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I haven’t posted anything here for a while - too busy with the real world to spend much time in cyberspace - but this time I would like to take this chance to write a post on the topic of ‘Various Ways to say してもらう’ in English.

What I am thinking about here is the various nuances that can be achieved in English for this expression. Basically, I think of 「してもらう」 as ‘getting someone to do something for you’, as in :

• The teacher got us to do a brief self-introduction (for her = the teacher).
• The President got her to reschedule the meeting (for him = the president).

As you may infer from the examples, ‘getting someone to do something for you’ suggests relationship where one person has power over another; the expression lacks any suggestion of tact or elaborate means - basically we can assume that someone effectively ‘ordered’ someone to do something. You can also use ‘have someone do something for you’ as it has the same nuance :

• The teacher had us do a brief self-introduction.
• The President had her reschedule the meeting.

I suppose it could also be used in informal situations without that ‘power’ nuance being so strong, but you should be a little careful about saying :

• I got Jo to get me some cigarettes from the convenience store.

Jo might be a little offended if he heard you talking about him like that - obviously it would be better to explain that :

• I asked Jo to get me some…
• Jo’s getting me some…

The key thing here is HOW you ‘get someone to do something for you’. If you’re just using your power or status then ‘get someone to do something for you’ is OK.

An alternative is : ‘persuade someone to do something’ as in :

• I persuaded him to come on to the second party with us.
• We persuaded the bouncer to let us back in.

In this case, it implies that ‘he’ in the first example, and ‘the bouncer’ in the second, were unwilling to do what I/we wanted, but relented after I/we reasoned or negotiated with them. Clearly, in this case the power relationship is reversed. There are a variety of variations for this kind of sentence :

• We persuaded them to increase their order.
  • (ie., we negotiated successfully and overcame their initial opposition)
• We appealed to them to increase their order.
  • (includes no info about the success or not of our negotiations, only that we formally ‘asked them’ to consider our request, usually from a position of weakness)
• We convinced them to increase their order.
  • (Our request was reasonable and backed up by logical argument - once we had explained it to them, they ‘understood’ and therefore agreed. Our position was intellectually stronger than theirs).

If you need to express that someone in a position of power over you, or of superior status to you, did something for you, then we might use expressions like :

• The boss agreed to speak to him for me.
  • (In response to a specific request from me)
• The boss was good/kind enough to pay for the whole meal.
  • (Probably without being asked to do so. Quite a formal expression, but usable in normal speech)

If you’re explaining that someone else ‘had you do something’, there are again a variety of expressions you can use :

• I was persuaded to drink another beer, though I’d really had enough by then.
  • (obviously a certain degree of ’sophistry’ may be involved here, or a kind of double irony - you don’t want to let on that you did want to drink more anyway…)
• I agreed to have another, even though I was already fairly baked.
  • (does not suggest that you were ‘forced’, or rather that kind of nuance is not as strong as with ‘persuade’)
• They twisted my arm into going on to the second party with them.
  • (a figurative expression : children often twist each other’s arms as a form of play fighting to get someone to agree to something. From there, we have the sense of forcing someone ‘in fun’ to do something they are originally against doing; again, is often used ironically)
• I was inveigled into joining them for the second party.
  • (verb is a little rare in daily speech, but not unusual in intelligent company; its rarity adds a certain comic flavour; ironic like ‘persuade’ or ‘twisted my arm’)

A fairly unsystematic, rambling selection perhaps, but hopefully not without interest for the advanced or intermediate reader.