I still remember my first day of Japanese class back at SDSU, when our teacher taught us one of the most commonly used expressions: yoroshiku onegai shimasu, pronounced “yoh-roh-sh’koo oh-neh-guy shi-mahs.” It’s a useful phrase that can be used whenever you meet someone for the first time, meaning “nice to meet you,” although as with most aspects of the Japanese language, it’s rather more subtle than that. At its core, the phrase means something like, “let’s treat each other favorably” or “I’m counting on you to do what’s expected of you.” A new member of a school club or a company might use the phrase as a humble request that the current group members take him under their wing and aid him in the future, and the phrase is also used quite often in business settings as well as greetings for the New Year. When my Japanese mother-in-law met my mother for the first time, she lowered her head to the ground — the most polite form of bowing there is, known as dogeza — and used this phrase, essentially saying “Please take care of my daughter from now on.”
This is a little cat doing dogeza, which is really, really cute.
