Who receives the favour? 授受 verbs in a workplace report
Rina is a trainee at a small design office. Her supervisor, Mr. Sato, spent two hours on Monday teaching her how to use the company printing machine, and she wants to write about it twice: once in her weekly report, where Mr. Sato is the subject of the sentence, and once in a thank-you message to a friend, where she herself is the subject. She drafts 「佐藤さんは私に印刷機の使い方を教えてもらいました」 and 「私は佐藤さんに印刷機の使い方を教えてくれました」. Her colleague says both are wrong, but for different reasons. Rina also wants to add one line about helping a newer trainee next week.
1. Fix the weekly-report sentence, where Mr. Sato must stay the subject, and explain the choice.
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Write 「佐藤さんは私に印刷機の使い方を教えてくださいました」. ～てくれる describes someone giving a favour to the speaker's side, and the giver is the subject, so 佐藤さんは…教えてくれた is the correct frame; くださいました raises it to polite workplace level. ～てもらう reverses the viewpoint: 私は佐藤さんに教えてもらった is right, but 佐藤さんは…もらった wrongly makes the supervisor the receiver. The subject of もらう must be the beneficiary, which is exactly why Rina's first draft cannot stand.
2. Fix the thank-you message to a friend, where Rina is the subject, and explain why the original sounds odd.
Read the worked answer
Write 「私は佐藤さんに印刷機の使い方を教えてもらいました」. With もらう the subject is the person who benefits, and the teacher is marked by に. Rina's draft puts 私は as subject with 教えてくれました, but くれる takes the giver as subject and the receiver as に - so the sentence literally claims that Rina did the favour for Mr. Sato. The pair to memorise is: giver as subject → てくれる; receiver as subject → てもらう. Which one to use depends on whose viewpoint the report is written from.
3. For the line about helping a newer trainee next week, which form fits, and what should Rina watch out for?
Read the worked answer
「来週、新しい研修生に印刷機の使い方を教えてあげるつもりです」 is structurally fine: Rina is the giver, the trainee is lower in status, so てあげる works. The risk is social, not grammatical. てあげる foregrounds the benefit the speaker confers and can sound condescending, especially upward or to equals; with a supervisor Rina must switch to てさしあげる only with great care, or better, avoid the pattern entirely and say お手伝いしましょうか. In a report to colleagues, a plain 「教える予定です」 is often the safest choice.