English is such a wonderful language and has such amazing ability to describe the depth and breath of human experience. It is also such an adaptable and inclusive language in the sense that it can absorb words from other languages and it continues to morph and change. It's a living language.
Some times though, it utterly fails when you try to find an equivalent English phrase to match a foreign expression. The Japanese phrase "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu" is one such phrase. There is nothing like it in English. "Yoroshiku oneigaishimasu" literrally means "I humbly ask you to be kind to me." But the beauty of that phrase is that it means so much more than that. Generally, the phrase connotes good but ambiguous feelings. And you can use it in great variety of situations.
For example, when you first meet someone for the first time, you say, "Yoroshiku oneigaishimasu." Here it means "Nice to meet you." When you first join a company, you can use the phrase to mean, "Please be kind to me and mentor me well." You can say the same thing when joining a group. In a business context, when you say it to a potential partner, it means "I look forward to doing business with you."
When you assign someone a task to do or ask a friend to do you a favour, the phrase then means, "I'll leave it to you" or "Please take care of it". The phrase can also mean "Please take care of me", "Please remember me" or "I hope we get along well". Between close friends, you can even use the more casual form "Yoroshiku". In this short form, it can also mean, "Say hello for me".
What an amazing phrase. By it's ambiguity, "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu" is such a catch-all phrase that helps you convey respect and courtesy when you are short of something nice to say. If only there were such a phrase in English.
