Reading emails and messages on JFT-Basic: who, what, and by when

One of the reading texts you are almost certain to meet is a message: an email from the office, a note from a colleague, a chat message from a friend, a text from your landlord.

They look like ordinary prose, but they have a shape, and the questions follow the shape. Almost every question about a message is one of three: who wrote it, what they want, and by when. Find those three and you have most of the marks.

The shape of a Japanese work message

Here is an original example of a short office email:

件名：あしたの会議について

みなさん

おつかれさまです。総務の木村です。

あしたの会議ですが、会議室Aが使えなくなったので、3階の会議室Bに変更します。時間は変わりません。

資料は、今日の5時までにメールで送ってください。

よろしくお願いします。

It runs in a fixed order:

1. Subject (件名) - what it is about
2. Who it is to
3. Greeting and who is writing - おつかれさまです。総務の木村です。
4. The news - what has happened or changed
5. The request - what you must do
6. A closing phrase - よろしくお願いします

The greeting and the closing phrase almost never carry an answer. The middle two parts carry nearly all of them.

Question 1: who wrote it, and to whom?

This sounds too easy to be asked, but it is asked - especially when a message passes on somebody else’s words.

リンさん、店長から電話がありました。あしたは10時に来てほしいそうです。 - ハナ

Who wants Lin to come at 10:00? Not Hana, who wrote the note. The manager. The words 〜から (from) and 〜そうです (I hear that) tell you the request belongs to someone else.

Watch also for 〜によると (according to) and 〜と言っていました (said that). Each one moves the request away from the writer.

Question 2: what do they want?

The request is usually in a polite request form, so look for the endings:

• 〜てください - please do
• 〜てもらえませんか / 〜ていただけませんか - could you
• 〜てほしいです - I would like you to
• 〜ないでください - please do not

In the email above, the request is 資料をメールで送る. The room change is news, not a request. A question asking 何をしなければなりませんか wants the request, and an option about going to room B is the distractor.

The request forms are covered in polite requests.

Question 3: by when?

Deadlines are where the marks are lost, because messages often contain more than one time.

• までに - by. 5時までに送ってください: send it at any time before 5:00.
• まで - until. 5時まで待ちます: I will wait until 5:00.
• 〜中に - within. 今週中に means by the end of this week.
• 〜以内に - within a period. 3日以内に means within three days.

In the email, the meeting is tomorrow but the documents are due today. A question about the deadline will offer you あした, because あした is in the subject line. The pair までに and まで has its own guide in time expressions.

The reason clause

The other common question is “why?”. Reasons in messages come with ので or から, and sometimes ため.

台風が来るので、あしたの仕事は午後からにします。

Why does work start in the afternoon tomorrow? Because of the typhoon. The reason comes before ので, so read backwards from it.

Casual messages

Not every message is an office email. Chat messages between friends drop the polite forms and the structure:

ごめん、ちょっとおくれる。駅に着いたら、電話するね。

The same three questions still apply. Who is writing? A friend. What do they want? Nothing yet - they will phone when they arrive. By when? No time is given; only “a little late”. Casual messages are shorter, but they hide the answer in plain forms like おくれる rather than おくれます, so make sure you recognise the plain form.

A reading order that works

1. Read the two questions first.
2. Skip the greeting. Find the news and the request.
3. Circle every time and date in your head, and check which one the question means.
4. Check whether the request belongs to the writer or to someone else.

Where to practise

Mock exam 7 (hotel) and mock exam 9 (city hall, bank and housing) are set in places that run on messages and emails. Every set has at least one, though - see /mock-exams for the full list.

The answer guides, such as the mock exam 9 answers, mark which line of each message held the answer. For notices and signs, see how to read a Japanese notice.