How to give a "professional" compliment as a brief aside ("I just wanted to say…", "As a side note, I really…", etc.)?


Say you're having a conversation with someone broadly in the same line of work
as you whom you don't know very well, in an only mildly informal setting—like,
near the snack table after a talk you both attended or something. One of you
has asked the other about something technical and the other is in the middle
of explaining. You admire some of their work, and want to mention this as a
brief aside amidst the "cut-and-dry" technical talk. (American?) English
speakers will often introduce such statements with a brief opening phrase that
sets it apart from the "serious" material: " _By the way, I just wanted to
say_ , I really enjoyed your massive treatise on duck courtship rituals from
2012," or, " _Oh, just as a side note,_ I thought your kazoo madrigal was
really great, it was so inventive!" Does something similar happen in Japanese,
and if so, how does it play out?

The best guess I have is using「お伝えしたいことが……」, which seems to capture something
akin to "I wanted to say" with the right combination of formal and
conversational(?) But I feel like there are probably other approaches that
would also work (provided that that phrase even does work which I'm obviously
not sure of). There's also 「言っておきたいことがあります」and variants but of course those
seem more along the lines of "There is something I want to tell you" which is
maybe not quite right for this case (too much like you're preparing to admit
something, maybe).

There's also terser phrases like「ところで」or「ときに」.「ところで」seems maybe a bit too
terse and informal…? 「ときに」seems maybe a bit closer but also kind of overly
casual(?), and also it seems to carry stronger connotations of "sometimes" or
"now and again" or the like that might kind of clash weirdly with this
usage(?) Maybe there are ways to work these sorts of words into larger
constructions that would have the right nuance?「ところで、お伝えしたいことが……」perhaps…? I'm
a little worried「ところで」is just slightly too familiar but I'm not positive—maybe
it would come down to personal style or the particulars of the conversation?

There's also much stiffer phrases like「注記として」or「補足として」but it seems kind of
weird to use those outside of like a formal written document or at best a
prepared lecture or something. Again, though, maybe I'm wrong.




Only ところで sounds right to me. It’s quite neutral in register.

お伝えしたいことが is inappropriate for the same reason you suspected 言っておきたいことがあります
might not be quite right, although it is less bad just because it doesn’t use
the subsidiary verb おく.

ときに in the sense of ところで sounds archaic.

This means there is no good equivalent for “ _I just wanted to say …_ ” in
this context because ところで just means “ _by the way_.”




Only ところで sounds right to me. It’s quite neutral in register.

お伝えしたいことが is inappropriate for the same reason you suspected 言っておきたいことがあります
might not be quite right, although it is less bad just because it doesn’t use
the subsidiary verb おく.

ときに in the sense of ところで sounds archaic.

This means there is no good equivalent for “ _I just wanted to say …_ ” in
this context because ところで just means “ _by the way_.”

