About 'Many thanks, in advance, for your help'

[joham]

This sentence of 'Many thanks, in advance, for your help' is used by many Chinese students of English because in Chinese culture it is much more polite that we thank someone in advance they do something to help us. But from this forum I've learned that thanking someone in advance for their help is annoying. Strangely enough, this sentence is included in the entry of ADVANCE in LONGMAN DICTIONARY OF CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH. Could I ask in what context we could use it without offending the person who is to help us?

http://www.ldoce-online.cn/dictionary/advance_1

 

[tedmc]

I have seen 'thank you in advance' or 'thank you in anticipation' in old business writings.
It is generally not used in writing in western countries though it is a common practice in Asia.
It has to do with culture. Asians tend to overemphasize on being polite and formal whereas westerners.
tend to do away with formalities. Examples are words like 'hereby', 'herewith','hereunder', etc which
are used less in western writing except legal documents but are common in Asia.

not a teacher

 

[Rover_KE]

You will not offend us by using the term, just annoy us.

It's completely unnecessary here on the forum: we have a 'Thank' button to click on when you get a helpful answer.

 

[joham]

Thanks a lot for your helpful answers, tedmc and Rover. :-D But again, the thank and like buttons on my end won't work.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Try other browsers, perhaps they work.

Not a teacher.

 

[joham]

I tried another browser, and it didn't work either.:roll:

 

[Weaver67]

This may have someting to do with the "security settings" of the browser - scripting may well be disabled (partly or completely).