I am thinking of including a sentence about COVID in 暑中見舞い cards I am planning to send out. The sentiment I want to get across in English is “please be careful, as others are not using proper precautions”
I guess I might try: 他の人が必要な注意使わないので、外に行くとき、気を付けてください。But I don’t think this is polite enough.
Is this polite enough?
他人さんは特定警戒を守っていませんから、お外にいっらしゃるとき、ご注意ください
I’m not sure how much politeness to show others who are not following covid precautions lol
oh i saw this in NHK, this might be a good thing to include:
マスクの着用で熱中症のリスクが例年以上に高まっています。
I think the impoliteness might come from implying all other people are not keeping to the rules.
外は特定警戒を守っていない人もいます/多いですので、お出かけのとき、ご注意ください。
Or something. I actually didn’t put a lot of thought into word choice, but the order might be more thoughtful?
Exactly what I though given that consideration for the surrounding people is one of the pillars of Japanese culture.
Maybe I need to think more like a person living in japan. How about:
If we all follow the health guidelines, we will get through this soon.
[health guidelines]を一緒に守れば、乗り切れます! Or ましょう or something
I’m logging off soon, so I may not reply for a bit. (I might even leave others to follow up while running along my train of thought if they want). However, I think the question is this: who are these cards for? Anything that contains instructions from you might come across as rude or pushy unless you soften your tone or you’re in a position to give instructions. Similarly, giving advice might come across as condescending, depending on your status relative to the recipients’ and the tone of your message.
This, for example, might come across as accusatory (with regard to those supposedly not following guidelines) or presumptuous (with regard to those who might not be taking sufficient precautions/might not have noticed others taking the situation too lightly).
Ultimately, however, everything depends on the people to whom you’re writing these cards and your relationship with them.
This sounds pretty good, but each version carries a different nuance. The ます version might sound like a factual statement or a statement made for the sake of reassurance. Using ば emphasises the condition though, so it might imply (admittedly quite correctly) that overcoming this crisis requires respecting guidelines, which might suggest that you’re imploring the recipient to follow such rules. It depends, again, on your relationship with the people concerned. The ましょう version, in my opinion, is probably more polite, since it sounds like an invitation. However, you probably don’t want to use a conditional structure for the ましょう version. You’d probably want something like
「[health guidelines]を守って、一緒に乗り切れましょう！」(I shifted the 一緒に to emphasise the idea of overcoming this together, which may be more positive.)
For ‘health guidelines’, you might want to substitute various things, possibly while changing the verb: 三密 (the 3 Cs the Japanese government has been telling people to avoid) を避けて, or 衛生方針を従って. I’m not sure if 守る is used for anything that means ‘guidelines’. I’ll leave you to check on that if you wish.
This was an amazing amount of help. I have a long way to go on politeness!
How is this for a final message (edited 7/15)
暑中お見舞い申し上げます。
今年、ウイルスは別として猛烈な暑さになるでしょうが、ご家族の皆様はお元気だとよろしいでございます。マスクの着用で熱中症のリスクが例年以上に高まっているので、ご注意ください。衛生方針を従って、一緒に乗り切りましょう。
「me」から
令和２年 盛夏
I’m kinda out of my depth here because I’m not very knowledgeable about the appropriate use of keigo. I’ve never written a letter in Japanese, and I’ve never learnt how to write one. However, so, my thoughts…
I think it should be になる? Apparently となる, though it is more formal, has a nuance of reaching a ‘final stage’ (〜となる VS 〜になる ( = ~ to naru VS ~ ni naru) – Maggie Sensei). The least we can say is that the weather is probably still becoming hotter, and I doubt that the change is finished.
My mistake the last time: it should be 乗り切りましょう. 乗り切れる=‘to be able to ride it out completely’. It’s the potential form.
That aside, I think it’s fine. Hopefully someone more experienced in letter writing and formal language comes along and offers other pointers. (The reason being that I don’t think it’s hard to be polite, but letter writing usually involves specific conventions, which are something I don’t know much about.)
Thanks. My audience knows I am only learning and so I think some slipping out of humble/honorable keigo is probably ok, but if there is a right way to do it then why not do it that way? でございます instead of です eg
Mhm, I guess so. And hey, if they feel like it, they might tell you if you said anything that needs to be corrected. (Though honestly, I doubt they would do that, because it might seem unappreciative and rude.) In any case, I’m sure they’ll appreciate the effort on your part.
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