日本語を勉強[べんきょう]している人なら「すみません」ということばは知っていますね。そうです、英語[えいご]でI’m sorryです。何か悪[わる]いことをしてあやまる時に使います。でも、このことば、英語のThank youのかわりにも使います。というか、「ありがとう」よりもよく使うかもしれません。
先日[せんじつ]私は、大学のキャンパスの中にある喫茶店[きっさてん]でコーヒーを買って歩いていました。ドアのところで同僚[どうりょう]の日本語の先生が私のためにドアをあけてくれました。私がコーヒーを持っていたからです。そこで私は「すみません」と言いました。「ありがとう」ということもできますが、この場面[ばめん]ではどんな日本人も「すみません」を使[つか]うと思います。この「すみません」と「ありがとう」の使[つか]い方は、何人かの日本人社会[しゃかい]言語[げんご]学者[がくしゃ]が論文[ろんぶん]を書いています。簡単[かんたん]に説明[せつめい]するのは難しいですが、「すみません」は、相手[あいて]がしてくれたことに焦点[しょうてん] (shoten is focus) があって「ありがとう」はドアを開けてもらった自分の方[ほう]に焦点があります。だから、相手について考えた表現[ひょうげん]の方がていねいというわけです。でもこの説明[せつめい]が全[すべ]てではありません。もっと詳[くわ]しいことが知りたい人は自分で調[しら]べてみてください。おもしろいですよ。
Japanese language learners would know Sumimasen. Yes, this is “I’m sorry” in Japanese. We say sumimasen when we did something bad and want to apologise for it. But Japanese people often use sumimasen for the situations that English speakers would say “thank you.” I probably should say that Japanese people would use sumimasen more often than arigato for such situations.
The other day I went to a café on campus and bought a cup of coffee. When I was heading back to my office afterwards, one of my Japanese section colleagues opened a door for me – because it would be awkward for me to open the door with that coffee and other things in my hands. Then I said sumimasen to him. Of course I did not apologise to him, this was a phrase showing my gratitude. I could have said arigato instead, but I am sure any Japanese native speakers would say sumimasen there. Sounds weird? Several Japanese sociolinguists actually wrote a paper about this sumimasen & arigato usage. It is not easy to explain briefly about this (you know those linguists spent pages to write an article to explain it!), but basically sumimasen is the phrase thinking about the burden carried by the door-open-person (“burden” sounds a bit too much to describe door-opening-action, but you know what I mean) and arigato is the phrase focusing on the benefit I received. Although both of them could be used, sumimasen could sound more polite and appropriate because sumimasen is a phrase thinking of the other person – but this is not almighty explanation for this matter. If you want to know more details, please do investigate by yourself. This IS indeed an interesting academic research topic!