while watching a Japanese VTuber, they used 本日 for the word today in a chat message, which is very new to me as I’m only aware of using 今日 for expressing the word today.
I discovered through Google that this is a politeness thing, my question is, is this something I should dive into deeper in understanding or would I be fine enough just using 今日 and not get too hung up about learning more about 本日?
本日 is basically used whenever keigo is appropriate, so you’ll naturally see it and come to use it when you use keigo. For now, no need to worry about it!
announcements, news, schedules, etc: 本日
talking normally: 今日
here’s one of my all-time favourite situationally too-formal tweets as an example:
With words like this, for the vast majority of learners its only important that you understand it when you see it. By the time you would be in situations you’re expected to use it yourself, you’d certainly already have a natural feel for where it is natural. So definitely don’t get hung up on words like 本日.