*(note: in the future, short questions like this can go in the Daily Question Thread, where you’ll probably get a quicker answer)*
TL;DR answer to your question is: no, it doesn’t sound weird, as long as you don’t go overboard.
Saying, e.g. 店内でお願いします or お水を頂いてもいいですか?, etc. to a shop employee or waiter employee is perfectly normal (though of course some people will be more blunt/direct). These are “keigo” terms (technically, even ください is keigo) that have become ingrained enough into the language that they’ve just kind of become (polite, but not overly formal) set phrases.
Piling on the keigo too much, however, will seem unnatural. 豆乳ラテを一つお願いします is fine, but お忙しいところ申し訳ないのですが、豆乳ラテを一つお作りいただけないでしょうか? would be overkill. It’s still a store employee who’s getting paid to serve you, not the 部長 at your company’s most important client.
A few other notes:
>Me: カフェラッテお願いしまっす。
* I’m assuming this is a typo, but ラテ (not ラッテ) and お願いします, not しま**っ**す (しまっす sounds like a casual/roughly-pronounced of します like おつかれっす, etc.)
>ホット頂戴(instead of ホットにします)
* Even though the word is used in keigo patterns, just 頂戴 alone is not particularly polite. It sounds slightly feminine and casual, like a mother or teacher talking to a small child. 頂戴します would be more formal, but that’s also getting a bit much. * 頂戴します or 頂戴いたします is something I’d say when accepting a client’s business card, not when ordering coffee at Starbucks.
TL;DR (part 2?): certain common polite/keigo terms, e.g. ~(を/で)お願いします, ください, or even いただけますか?, etc., are perfectly normal for someone who just wants to show general politeness/respect to service workers, but going full-on with the 尊敬語/謙譲語 when you’re just asking a person to their job would definitely feel out of place and off-putting.
1 comment
*(note: in the future, short questions like this can go in the Daily Question Thread, where you’ll probably get a quicker answer)*
TL;DR answer to your question is: no, it doesn’t sound weird, as long as you don’t go overboard.
Saying, e.g. 店内でお願いします or お水を頂いてもいいですか?, etc. to a shop employee or waiter employee is perfectly normal (though of course some people will be more blunt/direct). These are “keigo” terms (technically, even ください is keigo) that have become ingrained enough into the language that they’ve just kind of become (polite, but not overly formal) set phrases.
Piling on the keigo too much, however, will seem unnatural. 豆乳ラテを一つお願いします is fine, but お忙しいところ申し訳ないのですが、豆乳ラテを一つお作りいただけないでしょうか? would be overkill. It’s still a store employee who’s getting paid to serve you, not the 部長 at your company’s most important client.
A few other notes:
>Me: カフェラッテお願いしまっす。
* I’m assuming this is a typo, but ラテ (not ラッテ) and お願いします, not しま**っ**す (しまっす sounds like a casual/roughly-pronounced of します like おつかれっす, etc.)
>ホット頂戴(instead of ホットにします)
* Even though the word is used in keigo patterns, just 頂戴 alone is not particularly polite. It sounds slightly feminine and casual, like a mother or teacher talking to a small child. 頂戴します would be more formal, but that’s also getting a bit much.
* 頂戴します or 頂戴いたします is something I’d say when accepting a client’s business card, not when ordering coffee at Starbucks.
TL;DR (part 2?): certain common polite/keigo terms, e.g. ~(を/で)お願いします, ください, or even いただけますか?, etc., are perfectly normal for someone who just wants to show general politeness/respect to service workers, but going full-on with the 尊敬語/謙譲語 when you’re just asking a person to their job would definitely feel out of place and off-putting.