Question
I’m a Singaporean working at a Japanese company. 30 minutes before we knock off, my boss suddenly asked me to create a PowerPoint presentation for tomorrow.
I had to work overtime in the office until 8pm to finish the work. My colleague Yamada-san came back from sales. He saw me working alone and he helped to correct my Japanese on the slides.
Thanks to him, I was able to create a quality presentation. I wanted to say “Thank you for your help” in Japanese. How shall I say it?
Answer by Professional Japanese Teacher
(1) 手伝ってくれてありがとう。
Tetsudattekurete arigatoo.
(2) 手伝ってくれてありがとうございました。
Tetsudattekurete arigatoogozaimashita.
We introduce two phrases that you can use to express thanks to your colleagues. Polite Japanese is used according to the situation and your relationship with the other party.
Try using the first phrase if you are close with Yamada-san. Use the second phrase if you are not too close to him and you want to be more polite.
Nobody likes having work assigned by the boss at the end of the day but you did well under pressure. It’s encouraging to have a good colleague as well.
Well done!
