いただいて vs 下さって

[saikushi]

こんいちは。

My Japanese teacher is leaving at the end of this semester to go teach at a different school and my class wants to do something special for her. We have a class photograph and I'm going to write some sort of phrase on the frame, but there's been some debate in my class about what to say. Two phrases that came up in conversation were:

色々教えて下さってありがとうございました
and
色々教えていただいてありがとうございました

どちらの方がいいでしょうか？I've heard both of them used before in formal thank you situations, but never quite grasped the difference (I know that 下さって　comes from くれる and いただいて comes from もらう, but contextually when to use which is confusing to me). Also, do you think this is an appropriate phrase for something like this? Would it be better to say 色々ありがとうございました or since it's just a picture frame, would simply ありがとうございました or even ありがとう be better?

よろしくおねがいします。

[Shiroisan]

in terms of asking someone to do something for you, native speakers consider using いただく as a bit more polite than くださる, according to my textbook. Not sure if thanking changes anything though.

But now my own question if anyone is willing to answer me:
How is 色々　allowed to be used in such a way? 色々な事を教えて I would understand, but how can you use 色々　as neither an adverb or adjective? Was that supposed to be a noun? *confused*.

[yangmuye]

くださって seems to be better.

Sometimes they use いただく to make it sound more formal, e.g.
色々お教えいただき、ありがとうございました
色々教えていただき、ありがとうございました

But never 色々教えてもらって、ありがとうございました or 色々教えてもらい、ありがとうございました
色々ありがとう(ございました) is also fine.

Shiroisan, 色々 = 色々と, is an adverb.

[Shiroisan]

Shiroisan, 色々 = 色々と, is an adverb.

Thanks, but then why isn't it 色々に？

[SomeCallMeChris]

Shiroisan, 色々 = 色々と, is an adverb.

Thanks, but then why isn't it 色々に？

Adverbs don't take に like that, adjectives take に like that in order to be used as adverbs.

[Shiroisan]

Shiroisan, 色々 = 色々と, is an adverb.

Thanks, but then why isn't it 色々に？

Adverbs don't take に like that, adjectives take に like that in order to be used as adverbs.

huh?
色々 is a な　adjective!

*so confused*

P.S. sorry for hijacking the thread a little bit.

[yangmuye]

Well, there are a great number of nouns/adjectives which decline irregularly.
Some adjectives seem to decline regularly, but their meanings change with their forms.

終止：色々だ
連用：色々に (rarely used. usually with copula verbs like なる, etc.)
副詞：色々と・色々
修飾：色々な・色んな(casual)・色々の(less common)
準体：色々な(の)　色んな(の)

An example of いろいろに:
それはいろいろに解釈できる

いろいろに解釈する doesn't mean 解釈のし方はいろいろだ.
It means それを解釈すると (解釈して得た)解釈はいろいろだ .
(まあ, ややこしい言い方だ)