Originally Posted by Nagoyankee (Post 696189)

Yes, you may, SHADOW. I won't write a book about it, though, I warn you. :)

In Japanese, formal letters are written in a langauge of its own. It's nothing like what you see in newspapers or magazines. It certainly has very little in common with the kind of Japanese you guys learn outside of Japan.

Between businesses, business and individual, government and business, and gov. and ind., you will find the most formal language used along with a format expected by every party involved. Go against these rules and you will not be taken seriously.

A formal letter starts with a short paragraph of seasonal greeting. You write about what you see in nature around you at the time of the year when the letter is being written. It can be about certain trees or flowers, the temperature, weather, annual events, etc. You are expected to express not which season out of the four but what part of a particlular season. This must, however, be done with your description of the natural phenomenon and NOT by directly stating what part of the season. In other words, you cannot just say, "We are at the beginning of (insert season)." You must say, for instance, "The sakura buds have finally started opening up." This isn't always easy for the native speaker, either; therefore, there are books and websites for these phrases. You finish this first paragraph by saying that you trust that the reader stays healthy.

Then a new paragraph (maybe two or more if necessary) starts which is the actual "content" of the letter. You need to be precise and not too lengthy.

Finally the closing message comes in.
______________________

Some important points:

Throughout a formal letter, you address the reader "Family name + 様(さま)". さん is out of the question and so are any second-person pronouns.

Don't get carried away with the seasonal greeting. No one expects you to be a poet in a business letter. Don't try to be creative.

If your textbook has taught you that です/ます are polite, forget it. Those may help you sound on the politer side in daily conversation. But in business situations, they aren't even considered "medium polite". You wil end up sounding like a dribbling junior-high student trying to talk like an adult and failing miserably. I've mentioned this on JF a few times and I get ignored each time. But I have to repeat it once again because it's true.

Originally Posted by Nagoyankee (Post 696189)

I've mentioned this on JF a few times and I get ignored each time. But I have to repeat it once again because it's true.

Originally Posted by Nagoyankee (Post 696189)

Yes, you may, SHADOW. I won't write a book about it, though, I warn you. :)

Originally Posted by SHAD0W (Post 696250)

We learned about using "長い間ご無沙汰しておりまして
申し訳ございません。" for example and "どうぞお元気で。"

Its like a whole new language! hehe!

Originally Posted by chryuop (Post 696251)

This is an example of forml letter given by my textbook.

田中太郎様
拝啓

Is it even close to the style a formal letter should have?

Originally Posted by MMM (Post 696217)

Let me not ignore you and say this is absolutely the truth. です・～ます is correctly taught as polite spoken Japanese, but is not seen in writing nearly as much as people think.

Originally Posted by chryuop (Post 696251)

This is an example of forml letter given by my textbook.

田中太郎様
拝啓
少しづつ春らしくなりましたがまだ寒い日が続いていま す。
皆様お変わりなくお過ごしでいらっしゃいますか。
私達は元気にしております。
先日イタリアでの仕事を終え戻ってまいりました。
色々お話したいことがありますのでお目にかかりたいと 思います。
ご都合のよいひをお知らせください。
お返事をまっています。

Is it even close to the style a formal letter should have? I mean, apart from the use of おります and the お目にかかりたい which I think it is a little bit above the ですます, all the rest seems pretty much on the line of the ですます form. So is my textbook wrong with this example?