Taking Messages in Japanese – 伝言

Continuing with the theme of taking messages, here is a look at another note with a few new expressions. This one is more formal and can also be used to make notes about visitors. Be sure to check out the other post first.

Passing your eyes over the note you’ll notice first at the top the text:

電話があったらすぐメモを・・・。

でんわが あったら すぐ メモを

・・・対応は優しく、親切に。

たいおうは やさしく、 しんせつに。

Incomplete sentences are quite popular in Japanese, and are used all the time in newspaper headings. They rely on the reader to fill in the blanks, assuming that even has the same common knowledge. In the first sentence, we are told ‘if there is a phone call, immediately a memo…’ and in the second sentence ‘dealing in a kind and friendly…’

What’s going on here? It should be quite obvious that the first sentence is talking about taking a memo or note when there is a phone call. The implication is to do this as if it were a habit; the すぐに implying speed or immediacy.

The second sentence talks about 対応, a very useful word in business situations. It means ‘dealing with’ or ‘interaction’. We perhaps wouldn’t say these words directly in the equivalent English translations however. I.e. it likely wouldn’t be ‘deal with/interact with the customer in a kind and friendly manner’ but probably just ‘be kind and friendly’. Again the sentence is left unfinished, but we can imagine that is probably しましょう or maybe even the more direct してください。 Hence it would be:

電話があったらすぐにメモを取り、対応は優しく、親切にしましょう。


Next up, let’s take a look at some of those phrases. Beginning with the heading: 用件. This means ‘business’ or ‘matter’. Basically, what was the phone call/visit about? This term is also used a lot on recorded phone messages: please state your business after the tone, and so forth.

We looked at the first 3 phrases in the previous note, so we’ll jump past them to the new stuff:

以下のことを伝えてください。

いかの ことを つたえて ください。

Please convey the following message.

The message is written at the foot of the note.



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