NZ Scholarship Japanese cheat sheet

Scholarship listening uses authentic-speed Japanese (news, interviews, announcements); key information is often signalled by discourse markers such as つまり, 要するに, ただし, ところが, なお.

Distinguish register by verb endings: です・ます for polite public speech, plain form for monologue or close peers, でございます for formal service/business contexts.

Hear the difference between contracted spoken forms and their full equivalents: ちゃう＝てしまう, とく＝ておく, なきゃ＝なければ, って＝という, んだけど＝のだが.

Numbers, counters, and dates are frequent distractors: listen for 万/億 grouping, counter changes (一本/一杯/一枚), and 〜目 (ordinal) versus 〜回 (frequency).

Keigo comprehension hinges on direction: いただく (receive from superior), くださる (superior gives), 差し上げる (give to superior), 伺う (humble 'go/ask'), いらっしゃる (respectful 'be/go/come').

Task type 'what will the speaker do next' requires tracking the final clause; Japanese often places the decision after そこで or では, following background and conditions.

Intonation marks information structure: rising か/でしょう confirms, falling よね seeks agreement, and mid-sentence rise signals a topic still to be resolved.

Note-taking should record speaker, action, time, and reason separately, because questions typically ask about one of these four elements while the audio supplies all four.

Scholarship passages mix genres: newspaper editorials (だ・である体), essays (である体 with 筆者 opinion), advertisements, and notices (です・ます, imperative forms like ご遠慮ください).

Identify the 主張 (claim) by locating sentence-final patterns: べきだ, のではないか, にほかならない, と考えられる, ことは明らかだ.

Contrast markers しかし・だが・ところが・とはいえ usually introduce the author's real position after an expected counter-view.

Kanji compounds in academic prose often carry Sino-Japanese abstraction; confirm meaning from surrounding particles (を, が, に) rather than guessing from characters alone.

Reference resolution (こそあど and 前者/後者) requires matching the demonstrative to the nearest preceding or following noun phrase that fits the predicate.

Inference questions: the correct answer must be supported by the text; choices that are true in general knowledge but absent from the passage are wrong.

Tables and notices test scanning: locate the condition keyword (対象, 締め切り, 但し, 〜の場合) and check exceptions before selecting.

Paragraph function questions (what does paragraph 3 do?) map to typical roles: 具体例, 反論の提示, 原因説明, 結論の補強.

Scholarship writing is assessed on task fulfilment, coherence, lexical range, and grammatical accuracy; register must stay consistent (だ・である for essays, です・ます for letters).

Essay structure that scores well: 問題提起 → 現状/理由 → 反対意見への言及 → 自分の立場 → 結論, linked by まず, 次に, 一方, したがって.

Use 漢字 appropriately but avoid rare kanji; wrong kanji or missing okurigana (送り仮名) counts as an error, e.g. 行う vs 行なう, 表す vs 現す.

Keigo in transactional writing: お世話になっております (opening), 恐れ入りますが／ご検討いただけますと幸いです (request), よろしくお願い申し上げます (closing).

Avoid overusing とても, すごい, いろいろ; replace with 非常に, 著しく, さまざまな to demonstrate range without register clash.

Transitive/intransitive pairs are frequent error points: 増える/増やす, 決まる/決める, 始まる/始める; the particle を signals the transitive choice.

Conditional forms carry distinct nuance: と (natural consequence), ば (hypothetical condition), たら (temporal/conditional), なら (topic-based). Choose to match the intended logic.

Punctuation and paragraphing: 句点 ends sentences, 読点 separates clauses; one idea per paragraph, with the topic sentence first in academic Japanese.

Honorific system has three axes: 尊敬語 (elevate other), 謙譲語 (lower self), 丁寧語 (polite form); choosing wrongly is a cultural as well as linguistic error.

Uchi/soto framing governs language: in-group members (family, own company) take humble forms even when senior; out-group takes respectful forms.

Indirect refusal conventions: 検討します, 難しいですね, ちょっと… often signal refusal; direct いいえ is rare in formal negotiation.

Aizuchi (相槌) such as はい, そうですね, なるほど maintains rapport and does not always mean agreement.

Seasonal and social concepts recur: 本音/建前 (true feeling vs public stance), 空気を読む, 義理, 遠慮, おもてなし.

Annual and life-event vocabulary: 成人式, お盆, 正月, 花見, 卒業式, 就職活動; understanding timing and social meaning aids passage comprehension.

Business card and greeting etiquette: receive with both hands, bow, and read the card; address the person by surname plus 様 in formal correspondence.

Regional and generational variation appears in dialect and youth speech; standard Japanese (共通語) is the written norm, and dialect in dialogue usually signals character or setting.