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Otsukaresama
Otsukaresama desu
Otsukaresama deshita

What do they all mean? You may wonder because you’ll hear them spoken in JP dramas probably at the scenes of workplace. Sometimes English sub for JP dramas says “good work” and you may wonder why we greet like that. I think there’s basically no perfect translation for Otsukaresama because it reflects something cultural. In fact, there’s no day without saying these, since I’ve started working at an office.

Basically Otsukaresama is a consoling word and greeting to the colleagues. Let me see in what occasion I’m using them.

Otsukaresama desu

1) When making a call to someone in the same company
The first thing we should say is “Otsukaresama desu”.
For example
person A: Hello this is the sales department, and this is A speaking.
person B: Otsukaresama desu. I’m B from HR department.
person A: Otsukaresama desu.

2) When sending out an email to someone in the same company

It’s a sort of general habit for us to start with Otsukaresama desu. (with Kanji:お疲れ様です。　with Hiragana: おつかれさまです。)

3) When seeing colleagues in a washing room or somewhere outside the office or far from my desk
There’s no equal word for “Hi” in Japanese, we’d use “Otsukaresama desu” as a greeting at work. Of course, I know you learn “Konnichiwa” is like “Hi” but we don’t use it like how you’d use “Hi”. If you say “Konnichiwa” as a substitute for “Hi”, it’d sound too rigid, serious and a bit funny.

4) When someone (colleague) gets back from an outside job or a fieldwork

Otsukaresama deshita

1) At the end of the day, when a colleague is leaving the office
It is a common sense in Japan for a worker who is leaving the office at the end of the day to say “Osakini shitsurei shimasu” to others who are still working (such as doing over-time work). That means “I’m leaving earlier than you” in a modest way. Then the rest of the workers respond to him saying “Otsukaresama deshita”.

2) When someone (colleague) gets back from an outside job or a fieldwork

Otsukaresama

1) It’s a casual way of “Otsukaresama desu” used between close colleague.
2) It’s spoken from a senior worker to his junior or from a boss to his subordinates.

Otsukare

1) It’s a very casual way used between close colleagues or friends.

I still remember how I was shocked to hear “Otsukaresama” at work when I started working. I felt as if I were very tired when I heard it. “Tsukare” is to be tired or fatigue. “O” or “sama” I think are the frills of consoling or respecting thought. I personally don’t like this greeting honestly. XD

BTW, have you realized we don’t use Otsukaresama to the people from other company or the clients, customers and etc.? Otsukaresama is to be used for inner people not outer people. Then what kind of greeting do we use for outer people? It’s “Osewani natte orimasu” (お世話になっております) or “Osewani natte imasu“.(お世話になっています)

Well, but I’ll say “Osewani narimashita” (past tense) with thankfulness when I’m leaving the company office this Friday!

I sometimes question myself if there’s any point that I have to make learning Japanese videos by myself when there are so many free videos and lessons available online. But at a moment I’m doing this as per request or when I think it’s easier than I explain by text. In other words, if you request that you want me to make such and such video about Japanese, I’ll do that for you by first come first served basis.

Today it’s about greetings in Japanese. For those who study intermediate or advanced Japanese, greetings sound too easy. But I’m trying to refer to the cultural background of why we say so. Well actually it can be said to any posts of this blog. For example, those who are not interested in fashion can also enjoy Tokyo Kawaii TV for example because it refers to something more than fashion. (Some of my blog readers try to watch it without reading my English summary in order to practice listening Japanese spoken at a natural speed, and then read my English summary for better understandings.)

Kotodama…Kotodama thoughts from wiki
We think this way. Speaking out “Ittekimasu” means that the kotodama protects that person, because he said itte (going) and kimasu (coming back safe and sound). Thus speaking ill of others or speaking out negative things will be harmful in terms of Kotodama thoughts.

Finally, I’m trying to modify Learn Japanese page. As a native Japanese speaker, what do you think I can offer to you in this blog? Answering questions from time to time is not very proactive. I want my “Learn Japanese” page as active as other pages such as Health and Beauty. But I cannot come up with the good questions myself because I never learned Japanese as a second language or a foreign language. It’s a mother language, I don’t know what you find hard or confused. Do you know what I mean? It’s just like that I am often confused in English especially between “a” or “the” or no article needed. Singular or plural, prepositions such as “on” or “in” and “in” or “at”, possessive pronoun such as “our” or “their” or nothing needed…^ ^; At first I was having hard time understanding be type of verb and other verbs. ^ ^;

Please help me improve my Learn Japanese page. Your comments under the comment section or opinions and suggestions from contact page are highly welcomed. Thank you for your participation.