お願ねがいします is used when you want someone to do something for you, like saying “please” in English. For example,when a shop clerk asks if you would like your bento heated, you answer お願ねがいします for “yes, please”, because you are requesting them to perform the action of heating it.

ください, on the other hand, literally means “please give (it to me)”. It is used when you want someone to hand you something. If you answered with ください when asked whether to heat your bento, it would sound strange, since it would literally mean “please give it to me”.

ください is used when you want to receive something. For example, when a shop clerk asks if you need a plastic bag, you can reply with ください to mean “please give me one”.

You can also use お願ねがいします in the same situation:

ください combined with a verb can be used to request someone to do some specific action. You can attach ください to te-form of a verb. For example:

Using 温あたためてください is fine, but in practice, people tend to prefer お願ねがいします. The reason is nuance: お願ねがいします literally means “please” or “I plead you”. “Plead” in this sentence is your own action. In contrast, 温あたためてください directly requests someone else to take an action, which can sound a little more assertive, as if you’re instructing them.

That said, the difference is very slight. 温あたためてください is still fine to use, and you don’t need to worry about it sounding offensive. It is just that お願ねがいしますsounds indirect and soft when asking someone to do something, so it is often preferred in this kind of situations.

Another thing you should note: with the 「〜てください」 structure, you can’t omit the verb part. For example:

This sounds awkward because in Japanese it’s uncommon to drop the verb and leave only 「ください」. The verb part (here, 温あたためて) needs to be included for the sentence to sound natural.

バイト敬語けいご refers to the polite forms of language that part-timers typically use at the convenience stores, supermarkets, izakayas, or other service settings. These expressions are often considered “improper” or “inappropriate”.

For example, at the convenience store, imagine you bring an M-size iced coffee to the cash register. The shop clerk might take the iced coffee and say:

It has three typical バイト敬語けいご expressions:

〜になりますが

〜のほう

よろしかったでしょうか

As I explained in the Dialogue 4, 〜になります (same as 〜となります) means “to become ~”, and used to express some kind of change. If you take it literally, it means “this iced coffee will turn into M size”. This 〜になります is totally replaceable with です, so it seems like people use this expression just to make the sentence longer, so they feel it sounds more polite.

ほう in 〜のほう emphasizes “side”; it is used in binary comparisons. We have options, A and B. If you want to say “as for A ...” in this situation, people would say “Aのほうは...” So ほう is used to emphasize one side in binary comparisons. In バイト敬語けいご, people tend to use ほう with many nouns, even when there’s no counterpart for the comparison.

よろしかったでしょうか is the past tense of よろしいでしょうか, which by itself is already a very polite expression. It is unnecessary to use the past form.

バイト敬語けいご often adds many unnecessary parts and makes a sentence unnecessarily long. That sentence can be shortened to:

Or even shorter:

These “inappropriate” expressions have become so widespread in Japanese society that they are becoming the norm in the service industry. In places where employees are trained on how they should conduct themselves in front of customers, these expressions tend to be avoided. However, since “what is inappropriate” is often unclear and not strictly defined, the confusion surrounding language use seems to be growing even further.