How to write formal Japanese emailsć»ę£å¼ćŖę„ę¬čŖć®ć”ć¼ć«ć®ęøćę¹
The nonprofit I work for recently gave all us interns a really informative talk on the protocol for writing profession emails in Japanese, so I thought Iād share what I learned with you guys! Just so you know, Iāll be using some advanced vocab (including ę¬čŖ) in this post and pretty much wonāt gloss any kanji. So if youāre feeling up to it, then letās go! č”ćć¾ćććļ¼
For some reason our presenter did this one last, but Iām going to put it at the beginning. As in English subject lines, be plain and mention the specific purpose of your email. I have temporarily lost SO many work emails due to inane or repeat subject lines. Include your last name in the subject line if you think itās necessary. Hereās a sample subject line for an internship application:
ć¤ć³ćæć¼ć³ć·ććē³ćč¾¼ćæļ¼XX大å¦ć»ļ¼»ååć»åå*ļ¼½ļ¼
Hereās one for the nonprofit I work for:
ćļ¼»éå¶å©å£ä½ļ¼½ćććććÆļ¼ļ¼ć³ććć¦ć¤ć«ć¹ļ¼11ę9ę„éå§ļ¼
Please donāt ask what I do hereā¦itās semi-ridiculous. (And I donāt even get paid.)
*If you have a Western name where your given name comes before your family name, itās more up to you which order you put them in and which one you use in general, especially if you donāt know if your Japanese recipient will be able to recognize which is which (or if youāre like me and your last name is nigh unpronounceable in kana). You might want to think about this on a case-by-case basis.
Usually the first thing you do in an English email is greet who youāre talking to. This is the same in Japanese. Hereās a basic template:
ę Ŗå¼ä¼ē¤¾ABC
XXéØ
ļ¼»ååć»ååļ¼½ę§
First, you name the company*Ā your addressee works for; second, the department; and third, their full name, accompanied by ę§ļ¼ćć¾ļ¼, not ćć!
*Be careful here: not all companies are ę Ŗå¼ä¼ē¤¾. Basically, the first line is for their workplace. If youāre a university student like me, you might be emailing someone who works for ABC大å¦.
Next, you should say who you are. The format for this varies on whether you are tellingĀ them who you are or remindingĀ them, i.e., if this is your first time emailing them or not. Hereās an introduction template for a university student:
åćć¦ć”ć¼ć«ććéććććć¾ććABC大å¦XXå¦éØYYå¦ē§*ć®ļ¼»ååć»ååļ¼½ćØē³ćć¾ćć
With a first email, you state that itās the first email and introduce yourself using ē³ć to be extra polite. You also state your university (if they donāt work for it already, presumably), your major, and å¦ē§* if necessary. If youāre a double major like me, you can write XXå¦éØ twice in a row.
Hereās a template for a second email:
ćć¤ććäø話ć«ćŖć£ć¦ććć¾ććABC大å¦ļ¼XXå¦éØć®ļ¼»ååļ¼½ć§ćć
Basically, you thank them for talking with you again and briefly reintroduce yourself, depending on if your university or your major is more relevant. No need to use ē³ć.
*Iāll be honest: I donāt really know what a å¦ē§ is or how it differs from å¦éØļ¼å°ę»ļ¼å°é. Our presenter called it aĀ āsub-major.ā No clue what that means. Concentration, maybe? Tread carefully, my friends.
Just as in English emails, Japanese emails should be simply written and get to the point as immediately as possible. Thatās more basic email etiquette than anythingāafter all, does anyone reallyĀ want to be reading emails?
You should also use ę¬čŖ in the email body if you can. Pick whether to use å°ę¬čŖ or č¬č²čŖ and then stick with your choice for the entire email. I gotta say, I have no idea how to decide which one to use! ę¬čŖ is so hard! Do your best!!!
(Also, hereās a ę¬čŖ Quizlet I made a while ago!)
Here are some useful phrases to include in your email body:
XXćę·»ä»ćć¦ććć¾ćć®ć§ććē¢ŗčŖćé”ććććć¾ćć = I have attached XX for you to check.
ćč³ŖåćŖć©ćććć¾ććććé ę
®ćŖććē³ćä»ććć ććć = If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
ćäøęćŖē¹ćŖć©ćććć¾ćććććę°č»½ć«ćé£ēµ”ćć ććć = If anything is unclear, please feel free to contact me.
ćÆćć·ć§ć³čØč (cushion phrases)
In classic Japanese fashion, ćÆćć·ć§ć³čØč are phrases used to soften requests, questions, apologiesā¦basically all manner of inconvenience or imposition. These can get pretty long, which seems to go against the general rule of concision in emails, but in Japanese these are very important. Use them in your email body.
Asking for help, making a request:
ęćå
„ćć¾ććā¦ (note: å
„ here is pronounced ć)
ćęę°ććććććć¾ććā¦
ćčæ·ęććććććć¾ććā¦
å°ć
ćå°ććććććØćććć¾ćć
čŖ ć«ļ¼å¤§å¤ē³ćčسćććć¾ćććā¦
There are probably lots more of these to be discovered. Maybe someday a Japanese person will write YOU an embarrassingly polite email!
Ah, conclusionsāthe worst part of any piece of writing. Luckily, we have more templates. This is another case where the format varies depending on whether youāve emailed this person before. Hereās the template for a first email:
ćåæćććØććććęę°ććććććć¾ćććä½åććććććé”ćē³ćäøćć¾ćć
Probably the most commas Iāve ever seen used in one Japanese sentence. This is all č¬č²čŖ.
Hereās a template for if youāve emailed them before:
ä»å¾ćØćļ¼å¼ćē¶ććććććé”ććććć¾ćć
Basically, you have to thank them for their continued support/tolerance of you.Ā
And here we have just what we did for the addressee at the beginning, but now for you, the sender.
ļ¼»ååć»ååļ¼½
ABC大å¦XXę„½éØXXå¦ē§*
ęŗåøÆēŖå·ļ¼XXX
ć”ć¼ć«ļ¼YYY@
Optionally, you can also link any webpage you might have (like LinkedIn) or include your home, school, or business address. Iām not totally clear on what the protocol is surrounding your cell phone number, since in the US at least I would never give that out in an email signature, but you can probably delete it or easily replace it with a work number.
*Again, substitute your place of work if necessary.
Yikes, that was a lot of content at once, especially since most of it is just canned phrases to memorize or keep on hand. I hope this will help you guys in all your scary email-writing endeavors!! ć¾ććć®ę¬”ć¾ć§ćļ¼
