Hello! I’m a high schooler doing my 3rd year of Japanese and I am applying to colleges and want my Japanese teacher to write me letters of recommendation.
I read her the following:
マーティネズ先生
すみませんが、ひとつおねがいがあります。もし、じかんがあれば、レコメンディーションをかいてください。
ほんとうにありがとうございました
(Matinezu sensei sumimasen ga, hitotsu onegai ga arimasu. Moshi,ji kan ga areba, rekomendishon o kaite kudasai. Honto ni arigatogozaimashita)
She said it needs to be in “keigo” I don’t know what keigo is or how to turn this into keigo. Any help would be appreciated 🙂
by no1steminist
4 comments
Sounds good
Run it through deep L
Well, you definitely need to start with “お世話になっております” and end with “よろしくお願いいたします”, that would go a long way to making it sound more Keigo. I would also phrase it as a request rather than using てください in this case. 書いていただけませんか？ (would you write it for me?). Also as I recall from when I got one from work for PR application, the word for a recommendation letter is “推薦状” (すいせんじょう). Anyway, I’d look up a basic keigo lesson or phrases related to email writing and pull some ideas from there. The current one is definitely not formal enough for a big ask like a reference letter.
~先生、お世話になっております。
３年生のyour nameです。
お忙しいところ申し訳ございませんが、大学に出願するため推薦状が必要のようです。恐れ入りますが、推薦状を書いていただけますでしょうか。
大変お手数をおかけしますが、よろしくお願い致します。
Your name
Email address
Phone number
Edit:
I don’t know how “keigo” your teacher wanted it to be. This would be advanced keigo used in business email