So, I got an email from my Japanese teacher informing me (and the other students) that we should bring our laptops to class today because we’ll be practicing typing kanji. She ends the email with “よろしくおねがいします” which is a phrase I’ve only just started to wrap my head around.
I thought it meant something along the lines of “nice to meet you,” “please take care of me,” “let’s have a good relationship”. I still believe that’s true, but then, why would my teacher use it at the end of an email? She already knows everyone in the class.
Basically, my question is: in the context I’ve given, what does “よろしくおねがいします” mean?
13 comments
This phrase is not directly translateable, it’s just a politeness that gets inserted in a lot of different social sitations. Anything from “please and thank you” to “looking forward to working with you” to “I’ll leave it to you then”.
よろしくお願いします is a Japanese expression that doesn’t translate well into English, though there are many attempts- and just as many variations on what it means. It’s also arguably the first encounter you’ll have with the infamous “passive-aggressive” nature that Japanese people use A LOT- it’s a whole lesson on Japanese culture itself. But to cut to the chase, the closest one is your interpretation of “let’s have a good relationship”. You can think of it as a shortened version of “Please do this thing I have requested so we will have a good relationship”.
To dig just a little deeper, the お願い can be translated into English (still loosely, mind you) as “wish” or “hope”, while よろしく is along the lines of “Please accept”… so putting it together in this context, you might literally translate it is “Please accept my wish”. Again, keep in mind this is an excellent example of just how contextual the Japanese language (like all other language) actually is.
I think u/eruciform gave a perfect explanation. In this case though, all formal emails are ended with a variation of よろしくお願いします. So I’d just treat it as “sincerely” or “best regards”. No need to overanalyze it.
99% of work-related emails end with よろしくお願いします, the same way 99% of emails between you and someone you already know for work start with お世話になっております.
I’m beginning to learn Japanese!
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Does this phonetically sound like “yo-ro-shi-ku O-neg-ai-shi-mas”?
My teacher told me this phrase each time we start our private lesson. So maybe in that sense, please do well for this teaching session . Please treat this well in your case?
In this context it means something like “please and thank you”.
I’m taking online classes and my professor is kinda new to the job I think, so sometimes another professor drops by our class and talk to our teacher all in Japanese. Whenever this happens, they end the interaction with よろしくお願いします. I was confused as well, so I asked and that’s what they told me. Just like a polite way to end the conversation when something has been asked of the other party, so like “please and thank you” in a way.
よろしく can mean various things if you look it up in jisho.org, but it’s basically the concept of having good intentions, regarding someone well, being proper, etc.
おねがい is a request, petition someone to do, a favour, or a wish.
します is the present polite form of する, to do.
She is asking you to have good intentions and be proper towards her, but really it’s a catch all polite set phrase used all the time for any number of things.
“Thanks in advance”
I like to think of よろしく as conveying the feeling of “looking forward to our cooperation”. お願い, of course, just makes it more polite in a similar fashion to saying “please”.
It’s one of those set phrases that gets used whenever you’re about to embark on some new (or renewed) endeavor with someone else. It’s such a commonly expressed feeling that *not* saying it would be weird in this context.
“If you please” or “thanks in advance”
In this case the teacher is saying ‘Get it done, please, and do it well.’ in a nice way. Common and almost obligatory in a business e-mail as a closing phrase.
As the others have answered, in your situation it is just a means to tell you to “make sure you do this please” “do it please and thank you” or “get it done please” after someone asks you to do something or informs you of something to look forward to in the future.
It’ll usually get shortened to “よろしく” “よろしくね” “おねがい” “お願いします” in casual situations with friends, loved ones, or well known coworkers. You’ll hear it all the time.