敬語(Keigo) Explained

- Never Stop Dreaming -

As most of us have already known that Japanese are some of the most polite people that ever treaded the surface of the earth till this day, even intricate issues like asking to go to the toilet takes 5 minutes or so simply because they are soOooOOooo polite. That aside today I am going to teach you some phrases to knock the even Ghandi off his socks (that is if he even wears socks!). The following phrase might come in pretty useful to impress, inspire and at the same time be polite. In English context it may be deemed to be overly polite to flattery but in Japanese context, "Fantastic" is the word I would use. Here we go...

When being invited for all sorts of occasion ranging from Mixi invites, Wedding invites, etc. If you feel that the person in question should be held in a royale status, then use this -

「XXXX　様、 あなたのご招待は本当にありがとうございました。 XXXX　のご招待いただきまして、光栄でございます。 よろしくお願いいたします。」

Alright here's the explaination in case you do not understand Keigo. 敬語(Keigo) is formal Japanese where suffixs are change, special particles added and at times the whole word is change to give respect to the subject. Very different from normal conversational (Plain) Japanese and the regular Japanese that we study in class.

「XXXX 様」- you insert the subject's name in the XXXX and add 様(さま) behind the name. This is basically salutations like Dr. XXXX, Mr. XXXX but in a more polite way.

「あなたのご招待は本当にありがとうございました」- means "Really thank you very much for your invitation."

「XXXX　のご招待いただきまして、光栄でございます」- Again replace XXXX with subject's name but this time don't add the 様. This sentence means "It's my honour to receive XXXX's invitation."

「よろしくお願いいたします。」- means "I am looking forward to it."

So once again here's everything in Japanese, Romanji and the explaination -

「XXXX　様、 あなたのご招待は本当にありがとうございました。 XXXX　のご招待いただきまして、光栄でございます。 よろしくお願いいたします。」

「XXXX sama、anata no goshoutai wa honto ni arigatou gozaimashita。XXXX no goshoutai itadakimashite、koueide gozaimasu。yoroshiku onegai itashimasu。」

「Mr.XXXX, Really thank you very much for your invitation. It's my honour to receive your invitation. I am looking forward to it.」