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I have read this answer, and while it helped me understand how the term came about, I am still confused about when it is ok or not to use it.

I understand is mostly ok to use it in situations where you need some sort of permission to do whatever you wanna do.

(オンライン会議で)すみません、先に抜けさせていただきます。- Excuse me, I will allow myself to leave early.

But in some other situations, it is really confusing to me if させていだだきます would sound weird or not:

レビューしていただきありがとうございます。お手数ですが、修正をいたしましたので、もう一度ご確認をお願いいたします。

Here, would it be ok to say 修正させていただきましたので instead of 修正いたしましたので? I was told by native speakers that させていただきます wouldn't work well here, but they could not explain really well why.

I would also like to know if is there any way to use いたします to modify verbs the same way you can do with させていただきます

飲む > 飲ませていただきます

飲む > 飲むよういたします (or should I just stick to 飲みます?)

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  • I hate it when people say 修正させていただきました (and quit a few do in business settings) and I would hope learners don't imitate it.
    – aguijonazo
    Commented Jun 1, 2023 at 11:49
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    @aguijonazo I used to use it all the time because I have seen other natives do it at work, but I also realized that just throwing the "highest level" of keigo without thinking, can often have the opposite effect and be seen as uneducated. (I know as a foreigner it might be a bit different, but still...) Commented Jun 2, 2023 at 4:49
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    @FelipeChavesdeOliveira I'm not a native speaker but I think aguijonazo is. So just take his/her advice and do not use it.
    – dvx2718
    Commented Jun 2, 2023 at 18:21
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    @dvx2718 If you read the question throughly, you can see that I was already told by natives that in this or that specific situation I should or shouldn’t use it, but I still didn’t get a good explanation on to how to decide myself when it’s ok to use it or not. Plus, there’s another related grammar question at the end. While both of your comments are very helpful, I don’t think they answer my question. Commented Jun 3, 2023 at 10:50
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    FYI. The use of させていただく seems to become common in the 1990s. There even books on how it is used hanmoto.com/bd/isbn/9784823410567 kadokawa.co.jp/product/322104000605. So the perception varies a lot from person to person as you guessed.
    – sundowner
    Commented Jun 6, 2023 at 8:21

1 Answer 1

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+100

I’m glad you are surrounded by people who think it is weird. I have worked with a bunch of people who used that kind of language all the time at work. They would say things like 出張させて頂きました when they took that business trip because it was necessary for their job or even someone ordered them to. They say ~させて頂きます just to sound humble. For me the problem is worse than sounding uneducated. I found them to be frivolous and even irresponsible. They are essentially making their own action sound as though it is someone else’s decision. 出張させて頂きました would make sense only if you wanted to go, but the company regulations would prohibit you from having another trip until, say, next month, but your superior intervened and specially allowed you to go, or something like that.

In another example, stupid actors say things like 今回XXXの役を演じさせて頂きました at a movie premiere. They are supposed to be talking to the fans. The fans didn’t let them play any role. If someone did, it must be their producer. By saying 〜させて頂きました they are being humble towards the producer. Why do the fans have to hear it?

My advice: Don’t use it unless someone actually allowed you to do what you did.

As for いたします, it’s a humble form for します. So for it to make sense, します needs to make sense. 飲むよういたします would be understood as a deformation of 飲むよういたします. While the latter is the correct humble form of 飲むようにします, it doesn’t mean the same as 飲みます. If I had to use いたします to say 飲みます, I would say 頂戴いたします. You would need some noun like that.

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  • I think there's a little typo in your final paragraph – it looks like "…would be understood as a deformation of 飲むようにいたします" should be "…would be understood as a deformation of 飲むようにします". (BTW, while I don't feel qualified to vote on your answer, I found your take on this question very interesting and I appreciate your taking the time to write it. As a non-native who hasn't been in Japan for many years, I've been mystified by the degree to which させていただきます seems to have displaced いたします.)
    – Nanigashi
    Commented Jun 5, 2023 at 16:37
  • @Nanigashi - No, it was not a typo. I made it clearer. Well, some people here seem to think fake humbleness is a good thing. It's not a surprise, though.
    – aguijonazo
    Commented Jun 5, 2023 at 17:16
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    To the downvoters: please at least comment to explain what you disagree with. Otherwise any downvotes on answer posts that are correct and informative seem to be unhelpful trolling, or random noise at best. Commented Jun 5, 2023 at 17:33
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    Now that is what I was looking for!! Thanks a lot! I am also curious why there was a downvote, but it seems to me that this depends a lot on your personal opinion. Commented Jun 6, 2023 at 5:17
  • Oh, I completely missed the fact that Felipe had omitted the に, and I thought you had inadvertently written the same phrase twice! (And believe it or not, I actually scrutinized both phrases repeatedly in an effort to make sure I wasn't missing something.) So sorry about that; under the circumstances, your revision wasn't really necessary at all, but maybe it will prevent other careless readers from making the same mistake I made.
    – Nanigashi
    Commented Jun 6, 2023 at 20:29

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