I was writing an email in Japanese the other day, and there were two people replying to us. Since I wasn’t sure which person was gonna answer me, I addressed both at the beginning of the email. And I wrote something like
OO様/OO様
And I was told by someone at work that this is rude and it has to be OO様、OO様. Can someone explain why / is rude? Is it just because / isn’t commonly used in Japanese emails or is there a certain reason?
3 comments
Hmm…. that’s an interesting question. I’m not sure I can exactly explain why either, but I would definitely use the 、too.
Tho I kind of feel like it would be the same in English too? Something about the / just feels a bit more casual.
/ (slash) really isn’t used in Japanese because it’s an English thing so it’s unnatural. And most of all, it gives off the impression of laziness, dismissiveness. When addressing people even if it’s in e-mail (or more like, ESPECIALLY a business e-mail), you should write as if you’re addressing them in real life. The 、gives off the impression of addressing someone politely, like:
This person and this person
VS
These people: this/this
With / you’re lumping people together carelessly. This might feel unnecessary to you but it’s not a total pain to follow as good manners.
I can’t speak for the Japanese, but I wouldn’t use a slash like that in a business email in English either.
I’d consider it rude to write “Hi Tom/Jerry”. I’d probably find it weird if someone wrote to me like that too
In this case I’d say “Hi Tom and Jerry”
In the case of more, I’d use commas to separate the addressees