# What are you doing here?



## kyn

How do you say, as polite as possible :"How are you doing/How have you been doing lately" and "What are you doing here?/What business might you have here". For exapmle, upon seeing your former teacher, your customer, or someone much older... ?
I can only think of "最近どうしますか" and "ここで何していますか", but they sound too casual to me.


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## akimura

Hello, I've just joined the Forum and thought that I would contribute to the Japanese Forum the best I could.

One phrase that I've come up with is:

"最近いかがお過ごしですか。"

This should work for your former teacher, your customer, someone much older, etc. in general.

Speaking of your former teacher, if you are thinking of the situation where you would like to ask how he or she has been doing since you met him or her long before, one way to say would be:

"あれからいかがお過ごしでしたでしょうか。
(How have you been since that time?)"

I hope this helps


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## kyn

Thanks. What about "What are you doing here/What business might you have here/ Why are you here"?


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## Flaminius

What are you doing here/What business might you have here:
こちらではどんなお仕事をなさっているんですか。

Why are you here:
I don't think this can be polite in any phraseology.


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## akimura

kyn said:


> Thanks. What about "What are you doing here/What business might you have here/ Why are you here"?



I would be careful to ask this question, because it could be an offensive question (in many cases it isn't).  If I am confident that my former teacher, my customer, or someone much older would agree that visiting them makes it natural for me to wonder what they are doing there for business, then I would.  I wouldn't ask this question as a greeting or simply out of curiosity.  So, I intuitively avoided translating the phrase to ask someone's professional background, assuming that asking how they have been lately, upon seeing them, should suffice.  But, yes, Flaminius's translation should work very well, and you don't need to be too cautious about asking this question.


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## dusjeweetwel

Could you say it in this manner?
失礼ですが、こちらに何の用でいらっしゃいましたか？


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## akimura

Hi dusjeweetwel,



dusjeweetwel said:


> Could you say it in this manner?
> 失礼ですが、こちらに何の用でいらっしゃいましたか？



This is a perfect phrase, although we need to draw a clear line in context from the example that has been discussed above.  With this new suggested phrase, the one you are talking to is here right now temporarily, whereas in the context discussed above, the one you are talking to probably works here every day.


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## dregs

akimura said:


> Hi dusjeweetwel,
> 
> 
> 
> This is a perfect phrase, although we need to draw a clear line in context from the example that has been discussed above.  With this new suggested phrase, the one you are talking to is here right now temporarily, whereas in the context discussed above, the one you are talking to probably works here every day.



Hello everyone,

I'm a bit confused as to what specifically in this sentence makes the position seem temporary.  Does it have anything to do with using "ni" after "kochira" or is it something else in the sentence?  I'm still having a lot of problems determining when to use "ni" instead of "de".

Thanks in advance.


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## akimura

dregs said:


> Hello everyone,
> 
> I'm a bit confused as to what specifically in this sentence makes the position seem temporary.  Does it have anything to do with using "ni" after "kochira" or is it something else in the sentence?  I'm still having a lot of problems determining when to use "ni" instead of "de".
> 
> Thanks in advance.



Hi dregs,

"失礼ですが、こちらに*何の用で*いらっしゃいましたか？" sounds like "May I ask *what appointment* you came here [and you are here] *for*?" or in other words, "May I ask what appointment you've come here for?"

The phrase in *bold* is probably one big factor that makes the position temporary, because 用 itself can be done in a short time frame, generally ranging from several minutes to a few hours, not exceeding a duration of a single business day I would say.

Another big one is the part underlined.  いらっしゃる or its polite form いらっしゃいます can be either "go", "come", or "be" somewhere.  Using the past tense いらっしゃいました in combination with こちらに makes the following effect:

First, if we take こちらにいらっしゃいました as "[You] went here", then the "you" went somewhere from here.  Apparently, the interpretation is contradictory.

If we take こちらにいらっしゃいました as "[You] were here", then the "you" is no longer here, which again makes the sentence contradictory.  You cannot talk face to face with the "you" that are not here.  The only possibility is that you are talking to the "you" via a voice or video communication system.  So I must make a correction on the previous post: this interpretation would alternatively be a perfectly correct one in that the sentence makes the position NOT temporary but rather no longer - how can I say - applicable.

Because someone you are talking to should be here in the original situation we've considered, "[You] came here [and you are here]" is the only possible interpretation.  With the combination with "what appointment ... for", it makes the position temporary.

I wonder if these observations make sense.  I didn't make these observations in such detail initially, because the conclusion "temporary" was so intuitive that I am sorry I didn't expect that it was so confusing.

Getting back to whether  "失礼ですが、こちらに何の用でいらっしゃいましたか？" works as "What business might you have here?", I would modify the phrase to make it work:

"どのようなご用務で普段こちらにいらっしゃるのですか。" ... well, please forget this if it's too complex unless you would be even more interested to understand the phrase...(My translation would be, "May I ask what sort of business you are usually here for?")


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## dregs

thank you, akimura.  I understand much better now.


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## kyn

Thanks for all of your answers. 
But actually what I wanted to ask in the first place was: "What are you doing here/ On what business are you here/ what business you might have here?", with the nuance: that person you are asking doesn't work here nor come here often, maybe he/she comes here this time only for some particular purpose, which you want to know.


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## akimura

Okay, so you happen to see your former teacher, customer or someone much older, which is unexpected so you wonder why he or she is here... then the following phrase would work:

こちらにはどのようなご用でいらっしゃったのですか。

こちら is a polite way of saying ここ.  何の is generally too direct; どのような generally works to give itself some indirectness, or politeness in other words.  用, again, is not polite enough; you may want to make it ご用 to make it sound polite.  いらっしゃった is a polite form of, in the case, 来た.  In toto, the above phrase is a polite way of saying, "ここには何の用で来たの？" (you can use this for a close friend of yours).

Alternatively, "こちらにはどのようなご用でいらっしゃるのですか。", which is a polite way of saying "ここには何の用でいるの？", would work.

I hope this answers your question...


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## kyn

Ok, Thanks.


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