12:53 PM
「おつかれ」 has become a sort of informal, general-purpose greeting, especially, I think, among college students, used when you meet your friend in the hallway, at the start or the end of a email/SMS conversasion etc.
This paper identifies 7 types of use for 「お疲れさま」 (and its variants), among which are 「会釈の代わり」「別れを告げる」「電話での決まり文句」 and「出会いの挨拶」.
The paper's context is specifically the workplace, but hey, if okay in the office, why not on the campus! It may even be that the practice have spilled over (trickled down?) from 会社 to 大学.
Happened across this cute and funny webcomic about teaching English in a japanese elementary school. Perfect learning material to recommend here, if this was learning english. se for japanese people.
