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2 sentences to transl. (farewell speech) 2009/7/22 14:24
I'm soon leaving the Japanese company I've stayed with for a couple of years. My Japanese is still very limited (everyday phrases and food :-) so I wonder if anyone would kindly translate these two sentences for me:

1) It's been a pleasure to work with you all.

2) I'll keep good memories about the time I spent with [company name].

I want to keep it short. Don't really know what one's supposed to say when leaving their company. Any suggestions welcome.

Cheers.
by Mike1983  

Non-ceremonial examples 2009/7/23 06:44
: what one's supposed to say when leaving their company

That may depend on situations and atmosphere, I think.
I can not guess which type of farewell speech is most common in Japan but....
For example, to make a speech in the presence of President and one hundred workers in a hall,
one should choose more formal expressions than in everyday conversations.
Roughly, Japanese expressions have wide range of variations.
(I often consult dictionaries to choose a good combination of English words for my Japanese words.)

In my opinion, unless this speech is open to any of news media,
you would not need to fill it all with ceremonial or formal words
as long as you've been not at a managerial post
and you address it at your workplace in front of not so many people
and they know well that you're not a fluent Japanese speaker.

1) [Watashi wa mina-san to, tomo-ni hatarake-te, shiawase deshi-ta.]
わたしは皆さんと、ともに働けて、幸せでした。:
(literal meaning: ) I was happy to have been able to work together with all.

- [watashi]: More proper [watakushi] will do.
- [mina-san]: This is a casual word to mean "all" as in "thanks, all," implying "you."
- [tomo-ni]: If you omit a comma before this, maybe this doesn't sound to mean "together."

2) [____ de sugoshi-ta, (sono) hibi-no o-moide wo, watashi wa wasure-masen.]
____ で過ごした、(その)日々の思い出を、私は忘れません。
(literal meaning: ) I would not forget day-to-day memories of the days which I spent in ____.

- [sono]: This is grammatically required to say "the days which I..." but can be skipped if tongue-twisting.
- [hibi-no]: If you omit both [sono] and a comma before it, this can be separated into [hibi] + [no], which only means "of days," not "day-to-day."

Another poster may show you a good option. Wait a little more....

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by omotenashi rate this post as useful

Supplementation 2009/7/23 07:21
CORRECTION

Rather: I was happy to be
Than: I was happy to have been

--

1) The Japanese one literally means "I was happy...." This can imply "was happy through the time...."
If you hope to stress "you are now happy" then there may be a better way.

2) I drop your "good" at my translation.
Saying an obvious thing (the memories are good ones) with a basic word ("good") sometimes may sound unnatural (questioning like "Are there bad memories?").

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by omotenashi rate this post as useful

Thanks! 2009/7/23 08:57
Thanks a lot, omotenashi!

Great stuff. The only thing left is to learn it by heart :-)
by Mike1983 rate this post as useful

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