4.2 発言聴解問題: Keigo Greetings and Replies

4.2 発言聴解問題: Keigo Greetings and Replies

The 発言聴解問題 (utterance-comprehension task) presents a photo, a printed situation prompt, and a question. Four audio replies are then read aloud once. You choose the one utterance that is most appropriate to the situation — in other words, the option whose keigo level, register, and content all match the speaker-listener relationship and the action being performed. Grammar alone is not enough; the option must also be situationally correct.

The Four-Question Decision Framework

For every item, ask in order:

1. Who is the speaker? (社内の人, 社外の人, 上司, 部下, 顧客, 新人, etc.)
2. Who is the listener? (same set of roles; pay attention to relative rank)
3. What is the relationship? (同僚, 上司と部下, 社外の顧客, 初対面, 再訪, etc.)
4. What action is the utterance performing? (挨拶, 紹介, 依頼, 受諾, 謝罪, 説明, 電話の応対, 結び)

Once these four are answered, the correct keigo level follows deterministically. Skipping any one question is the most common source of error.

The Three Keigo Layers

The single most common BJT error is using kenjougo for the customer's action. For example, お目にかかります is humble self-action (I meet you); it cannot describe what the customer does. The customer meeting you is described with sonkeigo (お会いになる) or plain form (会う).

Common Situations and Correct Replies

Note that 承知いたしました and かしこまりました are interchangeable as 受諾 replies; both are correct in formal context. 了解しました is too casual for customer-facing use.

Trap Patterns

• Correct grammar, wrong keigo level. はじめてお会いになります is grammatical sonkeigo — but the subject is the speaker, who cannot receive 尊敬語. The correct form is はじめてお目にかかります.
• Humble form used for the customer's action. お客様がお目にかかります — wrong; the customer's act of meeting is described with sonkeigo (お会いになる) or plain (会う).
• 二重敬語 (double keigo). お召し上がりになる is acceptable; お召し上がりになられる is not. 伺わせていただきます is also 二重.
• Casual greeting in formal context. よろしくね, うん, わかった in a customer-facing scene is an instant wrong answer.
• Mismatched company reference. 弊社 (our company) where 御社 (your company) is required, and vice versa.
• Reply that contradicts the situation. A situation that calls for apology is met with a thank-you phrase — situation-action mismatch.

Five Mini-Practice Items

1. Situation: First meeting with the president of a client company. Best: はじめまして、お目にかかれて光栄に存じます。 Why: humble form for the speaker's act of meeting.
2. Situation: Receiving a phone request to send documents by Friday. Best: かしこまりました、金曜日までにお送りいたします。 Why: 受諾 plus humble 送る.
3. Situation: Asking a senior manager to sign a form. Best: 恐れ入りますが、こちらにサインをいただけますでしょうか。 Why: polite request, no humble overstatement.
4. Situation: Apology for a delivery delay. Best: 納期に遅れまして、大変申し訳ございません。 Why: 丁寧 apology, no 二重.
5. Situation: Presenting a new product to a customer. Best: 御社のご期待に沿えるものと存じます。 Why: 御社 (sonkeigo for the customer's company), 沿える (kenjougo), 存じます (kenjougo for 思う).

Listening Strategy

The audio plays only once. Read the photo and the printed situation prompt during the 5-second pre-roll. Identify the four-question framework answers in your head before the first option plays. As each option plays, tag it: wrong if keigo level mismatches, wrong if action mismatches situation, correct if both match. The decision should be made by the end of the fourth option — do not revisit. Re-reasoning under time pressure erodes confidence and increases errors.

Common Particle and Verb Traps

• と申します (introducing self) vs おっしゃる (referring to customer's statement)
• 伺う (visit you / hear from you — humble) vs お伺いします (also humble but slightly different register)
• 拝見する (I look at — humble) vs ご覧になる (you look at — sonkeigo)
• 参る (I go — humble) vs いらっしゃる (you go or come — sonkeigo)

Keep a one-page keigo cheat sheet and review it the night before the test. Memorise five fixed templates rather than improvising on the fly.

A Worked Example

Situation: a vendor (社外の人, 客先) telephones your company. You answer. The vendor asks to be put through to the section chief.

Step 1 Speaker: you, an internal employee answering the phone. Step 2 Listener: an external vendor (out-group, equal or higher by virtue of being a customer). Step 3 Relationship: 社外の電話応対. Step 4 Action: receiving a request and explaining an absent superior's status.

Correct reply: 恐れ入りますが、課長はただいま席を外しております。戻り次第、折り返しご連絡させましょうか。

Why this is correct:

• 恐れ入りますが opens with polite request framing.
• ただいま席を外しております uses 謙譲語 for the absent superior's state (the speaker humbles on behalf of the in-group superior when reporting to an out-group).
• 折り返しご連絡させましょうか proposes a callback with 謙譲語 (させる) and a polite question form.

Trap options likely to appear:

• 席を外れています (plain form, too casual for external phone).
• お席を外しになっています (二重敬語; also wrong because 席を外す is humble self-action and cannot receive 尊敬語).
• いません (plain, too casual for a customer-facing call).

The pattern of reporting an in-group superior's absence to an out-group customer — using 謙譲語, never 尊敬語 — is one of the highest-frequency BJT keigo scenarios.