Expressing gratitude in Japanese

I would like the first lesson on this blog to be about gratitude since the Japanese people are very polite and put a great value on thanking people for using their time and effort for somebody else.

I believe that most people know the word "Arigato" (有り難う), which can pretty much show how much you appreciate what people have done for you but wouldn't be enough if you would like to thank for something people will do for you, which can be expressed with "Arigato gozaimasu" (ありがとうございます）. Let's say that somebody promised you a Japanese dictionary and you had the chance to use the expression we have just learned. Right after the gift has been giving to you it would be nice to say "arigato gozaimashita" （ありがとうございました）since "gozaimashita" is the past tense of "gozaimasu" (to have) and shows gratitude in the past. Well, before you freak out about this expression let's move on to the expression "sumimasen" （すみません）, which shows gratitude in the sense that one might have bothered someone and "sumimasen" could be also a way of apologizing for having someone to do something for you. It is no wonder that many Japanese say "sorry" when actually they mean "THANK YOU". "Sumimasen" can also mean "Excuse me" and is a very useful word.

When you want to thank for something GREAT that was done for you the most polite expression is "osewa ni narimashita" （お世話になりました）and could be translated sort of as "I've been taken care by you" an is used specially at the end of the year with the set expression "kotoshi wa iroiro osewa ni narimashita, rainen mo yoroshiku onegai shimasu" (今年はいろいろお世話になりました。来年も宜しくお願いします）.This expression means "I thank you for all the favor towards me this year and look forward to next year", which is very weird to be said in English.

Last but not least, one could also say "kansha shimasu" （感謝します）for expressing one's gratitude.

To wrap up this subject I would like to thank you for reading this posting but am confused if I should use "arigato gozaimashita" because I do hope you keep on reading my future postings so "arigato gozaimasu" would sound better or maybe "sumimasen" since you invested your precious time reading my blog. Anyway, kansha shimasu and see you next time!!!