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Hello. I'm Naoko, an online Japanese teacher and Japanese language researcher. Today, I would like to talk about why Japanese people use "kureru" ?
”Kureru”is one of the expressions of giving and receiving, such as "ageru, morau, and kureru."
One day, an old woman was walking with a heavy bag. A kind man saw this and called out to the old woman, saying, ``I'll take your luggage.'' The old woman thanked the man and replied, "Well, thank you very much." What would the old woman talk about that time? “A. Sinsetsuna hito ga watasi no nimotu wo mochimasita.” “B. Shinsetsuna hito ga watashi no nimotu wo mottekuremasita.” If you are a native Japanese speaker, you will always say “B. mottekuremasita.” ``mochimasita'' actually means the same meaning in fact, but why do we say ``mottekuremasita''? It's becausethe old woman is grateful.
If the old woman had thought, ``A young person took it without permission when I could have carried it myself,'' or ``It's natural for a young person to carry an elderly person's luggage, so I don't need to thank him.'' , she will say "mochimasita" instead of "mottekuremasita." In other words, in Japanese, different verb forms are used for the same fact, depending on whether the speaker thinks it is something to be thankful for or not something to be thankful for. When I say this, some of you may be thinking, "Teacher,”Shinsetsuna hito” was enough to express that someone was kind to me, so I guess that means I'm grateful.”
Even if you use expressions such as "kindly" or "for me," if the verb is not followed by "-tekureru," the meaning of gratitude cannot be expressed in Japanese. In other languages such as English, it may be expressed with an adverb such as kindly, but it does not change the form of the verb, so perhaps people forget to add the Japanese ``-tekureru''. However, in Japanese there is a special expression that expresses gratitude, ``-tekureru'', so if you say ``hakobimasita'' without using ``hakonde-kuremasita'', it means that you are not feeling grateful.
On the day of the graduation ceremony, when an international student says, ``Thank you very much, Professor. Sensei wa watashitachi no tameni nessin ni osiemasita.”If you say this way, to Japanese people, it feels like you are looking down on the teacher from above and you will not be able to express your gratitude. However, this kind of mistake is common. If you don't remember that in Japanese, the form of the verb changes depending on whether you are feeling grateful or not, you may not be able to convey your feelings, so you need to be careful.
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