my class and started talking to him casually only to later discover that he was about to give out the lecture. I was so embarrassed!

3. You should be ashamed of yourself for ruining the little girl's hope.

Nina

[Yankee]

Hi Kathy

It would also be helpful if you posted some of the sentences that you find confusing. That way your question could be addressed more specifically.

Amy

[Jamie (K)]

We say shy when someone is afraid to talk or interact with others, such as when small children hide or stick close to their parents when company comes over, and don't want to say hello to the guests or even look at them. A boy who is shy around girls is afraid to look them in the eye or talk directly to them.

Embarrassment is sort of difficult to explain. Sometimes it's a feeling of humiliation, as when someone is embarrassed at having been heard saying something stupid, or wearing inappropriate clothes to some special occasion. Some women are embarrassed if they go to a party and find another woman wearing the same dress. Sometimes the embarrassed person hasn't done anything to feel humiliated about, but they're embarrassed for someone who should be embarrassed himself but isn't. For example, if we hear someone really put his whole heart a singing performance without knowing he's a really terrible singer, we might be embarrassed for him. I'm often embarrassed when I see or hear some kind of bad kitsch, such as a terrible Broadway show tune or a silly poem that someone was very serious about when he wrote it.

Sometimes being embarrassed means you just have some sort of strong emotion that you don't know what to do with. A 10-year-old boy might find out some girl in his class is in love with him, and he might actually be happy about it, but he doesn't know what to do with that happiness in front of the other kids, so he gets embarrassed. Maybe his face will turn red.

Being ashamed means that someone feels humiliated because he has done something wrong and knows it. I know a lady who is now ashamed that she often drove drunk when she was in her 20s. She knows it was wrong, and she knew it was wrong then, but she did it anyway. Now, in her 50s, she feels humiliated when she thinks about this.

There's another word you need to know, which is "self-conscious". This has no equivalent in most European languages. The best explanation of it I've seen is "having the unpleasant feeling of being the center of attention." Don't confuse it with the word "self-confident", which is something completely different.