9.3 Verbal Expressions (発話表現 — Listening Mondai 3)

Verbal Expressions (発話表現 — Listening Mondai 3)

Core Principle: 問題3 (発話表現 — Verbal Expressions) is its own official item type, carrying about 5 of the ~28 Listening items. It does not test comprehension of a conversation at all. It tests production reflex: you are shown a situation and asked what the person in it should say. Everything hangs on identifying who is speaking, to whom, and in what relationship — before the three spoken choices even begin.

Two structural facts that separate it from every other item type. First, the answer choices are spoken, not printed — the booklet shows only the illustration. Second, there are three choices, not four, a property Mondai 3 shares only with Mondai 4 (see Section 9.4).

1. Visual Arrow Perspective & Sociolinguistic Rules

In Mondai 3 (発話表現, ~5 questions), each problem presents a single black-and-white illustration in your test booklet. An arrow (矢印 - yajirushi) points directly to one specific person in the scene. Nothing else is printed in the booklet.

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     Mondai 3 Audio Architecture                        │
├───────────────────┬───────────────────────────────┬────────────────────┤
│ Step 1: Situation │ Step 2: Spoken Question       │ Step 3: 3 Choices  │
│ (Announcer sets   │ 「何と言いますか」             │ (Spoken Audio Only)│
│ scene context)    │ (What does this person say?)  │ (1, 2, or 3)       │
└───────────────────┴───────────────────────────────┴────────────────────┘

The Golden Arrow Perspective Rule

The Arrow Rule (矢印の法則): You must speak as the person with the arrow, to the person they are facing. A common fatal mistake is selecting what the other person should say in reply. Always ground your perspective in the arrow character's identity, social position, and immediate intention.

Sociolinguistic Status & Speech Register Matrix

Japanese verbal expressions change dramatically depending on the social distance and relative hierarchy between the speaker and the listener:

2. Essential Fixed Situational Formulas & Daily Rituals

Many Mondai 3 questions test fixed ritual formulas (挨拶 - aisatsu) that have exact, non-negotiable conversational pairings in Japanese society. Memorizing these reciprocal pairs is mandatory:

Master Reciprocal Greeting Pairs Table

3. Asking Permission (許可) vs. Offering Help (申し出) vs. Requests (依頼)

The single most tested grammatical distinction in Mondai 3 involves differentiating who performs the action. Test questions deliberately construct three choices where one asks for permission, one makes a request, and one offers assistance.

The Three-Way Agency Matrix

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     The Three-Way Agency Matrix                        │
├───────────────────┬────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────┤
│ Category          │ Who Does Action?   │ Core Grammatical Formula      │
├───────────────────┼────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│ 1. Permission     │ SPEAKER (Self)     │ ～てもいいですか (May I?)     │
│ 2. Request        │ LISTENER (Other)   │ ～てください (Please you do)  │
│ 3. Offer of Help  │ SPEAKER for Other  │ ～ましょうか (Shall I do?)    │
└───────────────────┴────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────┘

Concrete Example Breakdown

Imagine an illustration where a colleague is struggling to carry four heavy cardboard boxes. The arrow points at you (standing next to them with empty hands):

• Choice 1 (Request - WRONG): 「その荷物を持ってください。」 (Please carry those boxes. -> Unnatural; they are already struggling!).
• Choice 2 (Permission - WRONG): 「その荷物を持ってもいいですか。」 (May I have permission to hold those boxes? -> Grammatically asks for permission as if it were a privilege).
• Choice 3 (Offer of Help - CORRECT): 「その荷物、持ちましょうか / 手伝いましょうか。」 (Shall I carry / help with those boxes? -> Natural, polite offer of assistance).

4. Two Habits That Cost Points in Mondai 3

Habit 1: Answering as the Wrong Person

Roughly every set contains one item where the most natural-sounding line in the three choices belongs to the other character. The audio always frames it as 「（この人は）何と言いますか」 — what does this person say — and the arrow is the only thing that resolves "this person". Before the choices start, say silently to yourself: "I am the one with the arrow. I am talking to the one facing me." That single sentence eliminates one distractor per item, which across five items is a meaningful share of the Listening band.

Habit 2: Ignoring the Tense of the Formula

Japanese ritual formulas are tense-sensitive and pair with a precise moment:

An illustration showing someone about to knock on a door needs 失礼します; the same scene as they leave needs 失礼しました. The exam uses this pair constantly precisely because the words are nearly identical and the pictures differ only in body position — so read the illustration for direction of movement before you listen.