「ありがとうございました。」

When I was in the cabin of a jet plane that had just left Narita, I heard a flight attendant make the usual announcements to the passengers. She spoke in Russian first, in English second, and in Japanese last. I felt strange when I heard the last word “ありがとうございました.”

This was twenty-four years ago, when I first went abroad. The plane left Narita and was bound for London via Moscow. There were no announcements in Japanese between Moscow and London.

In Japanese, you usually do not end your announcement with “thank you,” except for when politicians who have addressed the constituents might end their speech with “Thank you for your attentive listening.”

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Wow, you really made me give it quite a consideration! =))))

It’s only now that I realized, the announcements in Russian never end in ‘Thank you’, unless as you’re absolutely right to point out it’s a speaker addressing an audience! =))) A word-for-word in Russian of what any speaker would end the address with is, “Thanks!” Implying, “Thanks for attention!”

Contrary to this, every English announcement always ends in “Thank you!” And this is exactly the reason why it’s sometimes just copied into Russian, though for me, at least, this final “Thank you!” in the announcements in Russian occasionally heard still sounds rather unnatural and even redundant! :wink:

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