Where are we going?

2008年7月第3週分 Lesson 9  Career Activist (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Tyson talks about ways he’s found to work hard without shortchanging his family.

・ shortchange (v.) 不当に扱う

● transcendental meditation (TM)

There’s a kind of meditation called "transcendental meditation" in English. A lot of people use it for stress reduction. And that’s what they are talking about here.

● structured lifestyles

・ structured carefully organized, planned, or arranged

● blow her inner whistle 自ら警告を発する

Kinkaid talks about "blowing her inner whistle." I think she is imagining being her own referee and blowing the whistle to stop the game for a while for whatever reason.

・ blow the whistle on somebody (informal)  to tell someone in authority about something wrong that someone is doing: He blew the whistle on his colleagues. (LDOCE)

● "a nice cup at teatime"

When Kinkaid uses the word "cup," she’s probably talking about the tea inside of it, but it is possible that she enjoys using very nice bone china or some sort of special vessel to hold (??)

・ 最後の(??)は /ðɪ/ に聞こえます。まさかフランス語の thé /te/ を/ðɪ/と発音しているんじゃないですよね。

● pursue a hobby 趣味を追求する

Usually, the verb to go together with hobby is pursue. You don’t usually do a hobby. You don’t usually make a hobby. You pursue a hobby. Of course, you can also have a hobby, but that’s less focus on the actual carrying-out of whatever your activity is.

・ If you pursue an activity, interest, or plan, you carry it out or follow it. (FORMAL) (COBUILD)

● "At work or play"

In this situation, it’s okay to use the word "play" as the opposite of "work." But most of the time, English speakers don’t use the verb "play" or the word "play" to talk about leisure time. They don’t say, "I’m gonna go out to play tonight after work." That’s what children do after school. "Play" tends to be connected with children, unless there’s this specific context where it’s being contrasted to"work."

・ 「遊びに行く」 はおとなの場合，あまり play は使わない，ということ

● keep something intact ～を維持［保全］する

・ intact (adj.) not damaged or impaired in any way; complete : The church was almost in ruins, but its tower remained intact. (OALD)

● nag がみがみ言う，小言で悩ませる

"Nag" is a very specific kind of complaining. It’s usually something that’s continuous and it’s annoying and it includes the idea also of scolding.

・ If someone nags you, they keep asking you to do something you have not done yet or do not want to do. :  The more Sarah nagged her, the more stubborn Cissie became.  (COBUILD)

● focus on the positives

I think this is probably the kind of advice you’d get for any kind of close situation where you can’t escape from the other person. So, at work also, if you are having trouble, I think you might get this kind of advice to try to make your working relationship better.

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