Cheers!
Friday, March 9th, 2007My girlfriend was writing a simple SMS for business. She often shows me the message before she sends it to make sure if the English is ok. It was something like:
“Ok, thanks. See you on the 15th. ”
This was the last message of the SMS ‘conversation’. I guess for this reason, she felt like it was missing a little something.
“How do I write 「よろしくおねがいします」 in English?” she asked. ‘Whoa,’ I thought. How do I explain that the small island nation that she comes from is unique in the world with its layers of formality, unbroken dynasty, and turbulent history? How could I tell her how unique those 11 short syllables were in the linguistic pantheon of the world? How could I get that across in 5 seconds or less?
I told her that we didn’t a word for it.
“Yes, there is something in English that has the same meaning, I just can’t remember it,” she said.
“I’m telling you, there is equivalent in English. Just like 「がんばって」, 「やっぱり」, and 「わくわく」.”
“Well in Korean, we say ㅂㅈㄷㄱ1. I’m sure there is a word for it in English.”
Anyway, she sent the SMS without the English word for 「よろしくおねがいします」. I can’t help thinking about it though.
It felt so strange though, Ｉ spend so much time finding the meaning of words, my brain seemed to freeze at the translation for 「よろしくおねがいします」. I know this word, but all my mental dictionary kept throwing up was the blue screen of death. It’s peculiar to know that a word, a certain feeling has no corresponding word in the entire English language.
Maybe we can make up a new English word, that means 「よろしく」.
The closest word I could think of to 「よろしくおねがいします」 is the slangy ‘cheers’. Where I come from, ‘cheers’ is not only a word you say when you drink a toast, but also a word that you say for ‘thankyou’, even when someone hasn’t given you something. Not quite the same as 「よろしくおねがいします」 but the closest word I can think of.
Maybe we can just import 「よろしく」 into English as is. My last post talked about Japanese words in common usage in English, maybe we could add 「よろしく」 to the list.
We could shorten it a bit (actually a very Japanese thing to do).
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post.
Yo-rosh.
1Obviously this isn’t what she said; I just can’t type Korean. すみません、ビキーさん。
Posted by Max in Max in Shanghai |
March 9th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
Have you tried:
Thanks in advance?
mikuji
March 10th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Max,
Just to tell you — I really enjoy your Blog a lot! You always have something interesting and/or funny to say and, like so many of us, you examine language concepts in a fresh, new way!! Keep it up (that’s the same as Ganbatte, isn’t it?)
March 10th, 2007 at 11:34 am
I know what you feel, been there ^^
I don’t remember how many times I was asked how we say that in french. The same for other words and expressions.
I was 6 yrs old when we moved from Japan to France, and when I was living at my parents’, we used to tell each other ただいま, おかえり, いただきます, even with my mother who is French. When friends of mine were asking me the meaning of those, I had hard times trying to explain why in japanese we say things that french language (and as far as I know, english too) doesn’t even think necessary to create words to say them.
Anyway, that’s funny after all.
I really enjoy this blog and japanesepod101.com podcast as well. hope it will continue…
Sorry for my weird english, and have a nice day.
March 12th, 2007 at 11:24 am
I think that “Thanks in advance” does work well in that context. But, it would be odd in a lot of other situations.
Just like at the start of class when all the kids stand up and say おねがいします.
But… isn’t it よろしく rather than ゆろしく ?
March 16th, 2007 at 3:05 am
I like to use ‘best wishes’ in email communications,
and a warm handshake in face-to-face meetings.
March 30th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
Just the other day, Aika was having a conversation with a Chinese friend in the other room when she popped her head around the corner and asked,
“Max, how do we say ‘yappari’ in English?”
I hesitated, and she immediately got the message!
August 3rd, 2007 at 3:46 pm
some words is miss. -v-
December 11th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
There is no direct equivalent in English for ‘よろしくおねがいします’ (Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu) but in English written communications, it is common to use: ‘Best Regards’ or ‘Kind regards’ or even ‘Yours faithfully’. I like to use ‘Warm regards’.
As for ‘やっぱり’ | (Yappari) whenever I say that, I think of the words: ‘Just as I thought!’
Tony