Japanese Reading Practice N4: A Train Delay and an Apology

The story: 電車が遅れた日

Read the text once without stopping. The narrator is going to meet a friend to see a film on a Sunday afternoon.

The story mixes two registers: polite narration and two casual quoted messages. When you reach a 「」 bracket, switch your mental voice to a friend's chat style. If you read the casual lines as if they were polite, the dropped particles and short forms will look like mistakes.

Vocabulary notes

These are the words you meet on train displays and in late-running messages.

約束 and 予定 are easy to mix up. 約束 is an arrangement with another person, so you can say 友だちと約束がある. 予定 is any plan on your schedule, with or without others. Also notice 遅れる (to be late) and 遅延 (delay): the same kanji 遅, but the second is the written word you see on station displays such as 遅延 or 運転見合わせ.

Grammar notes: two kinds of そう, quoting and resolutions

Pairs again: a line from the story first, a new example second.

The hearsay そうです takes a full plain form: あったそうです, 雨だそうです. The looks-like そう attaches to a verb stem: 遅れそう, 降りそう. In the story, the first is information the narrator heard; the second is the narrator's own prediction. Quotation with 「…」と言いました keeps the speaker's original words and register; in casual speech, と often becomes って.

Saying sorry when you are late

Japanese has several levels of apology, and lateness is where learners use them most. With friends, short casual forms are natural and a reason is optional. With teachers, colleagues and clients, use polite forms, give the reason briefly and say when you will arrive. Many people message before the meeting time rather than after, which counts as good manners in itself.

When you finally arrive, a second apology is normal, as the narrator does in the story. With friends, 待たせてごめん is warm and natural. In polite settings, お待たせしました or 遅くなって申し訳ありません is expected.

Reading traps in this text

• 遅れることが分かったので uses 分かる in the sense of found out or realised, not understood. こと turns 遅れる into the fact that I would be late.
• 返事をくれました is くれる used with a noun: my friend gave me a reply. You will see the same pattern in プレゼントをくれた.
• 映画はもう始まっていました is ている in the past for a state: the film had already started. It does not mean it was starting.
• 走ってカフェに行って uses 走って for manner: I went to the café by running, not I ran and then went.
• 次の回にしよう uses 〜にする, to decide on, in the volitional form: let's go for the next showing.

Check your understanding

Three questions. The answers are below.

• Why did the train stop?
• What did the friend do while waiting?
• Why can't the narrator use a delay certificate with a friend?

Answers

Question 3 asks you to read between the lines. The text never says why the certificate is useless; you need the background knowledge in the vocabulary notes. JLPT reading questions sometimes work the same way, so it pays to notice when a writer is making a small joke.

Read it aloud, two voices

• Read the narration in a calm polite voice, sentence by sentence.
• Read the two quoted messages faster and lighter, as real chat: gomen, densha ga tomattete.
• Watch the long vowels and double consonants: shingō, nijuppun, chien shōmeisho.
• Read the whole story at a natural pace without stopping at quotes.
• Retell it in four sentences, using 〜そうです once and 〜ようと思います once.

Practise the message you will actually send

Next time a train stops, you will have about a minute to type something. Prepare it now: write a casual late message to a friend and a polite one to a teacher, and send both to Mocchi on Unihongo. Mocchi will correct them, tell you whether each register fits the person, and remember any mistake you keep making with 〜そう.

Then make it spoken. The roleplay mission Call Work About a Train Delay in AI Sensei puts you on the phone with your workplace while the train is stuck, so you practise the polite version under a little time pressure.