Various Expressions of "Thank You"



Thank you so much for coming to .  I also thank you very much for your comments through emails or in person.   I've just realized that I had some emails at  which I didn't check it for a long time.


According to the statistics of my website, the most popular article here is......












































"Meaning of Mahalo."


It was interesting to know that many people visited this blog from the keyword of "Mahalo" or "Meaning of Mahalo."  This made me have an idea...if I include this keyword of "meaning of Mahalo" again, this post might be popular....again?   Well, let's see.  I'd like to try thinking the meaning of "thank you", instead of meaning of Mahalo, at this time.


Needless to say, "thank you" in English is one of the expressions to tell one's gratitude to you or to show one's appreciation to you.   Then, does the word "thank" mean "appreciation"?


Interestingly, the root of "thank" and "think" was the same.  "To thank you" originally meant "to think of you."   It was more like expression of "thoughtfulness."


In French, "thank you" is translated into "merci" which literally means "mercy" in English.  So it meant like "compassionate."


In Portuguese, "thank you" is called "Obrigado (Obrigada)" which literally means "Oblige" in English.  It means "appreciation I owe you."


Since pronunciations of "Obrigado" and "Arigato (meaning "thank you" in Japanese) are similar, there used to have an opinion that "Arigato" came from Portuguese "Obrigado."   Though it's not correct, but it's interesting that some of Japanese words are indeed from Portuguese.  


For example, "pan" in Japanese.  Do you know "pan" means?   It means "bread" in English.  It is well-known that Japanese "Pan" came from Portuguese "pão."


Another example is, as you may know "Boubura".  In standard Japanese, it's called "Kabocha" but in Kyushu island, it's called "Boubura" which means pumpkin.   The word "Boubura" originally come from "abóbora" in Portuguese, and the word was transmitted to Hawaii with Japanese immigrants from Kyushu.


On the other hand, another Japanese word "Kabocha" (pumpkin) came from the country, "Cambodia."  It is said, pumpkin was first introduced to Japan by Portuguese and they said pumpkin came from "Cambodia."  They meant place name, but Japanese thought it was the name of pumpkin.  


In Asian countries, appreciation is more like feeling of apology, because in order for us to live, we need to take other forms of life like vegetables, fish or meat.   We need to eat something in order to live.  So appreciation is expressed through the feeling of "sorry" to the other lives.


That is why Japanese word "Sumimasen" means both "thank you" and "I'm sorry."   In Chinese,  "thank you" is translated as "Xiexie" and "Xie(謝)” means both "gratitude" and "Apology."


Anyway, each language has its own expression of gratitude, but it's all interesting that each original meaning is so different, depending on their cultures.


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