Mainly inspired by [this question on what seems to be the misuse of a standard
idiom by a Japanese
employee](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/798/usage-of-chdo/), I
was reminded of being told about バイト敬{けい}語{ご} ("manual keigo") in the past: a
slightly dumbed-down sonkeigo crash course handed to new kombini recruits,
that covers the basics but often results in widespread misuse of proper keigo
forms at the hands of young Japanese unused to this level of speech.

I know there were a couple very specific examples of classic mistakes
(generally: confusions between sonkeigo and kenjôgo).
[Wikipedia](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%90%E3%82%A4%E3%83%88%E6%95%AC%E8%AA%9E)
([en](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manual_keigo)) lists a few disputed forms
(「おつぎのお客{きゃく}様{さま}」,「〜になります」...) present in the manuals themselves...

I'd be interested to hear if anybody has other examples of egregious misuse
and why they are not correct.
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keigo business-japanese
What are common mistakes made by Japanese kombini employees speaking "manual keigo" (バイト敬語)
Using ～から like １万円 **から** お預かりします, which seems to be grammatically incorrect.
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2011-06-13T09:20:57.543
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2011-06-13T09:36:14.123
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> お釣りは、◯◯円になります。

If someone said this, I'd reply with

> おおすごい! 本当に◯◯円になったよ。手品か?!  
>  _Wowie! It really became xx yen. Is it a magic trick?!_
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2011-07-17T15:51:30.917
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Another one that is frequently brought up is 「ご注文は以上でよろしかったでしょうか？」, where the
"correct" form is 「ご注文は以上でよろしいでしょうか？」.

Adding 「～のほう」 is also very common (e.g. 「お車のほうは大丈夫でしたか？」).

These are all attempts to soften the language (i.e. to be more polite) (at
least according to my theory!). The first example uses past tense, the second
uses an indirection by talking about the "direction where the car is" rather
than just directly mentioning the car itself.

IMO it's always tough to define what is "incorrect" and "correct". After all,
even when you look at the Japanese language just 30 years ago, it's quite
different from how it's spoken now. Not to mention how it changed since the
Meiji-era etc. :p

Personally I find these indirections annoying but perhaps that's just how the
language is evolving. Right now though, it is true that many consider these 敬語
to be wrong. Especially older ppl.
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