A TV-news interview is really two different Japanese languages spliced together. The anchor and the voice-over narrate in immaculate, attribution-marked broadcast prose. Then the camera cuts to a real person answering off the cuff — and the grammar goes ragged: fillers, restarts, half-finished sentences, hedging particles. Learners who have only met tidy textbook sentences are ambushed by that second voice. This page annotates one short clip so you can read both registers: the anchor's polished 〜と話しています / 〜ということです attribution, and the interviewee's messy, human, trailing speech.
The full text
A sports segment: an ordinary company employee has been named to Japan's national team.
（アナウンサー）続いては、スポーツのニュースです。 川口市の会社員、田村健一さんが、来月の世界大会に出場する日本代表に選ばれました。
（記者）「代表内定、おめでとうございます。今のお気持ちは？」 （田村さん）「えー、まさか自分が選ばれるとは思わなくて…正直、まだ実感が湧かないというか、本当に驚いています。」 「あの、ずっと支えてくれた家族には、感謝の気持ちでいっぱいなんですけど、うまく言葉にできなくて…。」
（アナウンサー）田村さんは、本番に向けて調整を続けたいと話しています。 なお、大会は来月十日に開幕するということです。
"*Anchor: Next, some sports news. Tamura Ken'ichi, a company employee from Kawaguchi City, has been chosen for the Japanese national team competing in next month's world championship. Reporter: Congratulations on your selection. How do you feel right now? Tamura: Uh, I never thought I'd be the one chosen… honestly, it still doesn't feel real — or, I mean, I'm just so surprised. Um, I'm full of gratitude to my family, who've supported me the whole way, but… I can't really put it into words. Anchor: Tamura says he wants to keep training toward the main event. The championship, we're told, opens on the 10th of next month."*
Watch what happens across the cut. The anchor's two sentences are complete, subject-marked, and closed with clean attribution. Tamura's two sentences never actually finish — they trail off on 〜て, restart mid-thought, and lean on softeners. That contrast is the whole lesson.
The anchor's polished frame
1. The set-up. 続いては（つづいては, "next up") is standard segment-linking. The sentence is a textbook relative clause: 来月の世界大会に出場する ("competing in next month's world championship") modifies 日本代表 ("national team"). 選ばれました is the plain passive of 選ぶ ("to choose") in polite past — broadcast Japanese loves the passive for reporting events neutrally.
川口市の会社員、田村健一さんが、来月の世界大会に出場する日本代表に選ばれました。
kawaguchi-shi no kaishain, tamura ken'ichi-san ga, raigetsu no sekai taikai ni shutsujō suru nihon daihyō ni erabaremashita
Tamura Ken'ichi, a company employee from Kawaguchi City, has been chosen for the Japanese national team competing in next month's world championship.
Attribution, part 1 — 〜と話しています. When the anchor reports what Tamura said, they do not state it as fact; they attribute it. 続けたい ("wants to continue") is Tamura's own thought, and 〜と話しています ("(he) is saying that…") marks it as his words, quoted. The quotative と is the same one covered on quotation と.
田村さんは、本番に向けて調整を続けたいと話しています。
tamura-san wa, honban ni mukete chōsei o tsuzuketai to hanashite imasu
Tamura says he wants to keep training toward the main event.
Attribution, part 2 — 〜ということです. For information the broadcaster received from elsewhere (a schedule, an official announcement), the anchor uses 〜ということです — "it is reported / we are told that…." It signals hearsay-by-report: the anchor is passing on information, not vouching for it firsthand. なお（"additionally, note that") is a formal connective.
なお、大会は来月十日に開幕するということです。
nao, taikai wa raigetsu tōka ni kaimaku suru to iu koto desu
The championship, we're told, opens on the 10th of next month.
The interviewee's real, messy speech
2. The reporter's question — clipped and warm. Notice it is not a full sentence. 今のお気持ちは？trails off after the topic particle は, with rising intonation carrying the rest ("…are?"). Spoken Japanese constantly leaves the predicate to the intonation. お気持ち wears the honorific お because the feelings belong to the interviewee.
代表内定、おめでとうございます。今のお気持ちは？
daihyō naitei, omedetō gozaimasu. ima no o-kimochi wa?
(the reporter) Congratulations on your selection. How do you feel right now?
3. The answer — fillers, とは, and a trailing 〜て. This is the heart of the clip. えー is a hesitation filler (see fillers & hesitation) — buying half a second, not meaning anything. Then the key structure: 選ばれるとは思わなくて. The emphatic とは (と + は) means "the very idea that…," so 選ばれるとは思わなくて = "I never even thought that I, of all people, would be chosen." まさか ("surely not / never imagined") reinforces it. Crucially the sentence does not close — it trails on 〜て into the next thought, then restarts with というか ("or rather, I mean").
えー、まさか自分が選ばれるとは思わなくて…正直、まだ実感が湧かないというか、本当に驚いています。
ē, masaka jibun ga erabareru to wa omowanakute… shōjiki, mada jikkan ga wakanai to iu ka, hontō ni odoroite imasu
Uh, I never thought I'd be the one chosen… honestly, it still doesn't feel real — or, I mean, I'm just so surprised.
実感が湧かない（じっかんがわかない）is a set phrase, "it doesn't feel real / hasn't sunk in." というか is a self-correction hedge, softening the previous clause before restating it.
4. The softener — 〜んですけど as hedge, not "but." The second answer runs into 感謝の気持ちでいっぱいなんですけど — "I'm full of gratitude, and…." The けど here is not the contrastive "but." It is a softener: 〜んですけど trails a statement to make it gentler and to invite the listener in, exactly the way English speakers add "…, you know?" 支えてくれた（ささえてくれた）"supported me" uses the te-kureru of a favor received. And again the whole thing dissolves on うまく言葉にできなくて ("I can't quite put it into words…"), unfinished.
あの、ずっと支えてくれた家族には、感謝の気持ちでいっぱいなんですけど、うまく言葉にできなくて…。
ano, zutto sasaete kureta kazoku ni wa, kansha no kimochi de ippai nan desu kedo, umaku kotoba ni dekinakute…
Um, I'm full of gratitude to my family, who've supported me the whole way, but… I can't really put it into words.
The three attribution endings, side by side
The anchor's toolkit for reporting is worth isolating, because they look alike but are used differently. All three keep the broadcaster at arm's length from the claim.
選手は「絶対にあきらめない」と述べました。
senshu wa 'zettai ni akiramenai' to nobemashita
The athlete stated, 'I will absolutely never give up.' (〜と述べました — formal, often a direct quote)
田村さんは体調も万全だとのことです。
tamura-san wa taichō mo banzen da to no koto desu
Tamura's condition, we're told, is also perfect. (〜とのことです — reported information)
関係者によると、開会式は屋内で行われるそうです。
kankeisha ni yoru to, kaikaishiki wa okunai de okonawareru sō desu
According to insiders, the opening ceremony will be held indoors. (〜そうです — hearsay)
That last そうです is hearsay (verb plain form + そうです), covered on そうだ hearsay. Do not confuse it with the appearance そう, which attaches to the masu-stem and means "looks like":
今にも雨が降りそうです。
ima ni mo ame ga furisō desu
It looks like it could rain any minute now. (降り + そう — appearance, what you see)
Compared to English broadcast interviews
English news does something similar — "he says he wants to keep training," "reportedly opens on the 10th" — but the grammar is optional and light. Japanese makes attribution nearly obligatory and morphologically explicit: the anchor cannot smoothly report Tamura's wish without a 〜と話しています or 〜そうです stapled on. And on the interviewee's side, the two languages diverge hard. An English speaker under a camera still tends to produce full sentences; a Japanese speaker's natural, sincere-sounding answer trails off — the unfinished 〜て and the hedging けど are not failures of fluency, they are the culturally expected shape of a modest, emotional reply. Reading them as broken grammar is the core beginner mistake this page exists to fix.
Common mistakes
1. Producing a too-tidy, textbook answer. Learners answer on camera in neat, fully closed sentences; a real, sincere reaction trails and restarts.
❌ 選ばれるとは思いませんでした。とても驚いています。
Too tidy to sound like a real on-camera reaction — a genuine answer trails (思わなくて…) and restarts rather than closing every clause cleanly.
✅ まさか選ばれるとは思わなくて…本当に驚いています。
masaka erabareru to wa omowanakute… hontō ni odoroite imasu
I never thought I'd be chosen… I'm really just surprised. (natural, trailing)
2. Using a hard しかし where a soft 〜んですけど belongs. Trying to render "but," learners reach for the stiff contrastive しかし; natural speech softens with 〜んですけど, which is not really "but" at all.
❌ 感謝しています。しかし、うまく言えません。
Too stiff and contrastive — しかし is a hard 'however.' Natural spoken softening trails with 〜んですけど, a hedge, not a contradiction.
✅ 感謝しているんですけど、うまく言えなくて…
kansha shite iru n desu kedo, umaku ienakute…
I'm so grateful — I just can't put it into words… (けど softens, doesn't contrast)
3. Dropping the emphatic は from とは. Plain と is grammatical but flat; the bound とは is what carries the astonishment.
❌ 選ばれると思わなかった。
Grammatical but flat — plain と loses the surprise. Add は → とは to mean 'I never DREAMED I'd be chosen.'
✅ 選ばれるとは思わなかった。
erabareru to wa omowanakatta
I never dreamed I'd be chosen. — とは carries the astonishment.
4. Stating reported news as first-hand fact. Learners drop the attribution and assert the claim directly, when the broadcaster is only passing information on.
❌ 大会は来月十日に開幕します。
Stated as first-hand fact — but the anchor is relaying reported info, which needs 〜ということです ('we're told').
✅ 大会は来月十日に開幕するということです。
taikai wa raigetsu tōka ni kaimaku suru to iu koto desu
The championship, we're told, opens on the 10th of next month.
5. Using appearance そう for hearsay. Attachment point decides the meaning: masu-stem そう = "looks like," plain form そう = "I hear."
❌ 天気予報によると、雨が降りそうです。
Wrong そう for hearsay — 降り+そう means 'it looks like rain' (appearance). Reporting the forecast needs 降る+そう.
✅ 天気予報によると、雨が降るそうです。
tenki yohō ni yoru to, ame ga furu sō desu
According to the forecast, I hear it'll rain. (降る + そう = hearsay)
Key takeaways
- A news interview splices two registers: the anchor's polished, attribution-marked prose and the interviewee's trailing, hedged, human speech.
- The anchor reports through 〜と話しています / 〜ということです / 〜とのことです / 〜と述べました / 〜そうです — read these as "according to…," never as the anchor's own assertion.
- とは (と＋は) is emphatic — "to think that…," "of all things" — not the neutral quotative と.
- 〜んですけど / 〜と思うんですが are softeners, not "but"; and real answers trail off on 〜て and restart. That is fluent, natural Japanese, not broken grammar.
- Hearsay そう attaches to the plain form (降るそう); appearance そう attaches to the masu-stem (降りそう).
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
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- 〜そうだ: Hearsay ('I hear that')N3 — The reported-information そうだ that attaches to a full plain clause (降るそうだ, 高いそうだ, 学生だそうだ) to mean 'I hear / they say,' kept distinct from the looks-like そう by what precedes it.
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- Fillers: あの(う) / えっと / なんか / まあN4 — The hesitation fillers that lubricate real Japanese speech — あの(う), えっと, なんか, まあ — are not sloppiness but expected floor-holding and softening devices, and two of them (なんか, まあ) lead double lives you must learn to hear.