2009年03月第1週分 Lesson 11  Going Green (1)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Ecological commuting starts the talk in the office this morning.

● compliment  ほめことば，おせじ

Sometimes people use compliments — false compliments or empty compliments — just to try to flatter somebody. I think usually people just say, "Thanks" after a compliment. Occasionally they say, "No, no, no. It’s not because of me. I was just lucky." But all that is necessary is just smile and say "Thanks."

・ compliment   1. a remark that expresses praise or admiration of somebody

2. compliments <formal> polite words or good wishes, especially when used to express praise and admiration  (OALD)

● driving instructor 運転教習のインストラクター

I think in most parts of the US, it’s not required that you go to driving school or hire a driving instructor to get your license. But a lot of insurance companies will give , like your father, a discount on car insurance, if the kid takes driving lessons. So I suppose Melinda Kinkaid’s long-ago driving instructor could possibly have been one of  her high school teachers. When I was in high school, I took drivers’ ed. You could use it as part of your requirement for like health class or physical education class, although driving, I guess, isn’t all that physical.

Nowadays when I go back to the US, because I usually don’t drive and I also don’t drive on every trip when I go back, but if I’ve decided to drive to rent a car, I usually hire a driving instructor for a couple of hours before actually I rent the car, because I’m just not used to driving and it gives me a lot more confidence.

● form a carpool   カープール（相乗り）する

Kim uses the word carpool as a noun in this case, but you can also use it as a verb: you can carpool with your neighbors, for example.

・ carpool   1  a group of people who agree to travel together to work, school etc in one car and share the cost
2 a group of cars that a company or organization owns for its workers or members to use   (LDOCE)

● in the driver’s seat   運転する，運転手を務める

Kinkaid’s using the phrase "in the driver’s seat" literally; she sits on the seat and drives the car. But you can also use this phrase figuratively. It means you call the shots, you’re in charge, you’re the boss, you decide the direction.

・ call the shots  決定を下す，意のままに操る

call the shots/tune <informal> to be in a position of authority so that you can give orders and make decisions:  It was a job in which she was able to call the shots.   (LDOCE)

● carbon footprint   二酸化炭素の排出量

In the US, the phrase carbon footprint is used a lot when people are talking about global warming especially. A carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide given off by various activities. So, for example, if you drive a large car that doesn’t get very good mileage, you have a much larger carbon footprint than if you drive a hybrid or a smaller, more efficient gasoline-powered car.

・ carbon footprint   A measure of the amount of carbon dioxide produced by a person, organization or state in a given time (Wiktionary)

● daily trek   毎日の行程（長くてつらい旅）

・ trek   1. a long, hard walk lasting several days or weeks, especially in the mountains  2. <informal> a long walk   (OALD)

● do one’s homework   下調べする，調査する

The phrase "you’ve been doing your homework" is often used outside of school for things that have no connection with school, to talk about somebody who’s well prepared, someone who’s looked carefully into the background of whatever the main point is.

・ homework   2. if you do your homework, you prepare for an important activity by finding out information you need : It’s worth doing a bit of homework before buying a computer. (LDOCE)

● high time   （・・・すべき）ころあい，潮時

• Kinkaid uses the phrase high time, to mean basically "now"; it’s time. A similar phrase is "it’s about time." High time, though, can mean the latest possible moment or just slightly later than the best time.

・ it’s about time also it’s high time    <spoken>    used to say strongly that you think something should happen soon or should already have happened: It’s about time our team won.  /  It’s high time we had a party.  (LDOCE)

2009.03.05

2009年03月第1週分 Lesson 11  Going Green (2)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Tyson says he started bicycling or walking to work instead of carpooling, while Kim turns the conversation to new sources of green energy.

● do something practical about saving the environment

Tyson uses the phrase "do something practical about saving the environment." So he means doing something useful, not just an empty gesture. Another way you can say that is to take a kind of a set phrase and twist it. He could have said something like "Don’t just do something, stand there." The original phrase is when there’s some kind of problem, "Don’t you stand there, do something."

● smart money   情報通の投資家による投資金（← あたまのいいお金）

smart のつく 語句

● be poised for ～ ～への態勢がすっかり整っている

・ poised (for something/ to do something) completely ready for something or to do something : The economy is poised for recovery. / Kate is poised to become the highest-paid supermodel in the fashion world.   (OALD)

● nonrenewable energy   再生可能でないエネルギー

Another way to talk about nonrenewable energy is to call it fossil fuels. It usually refers to gas, oil and coal.

・ renewable energy   energy that is replaced naturally or controlled carefully and therefore be used without the risk of finishing it all  (OALD) （具体的には， solar, wind, tidal, biofuel, geothermal など）

● greenback  ドル紙幣，金

Tyson makes a little play on the word green: in this vignette, talking about environmental matters and in the US, it’s usually shortened by using the word green; however, greenback is an old slang word for dollars in English.

・ buck, dough なども「金」

Yeah. There’s one related to dough. I think, in the 60s, people used to say bread to mean money.

・ 「お金」をあらわす俗語

● smart

Earlier, Kim uses the word smart to mean intelligent. Here again, Tyson uses the word smart to mean intelligent. I think usually that’s the main usage of the word in English, although you can use it to mean elegant or fashionable.

・ smart の意味としては，日本語の「スマート」よりも，「頭がいい」の意味がメインだということ。

● green-collar jobs   環境保護に関係のある職

Kim uses the phrase green-collar to talk about kinds of jobs. The phrase -collar is often used in English to talk about different types of work. So green-collar is fairly new to talk about new jobs that will probably be created, related to more ecologically correct or aware. Many others include white-collar, which tend to be office workers or management, blue-collar, which tend to be laborers, and even black-collar, which, I haven’t seen a lot, but refers to black market people, and even gray-collar where it’s not quite clear what’s category they fit in; they’re probably not laborers but they’re also maybe not higher level office workers, either.

・ gray-collar

・ blue/white/gray/black 以外の 色-collar で辞書に載っているのは，

• gold-collar 「頭脳労働者」
• pink-collar 「（オフィス・レストランなどで）おもに女性がやる給料の安いしごと

● get in on the ground floor 最初の段階から関わる

To get in on the ground floor is to get in on a level and at the same time as the promoters or the starters of some kind of a business or even new industry. A somewhat recent example would be administrative assistants, who started working in some of the Internet-related startups, and found themselves millionaires after a few years, because of company’s stock sharing programs.

・ be/get in on the ground floor    to become involved in a plan, business activity etc from the beginning (LDOCE)

・ startup   a company that is just beginning to operate, especially an Internet company  (OALD)

● stake out    確保とする

・ stake out

1    to watch a place secretly and continuously: Police officers have been staking out the warehouse for weeks.
2    to mark or control a particular area so that you can have it or use it: We went to the show early to stake out a good spot.   (LDOCE)

2009.03.06

2009年03月第1週分 Lesson 11  Going Green (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The team continues discussing green topics, taking up the emerging businesses and how existing businesses are becoming greener.

● I’ll say.    まったくです。そうですとも。

・ I’ll say! <old-fashioned, informal> used for emphasis to say ‘yes’ : ‘Does she see him often?’ ‘I’ll say! Nearly every day.’ (OALD)

● poised for growth 成功が確実視されて

Poised is the word you can use in two main ways: one is as an adjective to mean that you are assured or composed, describes people are comfortable in most kinds of situations. In this case, it’s the second meaning. He’s saying that these companies are ready or balanced for action: they’re ready to jump; they’re ready for growth.

・ poised   1  not moving, but ready to move or do something at any moment
2  completely ready to do something or for something to happen, when it is likely to happen soon
poised to do something   
3 poised between something and something    to be in a position or situation in which two things have an equally strong influence:
The world stood poised between peace and war.
4    behaving in a calm, confident way, and able to control your feelings and reactions:   (LDOCE)
 

● errand   用事，用足し

The word errand is kind of unusual. A lot of people use it, in my experience, to talk about things you have to do outside of the house. Running errands refers to going to the bank or dropping off or picking up dry cleaning — all those kinds of small things that you have to do every day to keep your life in order. But you do them outside of the house. It comes from English through Germanic routes, where it originally meant message. So, today, if you look in the dictionary and check the word errand, most dictionaries include the idea that errands are run for someone else, at least some of the time. Some dictionaries say it’s usually something that you do for someone else. In my experience, that’s not the main meaning of it. Maybe it’s changed somewhat in US English.

・ errand   a short journey in order to do something for someone, for example delivering or collecting something for them: I seemed to spend my life running errands for people. : She was always sending me on errands.   (LDOCE)

a short journey undertaken in order to deliver or collect something, often on someone’s behalf (NOAD)

何冊か見る限りでは，すべての辞書に「他人のため」ということばがあります。

・ drop off （荷物などを）乗り物から途中で降ろす，届ける

● feel-good 気分を良くさせる

Kinkaid uses the phrase "feel-good factor." And she’s talking about how having a job or starting a company that’s also good for the community or the environment makes you feel good, as well as have good economic results. So, a lot of people are drawn to green jobs and green businesses. However, the phrase feel-good can also be used in the opposite way, to mean something that’s sort of showy or false. It doesn’t have a good result. It only makes you feel a little better

・ feel-good   1 feel-good film/programme/music etc    a film etc whose main purpose is to make you feel happy
2 feel-good factor <especially British English>   a feeling among ordinary people that everything is going well, and that they do not need to worry about losing their jobs or spending money

● go green 環境に配慮するようになる

In English, the word going is often used to talk about choosing to become something. So, in this case, going green means people are choosing to become more environmentally aware and to live a more environmentally neutral kind of a life. You can say things like go public. Going public means you are letting people know something that previously had not been know by many people. You can go vegan, you can go blond even, meaning you choose to change the color of your hair.

・ go public   公表する，上場する

a) to tell everyone about something that was secret

go public on/with   The planners are almost ready to go public on the road-building scheme.

b)  to become a public company: Many partnerships went public in the 1980s to secure extra capital. (LDOCE)

・ vegan  菜食主義者（の）

● throwaway    使い捨ての

Instead of throwaway, you could have used the word disposable.

2009.03.11

2009年03月第2週分 Lesson 11  Going Green (4)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Kim says that green consciousness is key to how things change when people think about living more ecologically.

● break old habits 古い習慣をやめる

Kim talks about "breaking old habits." You could also say "break a bad habit." If you break a habit, you smash it, you destroy it, so that it has no more control over you. You can also use break with the word with: break with. Usually it’s someone or a group. And in that case, it doesn’t mean smash or destroy. It means separate from, usually because you disagree with them or they’ve insulted you or something bad has happened. And one more phrase using the word break is break up with. And that very clearly is end relationship with a boyfriend or a girlfriend or some other significant other. It could even be your spouse.

・ break with     If you break with a group of people or a traditional way of doing things, or you break your connection with them, you stop being involved with that group or stop doing things in that way:  In 1959, Akihito broke with imperial tradition by marrying a commoner. /  They were determined to break from precedent. /  They have yet to break the link with the trade unions.  (COBUILD)

● uncool  かっこ悪い

Usually, the word cool is used without un. Of course you can add un and talk about things that are not cool like Kinkaid did. But it’s very noticeable, because it’s not used much.

● take ～ too far 度を超す，やり過ぎる

You can take things too far, but  you can also take things to the limit, which is not quite too far, but it has everybody really worried.

・ go too far  also  take/carry something too far    to do something too extreme: One day she will go too far. / Some people thought he had gone too far in his criticism of the police.  (LDOCE)  go は自動詞，take/carryは他動詞

● Huh ええっ？

"Huh" is a very casual way to express yourself. In this case, Shiga uses it as a question. If you want to sound a little less casual, you could say "What?" Also your intonation is important. If you listen again carefully, you’ll hear his voice rise. So it’s clear he means "What? I’m surprised." You can also say "Huh(↘)," which basically means "Is that right? (↘). I didn’t know that. That’s kind of interesting."

● weird   奇妙な，変な

• strange なじみがなく，未知で不可解な奇妙さ ［他の意味: 未知の，見知らぬ］
• peculiar 他のものにない独特な奇妙さ ［他の意味: 独特な］
• odd あまり見当たらないような，または常識に反するような奇妙さ ［他の意味: 半端な，雑多の］
• queer 非常に風変わりで説明できない［他の意味: あやしい］
• curious 人の好奇心を引くような珍しさ［他の意味: 好奇心の強い］
• bizarre とても奇妙で，とっぴな［他の意味: 奇怪な］
• eccentric （人・人の行動が）とっぴで風変わりな
• weird 《インフォーマル》 奇妙な，気味の悪い
• funny  へんな［他の意味: おもしろおかしい］

● I don’t get it.   理解できない，よくわからない

He could have said, "That doesn’t make sense."

● load   負担・負荷［の量］

Kim uses the phrase the load, to talk about how much work dishwashers are doing. It’s not really talking  about weight. It’s talking more about amount: how much work the dishwasher has to do.

・ load     the amount of work that a person or machine has to do

● load up with   ～を積み込む，～を大盛りにする

And again, Kim uses the word load, in this case in the phrase load up with, which usually means to provide yourself with a large supply of something.

・ load up    to put a large quantity of something into a vehicle or container [≠ unload]: Have you finished loading up? / It took an hour to load the van. / Will you help me load the dishwasher?  (LDOCE)

● keep unhealthy pounds off   ぜい肉がつかないようにする

・ keep the weight off   become thinner or stay thin

● catch on   人気になる，流行する

Kinkaid uses the phrase catch on. In this case, it means "become popular." But you can also use the phrase catch on to something to mean "begin to understand it."

・ catch on
1    to become popular and fashionable:
The idea of glasses being a fashion item has been slow to catch on.
2    to begin to understand or realize something
catch on to   
It was a long time before the police caught on to what he was really doing.  (LDOCE)

● in the long run   長い目で見れば

In the long run is a phrase people use fairly often. It’s a very common phrase when you want to refer to a rather lengthy period of time.

2009.03.12

2009年03月第2週分 Lesson 11  Going Green (5)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

== Key Phrases to Remember ==

● be in the driver’s seat  運転手を務める，運転する，指導者［責任者］の地位にある

・ at the helm    舵を取って，指揮を執って in charge of an organization, project, etc.  (OALD)

● high time  （～すべき）ころあい，潮時

High time is kind of an interesting word. It tends to mean appropriate time, but you can also use it to mean "just past the appropriate time." A similar phrase is "it’s about time." And that usually means "Do it now; Time is appropriate."

● not to mention ～は言うまでもなく，～に加えて

・ to say nothing of ～ と同じ。Needless to say とは，ちょっと違う。

He excels his classmates in math, not to mention English.

Needless to say, he excels his classmates in math.

● get a boost from  ～のおかげで勢いづく，～から追い風を受けている

→ 実践ビジネス英語 2008.12.19

● smoke in public  人前で喫煙する

● make a difference  違いを生み出す，成果［影響］を生じる，重要である

There are a couple of phrases you can use to say the opposite: there isn’t much of a difference. People often say "makes no difference." Or you can even say "Same difference," which sounds very kind of dismissive, like you don’t really even care about it.

・ Same difference. 「同じことだよ」   used to say that you think the differences between two things are not important : ‘That’s not a xylophone, it’s a glockenspiel.’ ‘Same difference.’  (OALD)

==  あんな時，こんな時 ==

「・・・のように聞こえる」という時 (it) sounds like

● Terry seems (to be, like he’s) happy in his new job. 話し手が直接テリーに会って「幸せそうに見える」と判断している

It seems Terry’s happy with his new company. 人づてに聞いたという語感。

● seemingly  「表面上は～に見えるが実際はそうではない」という語感

This phrase is quite clear that it’s a superficial kind of a thing. But all of the phrases — if you use the right intonation, you can give that extra meaning to them.

・ seemingly 「実際はそうではない」の含意があるのか否か

(OALD) in a way that appears to be true but may in fact not be

(LDOCE) appearing to have a particular quality, when this may or may not be true

(COBUILD) If something is seemingly the case, you mean that it appears to be the case, even though it may not really be so.

● clench one’s fist  こぶしを握りしめる（怒りのジェスチャー）

・ clench your fists/teeth/jaw etc    to hold your hands, teeth etc together tightly, usually because you feel angry or determined: Jody was pacing the sidelines, her fists clenched. (LDOCE)

● guise   見せかけ，外観

Guise is the word that’s not used that much in English, except in this kind of a situation where you need to draw special attention to somebody’s appearance. And in this case, it does mean appearance. There’s another word, though, that’s used a lot in English — disguise, which means changing your appearance, hiding your appearance.

2009.03.13

2009年03月第2週分 Lesson 11  Going Green (6)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

S = 杉田敏      I = Susan Iwamoto

S: We’ve been talking about going green and doing things such as carpooling and carrying reusable shopping bags. How about you, Susan? How green is your life style?

I: Well, not green enough, yet. But I am making an effort. My local supermarket, like Shiga Hiroshi’s, gave away reusable shopping bags during a special promotion last year, and since then, I brought them with me to the store as much as possible. I just wish we could reduce the amount of packaging of food and household items in the stores, as well.

・ give away  「（無料で）配布する」 give something as a gift

S: I’ve noticed more and more shoppers toting reusable bags in Japan and in China. Has this caught on in a big way in the States, too?

I: I think it’s a growing trend in both the US and Japan. During my last few trips to the U.S, I’ve noticed many more supermarkets and retail stores offering reusable shopping bags for sale or as a special give-away. Many supermarkets offer incentives such as discounts to shoppers who bring their own bag. Plus, there was a designer shopping bag craze a year or two ago. Do you remember when a famous British designer created that fashionable and inexpensive shopping bag?

・ catch on  はやる to become popular or fashionable (OALD)

・ in a big way    大規模に on a large scale  (OALD)

S: Sure. People would line up to get one.

I: Yes, for hours on end. That was crazy. I don’t know whether they were motivated more by fashion or out of concern for the environment. But reasonable shopping bags are a step in the right direction.

・ line up  行列を作る to stand in a line or row; to form a queue

S: Sue Kim and Melinda Kinkaid talked about the virtues of carpooling. Did you ever carpool in the States?

I: Actually no, but that’s because I’ve been fortunate enough to live in cities with excellent mass-transit systems, or I lived close enough to the office to walk or bike there. Not everyone has that option, though. And carpooling is popular in many cities in the States. There’re even special lanes on highways reserved for carpoolers. These are called HOV lanes and it stands for high-occupancy vehicle lanes, and you must have at least two or three people in your car to use them. These lanes offer a much speedier alternative to rush-hour traffic.

・ HOV lane (high-occupancy vehicle lane)  a lane on main roads that can only be used by vehicles carrying three or more passengers when there is a lot of traffic  (LDOCE)

S: That sounds like a great alternative for people who can arrange a carpool, but I guess that’s not always an easy option for some people.

I: That’s true, but there is a creative solution to that. In Washington D.C. for example, — the city infamous for its horrendous traffic jams — commuters there practice something called slugging. It’s also known as casual- or instant- carpooling. And it could be seen as a type of organized hitchhiking. Sluggers, as they are called, line up at designated spots and wait for solo drivers to pull up. The driver shouts out his or her destination and the first two people in line who’d like to go to the same place hop in. It’s free and helps everyone involved. The driver has enough people to use the HOV or carpooling lane and commuters get a free ride to work.

・ slugging   車に同乗させてもらうこと To wait for or obtain a ride to work by standing at a roadside hoping to be picked up by a driver who needs another passenger to use the HOV lanes of a highway. (American Heritage)

・ pull up  （車が）止まる(of a vehicle or its driver) to stop: He pulled up at the traffic lights.

・ hop in 乗り物に跳び乗る get into a car (NOAD)

S: So, no one minds riding together in a car full of strangers?

I: Well, there is always some risk involved, but for the most part, it’s a system that’s worked well in that area for over 25 years. It’s well-organized and commuters are very conscious of slugging etiquette, such as not eating or drinking in someone else’s car and only chatting with the driver if he or she initiates it.

S: Sue Kim mentioned the growth potential for alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power as well as biofuel. I’ve read that several airlines have been intensifying efforts to move toward using biofuel for their planes.

I: Yes, though some environmentalists disagree with that, arguing that it’s not sustainable and that reducing air travel is a better way of reducing one’s carbon footprints. However, the world needs fuel and biofuel is an attractive option in many cases. I visited a factory in Tokyo a few months ago that’s dedicated to converting used vegetable oil into bio-diesel. During my visit, a couple of tour buses filled up at the factory’s bio-diesel pump. It was an impressive operation and the staff were incredibly motivated and dedicated to making a positive social contribution by producing bio-diesel.

・ fill up  満タンにする to become completely full; to make something completely full

S: Jay Tyson touted the great potential for businesses on the green economy and Sue Kim mentioned that up to three million green-collar jobs could be created in the US in the next decade.

I: Yes, and this is something that the President Obama promoted during the campaign and in the early days of his administration. One of the cornerstones of his energy plan involves investment and job creation in this area. And time will tell if it can meet the high expectations of the public.

・ tout うるさく勧誘する，ほめそやす，大げさに宣伝する to praise something or someone in order to persuade people that they are important or worth a lot (LDOCE)

2009.03.18

2009年03月第3週分 Lesson 12  Changing Business Landscape (1)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Hughes says he was surprised to find his local record store has gone out of business, sparking a discussion on dying businesses in general.

  ・ go out of business   倒産する，店じまいする

● I can’t get over it. 驚きましたよ。

Another meaning of get over something is "recover from it." Sometimes people will say, "Oh, I can’t get over breaking up with my last boy friend." And their friends, who are maybe tired of listening to it, will say, "Oh, get over it already. It’s long done. You should be recovered by now."

・ get over ～ ～を乗り越える，克服する，立ち直る

・  can’t get over something  <informal> used to say that you are shocked, surprised, amused, etc. by something: I can’t get over how rude she was.   (OALD)

・ recover from ～ ～から立ち直る

・ break up with ～ ～と別れる to end relationship with somebody

● for good 永遠に

Hughes uses the phrase for good to mean forever or permanently. It’s a short version of "for good and all." I think nowadays people usually only say for good.

・ for good and all = for good

●  LP

Tyson talks about LPs, which are largish records. LP stands for long playing. They are also known as album, because they usually have a few songs on each side. Another kind of very common record is called a single or 45. Forty five stands for the speed that it was played at. And they are also called singles, because they usually only have one song on each side.

● at a crossroads   岐路に立たされて

"At a crossroads" is the phrase that people often use to mean a turning point; a point where things are changing or will change; you have to make a decision where to go.

・ at a crossroads （しばしば a crossroads） at an important point in somebody’s life or developement

● in record numbers 記録的な数で

・ a record snow 未曾有の大雪 / a record time 記録的なタイム / a record figure 記録的数字 / record sales 記録的売り上げ

● so to speak   いわば，よく言われているように

Rosa Cortez uses the phrase "so to speak" to alert people to the fact that she uses the record in a different meaning, while they are also talking about records, recording.

● big box 大規模店舗

She also talks about "big box" retail chains. These are huge stores that are in buildings that look like big boxes or warehouses. There’s nothing particularly decorative or nicely architectural about them. They are huge places where you can go buy all kinds of things and they are … the things you buy there are very cheap because the business model is selling large amounts of things at small margins.

・ big-box : of, relating to, or being a large chain store having a boxlike structure (Merriam-Webster)

● declining industry

The classic example of a declining industry is the buggy whip industry. And in fact, that example is often used to argue against government support of declining industries. The question is: Do you think the government should have banned automobiles to support buggy whip industry?

・ buggy whip  馬車で馬に使うムチ

・ argue against ～ ～に反対意見を述べる

● drive businesses south

Something that goes south is "going bad." If you think of a chart or graph where sales are going down, down, down, it’s … the line is going towards the bottom, which is the south part, if you’re thinking of a map. So people can say "go south" to mean "go bad," to "lose power." You could also use other verbs together with south to have a similar meaning. In this case, Hughes says "technological change has driven businesses south," has forced them to go bad.

・ go south   <American English>    <informal>    if a situation, organization, or set of standards goes south, it becomes very bad although it was once very good: It seems like all our moral standards have just gone south.  (LDCOE)

● be history  過去のもの（人）になる

The phrase "be history" is often used in English to mean "exist no longer." You can even say it to a person. If you want him to go away or be gone, you can say "You are history. I won’t deal with you anymore, we are no longer friends, or colleagues or even acquaintances."

  ・ be history  <informal> to be dead or no longer important : Another mistake like that and you’re history. / We won’t talk about that – that’s history. / That’s past history now.  (OALD)

● amber brew 琥珀色の醸造酒（ビール）

Amber brew is a kind of slang I guess you could say for beer. Another one is suds.

・ amber brew = amber fluid 琥珀色の液体 beer

・ suds <old-fashioned, North American English, informal> beer (OALD)

2009.03.09

2009年03月第3週分 Lesson 12  Changing Business Landscape (2)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The group starts talking about ways businesses threatened by technological change can adapt and survive.

● not much of a drinker

Cortez starts off by saying she’s not much of a drinker. It might seem a little bit strange here to talk about not drinking, you know. What does she mean?  Water or coffee? But usually in English if you use drink like this without any particular context, it tends to refer to alcoholic drink. So she’s saying when she was younger, she didn’t sit around and drink and talk with their friends. They would go play games together.

・ sit around [about] （何もせずに）ぶらぶらしている，座ってぼけっとしている to spend time doing nothing very useful: I’m far too busy to sit around here. / He just sits around watching videos.  (OALD)

● game arcade ゲームセンター

Cortez also talks about a game arcade. An arcade is basically a covered street. Originally an arcade was a row of arches that you could walk under and find a nice space. So a game arcade is kind of a place where games, many games, are lined up – all kinds of different games. You can also take the phrase and turn it around and talk about arcade games. Then, arcade describes the kind of game you would find in a place like that. The phrase probably comes from the mid- or late-seventies.

● overnight 一晩にして，あっという間に

Overnight is a word that’s often used in English to mean very, very quickly or before you know it. It’s like one day everything’s fine and you go to sleep and next day it’s gone.

 

You can also use overnight as a verb, but then it means "stay somewhere and not come home at night."

・ overnight   1. during or for the night   2. suddenly or quickly : Don’t expect it to improve overnight.  (OALD)

● niche market ニッチ市場

The word niche, NICHE – it has been used in English for quite a while, but it came originally from French. Many people pronounce it [nɪʧ], like we have here in the vignette. But a lot of people also pronounce it [nɪːʃ]. Both are correct. There’s no problem with whichever one you choose.

● stick one’s heads in the sand  現実から目をそらす

Cortez uses the phrase "stick their heads in the sand" to talk about businesses that are trying to avoid reality. English speakers say that ostriches stick their heads in the sand to avoid some sort of enemy or attacker. I think the idea is: if you can’t see it, it’s not gonna hurt you. I’ve heard somewhere that ostriches don’t actually do  that, but the phrase remains. Recently I’ve also heard another phrase referring to the same idea called an ostrich maneuver.

・ bury [hide] one’s heads in the sand  to refuse to admit that a problem exists or refuse to deal with it

・ ostrich maneuver   (from Urban Dictionary)

The Ostrich Maneuver is the state of a person burying their head to avoid any given situation, much like an Ostrich covers it’s head to avoid danger.  Ostrich’s bury their heads based on the simplicity, "if I can’t see them, they can’t see me". People pulling the Ostrich Maneuver commonly figure the same.  Generally the Ostrich Maneuver is a person’s last line of defense, given it’s failure rate. Ted didn’t do his homework, so today in Math class, he pulled the Ostrich Maneuver by hiding his head under the desk. Unfortunately his teacher saw his backside up in the air and found him effortlessly.

● diversification 多角化，多様性

In the past, the idea of diversification, I think, was called conglomeration. And I think the idea was that if your business has many different types of businesses within it, some of them will be up, and some of them will be down, so that overall your company is pretty stable and safe. But another argument was that if you are not focused on your business, it’s difficult to manage all of them equally well. So some companies would sell off parts of their businesses that didn’t really fit together.

・ sell off  売り払う 1. to sell things cheaply because you want to get rid of them or because you need the money  2. to sell all or part of an industry, a company or land: The Church sold off the land for housing.  (OALD)

● think outside the box 新しい考え方をする  to think of new, different, or unusual ways of doing something, especially in business (LDOCE)

● sit back and do nothing 手をこまねいて何もしない    1 to get into a comfortable position, for example in a chair, and relax: Sit back and relax – I’ll open a bottle of wine.
2 to relax and make no effort to get involved in something or influence what happens: Don’t just sit back and wait for new business to come to you.  (LDOCE)

2009.03.20

2009年03月第3週分 Lesson 12  Changing Business Landscape (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Tyson says that if you don’t change to meet new challenges, you’ll just fade away, and Kinkaid suggests that lifelong learning can help.

● in theory 理屈の上では（．．．だが，現実には～）

Tyson starts off with "in theory." Often, that’s a way to acknowledge what people think when you’re about to go on and say something different from what the theory is, from what people think. So, usually somebody starting off with "in theory" follows it up with "but" and what’s actual or they might say "in reality."

● human touch 人間味

Tyson also uses the phrase "the human touch." And by using that, he means something softer and warmer. It doesn’t have to be an actual touch. It’s sort of the opposite of mechanical and cold and scientific

・ The public is always attracted to politicians who have the human touch (= the ability to make ordinary people feel relaxed when they meet them).

● what with ～  ～などの理由で

・ what with something    used to introduce a list of reasons that have made something happen or made someone feel in a particular way: She couldn’t get to sleep, what with all the shooting and shouting.  (LDOCE)

● survival of the fittest   適者生存

Survival of the fittest is an idea that was described by Charles Darwin in a book he wrote. He was writing about how species develop, but nowadays it’s often used to talk about any kind of competition where strong competitors become stronger and more effective, and weaker ones fade away or disappear from the arena. Another way of saying that is to say it’s Darwinian.

● head-on  真正面から

If you meet something head-on, you meet it directly.

・ head-on  1 crash/collide/smash etc head-on    if two vehicles crash etc head-on, the front part of one vehicle hits the front part of the other    2  if someone deals with a problem head-on, they do not try to avoid it, but deal with it in a direct and determined way
face/tackle/meet something head-on     The police are trying to tackle car crime head-on.  (LDOCE)

● go the way of the dinosaurs   恐竜と同じ絶滅の運命をたどる

Tyson also uses the phrase "go the way of the dinosaurs." People use this whenever they wanna talk about something that can’t compete, something that’s disappearing; it’s not useful anymore, and it’s becoming extinct.

 

You can also call people who won’t change their ideas, who keep their old ideas and continue going ahead in the same old way a dinosaur.

● forward-oriented 将来を見据えた

Forward-oriented is a phrase meaning forward-looking. You can use either one either way. Forward-looking is maybe the more common phrase. Forward-oriented, though, has pretty much the same meaning.

・ forward-looking  planning for and thinking about the future in a positive way, especially by being willing to use modern methods or ideas : a forward-looking Russian statesman   (LDOCE)

● adult education

In the US, people used to talk about adult education. That often refers to adults who hadn’t had proper education when they were younger and when they get older, they have more time or different ambitions and so they begin studying again. Recently, though, people talk more about lifelong learning. It applies to everyone who might go back to school, whether it’s to get a high school diploma because they dropped out when they were young or to change careers or, if they just want to learn something new because they’re interested.

● That’s right on the money.  まさにそのとおりだ。的を射ている。

If you are right on the money, you’re exactly correct. I think the phrase comes from betting.

・ on the money   correct; accurate; His prediction was right on the money. (OALD)

・ be (right) on the money <American English, spoken> to be completely correct or right:  You were right on the money when you said that he would have to resign.  (LDOCE)

● under the belt 獲得して，習得されて

The phrase "under your belt," "under one’s belt" is often used to talk about something that you’re fully in control of, something that is completely yours.

・ have/get something under your belt  to have achieved something useful or important: a secretary with several years’ experience under her belt  (LDOCE)

● land (top-paying jobs)   （特に希望者の多い仕事を）ものにする，獲得する

・ land   <informal>  to succeed in getting a job, contract etc that was difficult to get:  He landed a job with a law firm.  (LDOCE)

2009年02月第1週分 Lesson 9  Customer Satisfaction (1)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Kinkaid, Tyson, Hughes and Cortez talk about the importance of listening carefully to customer complaints, especially for companies that work directly with the public.

● "boy, do they ever have some horror stories …"

The word boy is often used by U.S. English speakers as an interjection when they are kind of happy or disgusted or surprised by something.

Kinkaid also adds the word ever to the same phrase in which she uses boy — "boy, do they ever have some horror stories." This ever isn’t really related in time, like for ever or have you ever…. In this case, ever is used to mean "to a great extent or a great degree." Sometimes so is also added to it. So, for example, you could say, "She was ever so mad," although to my North American ears, that sounds a little old-fashioned or stylized.

・ boy  (interjection) American English <informal>
1    used when you are excited or pleased about something: Boy, that was a great meal!
2 oh boy!    used when you are slightly annoyed or disappointed about something: Oh boy! Bethany’s sick again.  (LDOCE)

・ ever so <informal, especially BrE> very; really: He looks ever so smart. (OALD)

・ do they ever have some horror stories という具合に疑問文の語順になっているのはいわゆる「感嘆疑問文」で形式は疑問文，意味は感嘆文になる。否定疑問文の形が多いが，ここのように肯定疑問文の場合もある。イントネーションは常に下降調。

Hasn’t she grown! あのコ，大きくなったなあ。 = Has she grown!

● keep your ear to the ground 周囲の動きにアンテナを張る（←地面に耳をつける）

If you keep your ear to the ground, you’re keeping yourself informed of current trends. It means you’re shrewd or astute.

・ keep [have] your ear to the ground to make sure that you always find out about the most recent developments in a particular situation  (OALD)

● the folks in the trenches 仕事の現場にいる人々

Tyson uses the phrase "the folks in the trenches." Folks is the word that means people, but it’s often used when someone wants to say "people in general," but sound a little warmer or more casual about all those people. And a trench is a kind of a ditch. If you’re talking about the kind of ditch that soldiers might dig to protect themselves in a battle, it’s usually called a trench. They’re fairly deep and the dirt from inside is piled up on the edge to act (as) for the protection. So, talking about the folks in the trenches means that Tyson is talking about the people in the company who directly face maybe not an enemy but who directly face some of the most difficult points in their business days, and he is talking about them rather fondly.

・ my folks 家族

・ the trenches    the place or situation where most of the work or action in an activity takes place: Lane left teaching after 30 years in the trenches. (LDCOE)

・ in the trenches 仕事場［現場］にいて （ジーニアス大英和）

● back in the day ずっと昔

・ back in the day     in the past : My dad’s always talking about how great everything was back in the day.   (OALD)

● greenhorn 新米，初心者

A greenhorn is a person who’s inexperienced or maybe even immature. It also tends to include the idea of gullible. It’s easy to fool them. The word greenhorn’s been around in English since about the 15th century, but at that time it meant a young ox who has just recently started sprouting horns.

・  greenhorn  <informal> (especially American English) someone who lacks experience of something (LDOCE)

● squeaky wheel ごねる人，うるさ型

There’s an old phrase in English: The squeaky wheel gets the oil or grease, which means if you complain enough, you’ll get something, you’ll get what you want. In this case, Hughes is referring to the old saying, but he’s also using it to mean irritating people.

・ The squeaky wheel gets the grease. 大騒ぎするほど注目を集める，大声で不満を言わないと何もしてもらえない

● right on the mark まったくその通りで

・ be on the mark to be accurate or correct: That estimate was right on the mark.  (OALD)

● gripe 不満

・ gripe something unimportant that you complain about [= complaint]: My main gripe was the price of refreshments. (LDOCE)

● frivolous 取るに足らない，浅はかな

Frivolous is the word that’s used to mean "unserious" or "inappropriate". And it’s the word that tends to be used with lawsuits that are maybe for some other purpose than settling a dispute.

・ frivolous lawsuits 取り上げる価値のない訴訟

● mushrooming 急速に発展［拡大］する

・ mushroom (verb) to grow and develop very quickly: New housing developments mushroomed on the edge of town.  (LDOCE) 日本語なら，キノコじゃなくて，（雨後の）たけのこ

● consumer empowerment 消費者の立場の強化

・ empower (verb) to give someone more control over their own life or situation: The Voting Rights Act was needed to empower minority groups.  (LDOCE)

● strike the right balance 適切なバランスをとる

・ strike a balance (between A and B) to manage to find a way of being fair to two opposing things; to find an acceptable position which is between two things

● runaround その場しのぎ，たらい回し

A runaround is often a kind of deception, meaning the person who’s doing it or the people who are doing it don’t want to give you an answer, they don’t want to satisfy your question. I think it can also happen genuinely, though, when nobody really knows what’s happening and they keep, for example, on the phone, transferring you to someone else who supposedly can help you, but they can’t, so they transfer you to someone else. Another way to use the word is to say "you got the runaround" when you called the company to try to get some help.

・ give somebody the runaround  <informal>  to deliberately avoid giving someone a definite answer, especially when they are asking you to do something: Every time we ask the landlord about fixing the roof, he gives us the runaround.  (LDCOE)

● inane ばかげた，無意味な

・ inane stupid or silly; with no meaning: an inane remark  (OALD)

● go through （電話が）通じる

2009.02.05

2009年02月第1週分 Lesson 9  Customer Satisfaction (2)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Cortez tells about the time she was dissatisfied with customer service and Hughes notes that can happen when companies outsource.

● hold time 待ち時間

Cortez talks about a long hold time. She could have said something more like "I was really upset by being put on hold for such a long time." I think on hold is a little more common way to talk about this, but everybody would understand hold time with no problem.

・ put ～ on hold ～を（電話口で）待たせる

on hold （電話口で）待って，切らない状態で If a person on the telephone is put on hold, they have to wait until the person that they want to talk to is free   (OALD)

I think the verb is hold because in the past it meant "hold on to the line," "keep the line open," "don’t let somebody else take over the phone line."

● コールセンター係の人について

I’d like to stick up a little bit, though, for call center people who have to follow a script. I’m sure part of it is their company training, so that they go through all the proper procedures and … in the case of calling a computer company, security is probably such a huge problem, but when I call my bank in the U.S. sometimes, I feel the same way until they get to the end of the script. They often can’t do too much to handle your specific problem.

・ stick up for ～ ～を支持する to support or defend somebody/something : Stick up for what you believe. ; Don’t worry—I’ll stick up for you.

Some places I call even run a recording saying "Your call may be recorded" for, you know, keeping up good service and things like that. They wanna check up on the people answering the phones. So, I don’t mind this too much. It does seem robotic; until occasionally you get through to the end of the script, I still can’t do anything to help you. That gets irritating.

● backfire 逆効果になる

・ backfire (on somebody) to have the opposite effect to the one intended, with bad or dangerous results: Unfortunately the plan backfired.   (OALD)

● erode  ～をむしばむ，徐々に損なう

・ erode to gradually destroy something or make it weaker over a period of time; to be destroyed or made weaker in this way  (OALD)

● wake up to the fact that … ・・・という事実に気づく

Hughes uses the phrase wake up to. He could have said "become aware of" or "pay attention to."

・ wake up to something   to start to realize and understand a danger, an idea etc: It’s time you woke up to the fact that it’s a tough world. (LDOCE)

● shoddy service いいかげんなサービス

He also talks about shoddy service. Nowadays shoddy is used when you want to talk about something that’s badly made or badly done or that is of poor quality, especially if the materials are poor quality. Originally, though, the word shoddy was wool; a kind of wool made from woolen waste left over bad pieces. It might even have been made of old rugs. It comes from the first half of the 19th century.

Sometimes it’s something that looks good when you first get it, but it very quickly becomes worn-out looking.

・ shoddy (adj.) 1. (of goods, work, etc.) made or done badly and with not enough care  2. dishonest or unfair   (OALD)

● You can’t afford not to そうしないわけにはいかない

Kinkaid starts off with the phrase "You can’t afford not to." And she is referring to making sure your employees are well trained in customer care. This phrase is used quite a bit for anything that.. : You have to pay for no matter what, even if you don’t want to, even if it’s difficult. You can’t afford not to spend that money.

2009.02.06

2009年02月第1週分 Lesson 9  Customer Satisfaction (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The conversation’s focus moves on to how technology can cut both ways.

・ cut both ways 両刃の剣である to have two opposite effects or results

● down the street （同じ通りの）もっと向こうにある

It’s kind of interesting. I think in this situation people almost always would say "down the street," meaning just a little ways further along the street. But you could say "up the street" as well. I don’t think most people would say "up the street" in this situation.

And I think the reason for that might be that in this case you’re not going to a specific place; you’re just moving along the street somewhere. I think if you’re going somewhere more specific, you might say it’s just "up the street." Maybe it’s because up takes a little more effort than down. I really don’t know, but fairly strongly almost everybody would say "down the street" in this situation.

・ down ～ = along; towards the direction in which you are facing (OALD) 「自分が今向いている方向へ」

   down ～ = at or to a place that is further along something such as a road or path (LDOCE) 「道路・道のようなものにそってさらに進んだところにある」

   down ～ = If you are down a road or river, you are somewhere along it. (COBUILD) 「down ～ にいる，とは『それに沿ったどこかにいる』ということだ」

● two-edged sword 両刃の剣

Cortez uses the phrase "it’s a two-edged sword." Some people would say a double-edged sword. Both phrases are used a lot. You can also use a verb phrase with the similar meaning: you could say it cuts both ways. And all of those mean that you can have good or bad results.

● bug いらいらさせる

Bug is a word that’s been used in English at least since about the 17th century, when it meant an insect, you know, those little creatures that can often irritate you, and changed its meaning, and added meanings through the years. One of the most recent meaning I’ve heard is a kind of dog. If you cross a Boston Terrier with a pug, the result is now called a bug.

・ cross 交配させる

・ bug  <informal> to annoy or irritate somebody: Stop bugging me! (OALD)

・ as snug as a bug in a rug 居心地よくぬくぬくおさまって

● crash course 短期集中講座

A crash course in English is sometimes also known as a cram course. It usually means you’re trying to learn too much information in a very short time.

If you wanna refer to it a little more formally, you could call it an intensive course or a brief course. And usually they are focused on the basics.

・ crash (adj.) <only before noun> involving hard work or a lot of effort over a short period of time in order to achieve quick results

● I hear you. 気持ちはわかります。まったくだ。（イントネーション(↘↗)で『賛成できません』の意味にもなる）

● mobile phone の発音

The word /moubail/ or /moubl/ in English is pronounced in various ways. When it’s related to telephones, both pronunciations are fine. It just depends on the person’s speaking.

● He didn’t manage to net this customer.

Tyson uses kind of a little pun to talk about not buying anything. He was looking at fishing rods and he talks about netting a customer, catching the customer, and making a sale.

・ net 網で捕まえる

● mobile phone の発音

If you were listening carefully, you might have noticed that Hughes said /moubl/ instead of /moubail/.

● yak away ペチャクチャしゃべる

Yak is one of the many words you can use in English to talk about talking. Yakking usually is used when you are a little irritated by someone who talks rather persistently and usually about something that doesn’t seem to be very important.

・ yak <informal>    to talk continuously about things that are not very serious, in a way that is annoying (LDOCE)

Yeah. If you look in the dictionary, some of them will say the word yak is imitative, meaning it kind of sounds like what it’s describing.

・ imitative 擬声語

2009.02.11

2009年02月第2週分 Lesson 9  Customer Satisfaction (4)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The group talks about some of the more extreme methods customers have resorted to to get their messages out.

● a disgruntled customer イライラした客，不満をいだいた客

Disgruntled is a word that means sulky dissatisfaction; not only are you one about something, but you are also pouting about it. It’s usually used in this form; you won’t often hear gruntle or gruntled. But I checked a dictionary and it has been used that way. It’s a back-formation from disgruntled. So, to gruntle someone is to put them into good humor.

● sledgehammer 大型ハンマー

Cortez also talks about a sledgehammer, which is fairly easy to understand. It’s a great, big, heavy hammer that tends to be used to pound a post into the ground, and to break down the wall and things like that. But you can also use it outside of its concrete meaning: to describe something that’s crudely or ruthlessly forceful. It’s using a power without any grace or dexterity.

● smash ～ to smithereens ～をこなごなにこわす

Smithereens is one more word that Cortez likes. This word comes from Irish Gaelic. And it just means little tiny pieces. It’s often used in cartoons for kids, I think because it sounds a little bit funny, one of the cartoon characters might say, "If you don’t stop that, I’ll break it to smithereens."

・ smash, blow, etc something to smithereens to destroy something by breaking it into small pieces (OALD)

● spread like wild fire 野火のように・あっという間に拡がる

"Spread like wild" fire is a phrase you will hear in English fairly often when someone means something is spreading out of control very quickly.

● go to great lengths to V Vするためにはどんな苦労も惜しまない

To go to great lengths is a phrase that means take almost any kind of action, use all of your abilities and push as far as you can to get what you want.

・ go to some/great/any lengths (to do something)    to try very hard or to do whatever is necessary to achieve something that is important to you: He went to great lengths to keep their name out of the papers. / Bella would go to any lengths to fulfil her ambition.  (LDOCE)

● nip ～ in the bud 大事に至る前に食い止める，～を未然に防ぐ

Kim also talks about nipping something in the bud. If you nip something in the bud, you stop it before it has a chance to grow, usually into a larger problem.

・ nip something in the bud to stop something when it has just begun because you can see that problems will come from it  (OALD)

● vigilante 自警団

Vigilantes have sort of a difficult reputation in the U.S.. On the one hand, on the frontier, there were often vigilante committees, which help to keep some sort of law and order on the frontier when the official authority wasn’t very strong or wasn’t present at all. On the other hand, though, because they weren’t official authorities, sometimes vigilantes or vigilante committees went too far, and didn’t handle things very fairly. So, it was a rough kind of justice and I suppose depending on which side you are on, they could be very helpful or they could be very awful.

● reams of e-mail 大量の E メール

・ reams <informal>  a large quantity of writing

● shy about ～ ～に遠慮する

・ shy away from something    to avoid doing or dealing with something because you are not confident enough or you are worried or nervous about it: They criticized the leadership, but shied away from a direct challenge.   (LDOCE)

2009.02.12

2009年02月第2週分 Lesson 9  Customer Satisfaction (5)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

== Key Phrases to Remember ==

● lose touch with ～ ～との接触［つながり］を失う

● there’s a fine line between ～ ～の間には微妙な差異がある，～の間の差は紙一重である

Instead of talking about the borders between two things that’s sometimes difficult to see, you can also talk about walking a fine line, which means exhibiting behavior that doesn’t go too far in the wrong direction.

It also often includes the idea of doing something a little dangerous.

・ walk on a fine line 微妙な差をこころえる to be in a difficult or dangerous situation where you could easily make a mistake; He was walking a fine line between being funny and being rude.  (OALD)

● go through （電話が）通じる，～の許可［承認］を得る

● customer loyalty 顧客の支持

● put someone on hold （人を）電話口で待たせる

→ 実践ビジネス英語 2009.02.05

● in the hope that … ・・・を願って

==  あんな時，こんな時 == 

「いらいらしている」「怒っている」と言う時  I’m upset.

● I was red with anger.

Instead of red, you could say "steaming with anger," or "boiling with anger."

● blow one’s top

If you think of anger as something that’s steaming or boiling, when it reaches a high pressure, you can blow the lid of the pot of water, for example.

・ blow your top/stack/cool also blow a fuse/gasket <informal>  to become extremely angry quickly or suddenly:  One day, I just blew my top and hit him. (LDOCE)

● make someone red

● make someone’s blood boil

● That’s the last straw! 堪忍袋の緒が切れた。

This phrase is based on the saying, "The straw that broke the camel’s back." It’s the way of saying that maybe that one event was not so important in itself, except that it was piled onto many other small events.

・ the last straw  also  the straw that breaks the camel’s back    the last problem in a series of problems that finally makes you give up, get angry etc: Making me work late on Friday was the last straw. (LDOCE)

● I’m perturbed.

・ perturb to make somebody worried or anxious: Her sudden appearance did not seem to perturb him in the least. (OALD)

=  インフォーマルな表現 = 

● What a nuisance!

● I was quite irked [crossed, vexed, piqued].

・ irk  <formal or literary> to annoy or irritate somebody

● I was mad as all get-out.

This phrase might be a little hard to understand. It means very, very angry. I looked on the Web, and it turned out a lot of people don’t know it. For me, it’s a very common, everyday sort of a phrase when you get angry. I also asked a friend of mine, who’s about ten years younger than I am. She didn’t know it, either. So, I was very surprised to find out that I was mad as all get-out is actually sort of an unusual phrase.

・ (as) ～ as all get out  <informal> to a great or extreme extent : He was stubborn as all get out.  (NOAD)

● Oh, that’s great! 皮肉

So, you have to be very careful with your intonation. You say (in a happy tone), "Oh, that’s great!" It means you’re happy about it.

=  少し改まった表現 = 

● I was quite annoyed[displeased, disturbed, exasperated] by …

These are all shades of irritation or anger. You could also add the word dismayed. Dismayed tends to mean "disappointed" and "appalled." Disturbed is probably pretty close to dismayed.

● I was fuming.

・ fume (at / over / about somebody/something)  to be very angry about something: He was fuming with indignation. / She sat in the car, silently fuming at the traffic jam.  (OALD)

2009.02.13

2009年01月第4週分 Lesson 8  Keeping Fit (6)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

S = 杉田敏      I = Susan Iwamoto

S: Susan, in our most recent vignette, we’ve been discussing the importance of customer satisfaction. We’ve all had our share of a lot of frustrating experiences. How about you, Susan?

I: Well, I’ve experienced both sides of this. I’ve dealt with dissatisfied customers and I have been one myself from time to time. As Sue Kim mentioned in the vignette, it’s tiring to be stuck on the phone, listening to recordings wondering if you’ll ever get to speak to an actual human being. Generally, even if I’m annoyed with a long wait or have a frustrating problem, I try to be as friendly as possible until I create a positive connection with the customer service rep. I figure that many of their causes come from angry customers and it would be nice to give them a break. This is also a great way to ensure a quick and effective service.

・ be stuck    途方に暮れる，行き詰まる

・ rep    (=representative) 担当者

・ give ～ a break 大目に見る，勘弁する，チャンスを与える 

S: You mentioned you had to deal with those sorts of customers yourself.

I: Yes, I have. Two jobs come to mind, in particular. When I worked for a bank in Boston, I sometimes answered calls directed to the president’s office. When a customer calls the president’s office rather than the manager for the local branch, for example, you know there’s likely to be a very angry customer on the other end of the phone. I usually managed to calm them down by being very polite, empathizing with them, and then I lead the transfer for them directly to the person who could best help them, or offer to looking into the matter myself. I would then give them a specific time I would call them back with the updates so that they wouldn’t feel as though they’ve been so brushed off. That seemed to do the trick.

・ on the end of the phone = on the other end of the line 電話の相手側

・ brush off    関係を断つ，耳を貸そうとしない

・ do the trick 効き目がある

S: I’ve heard that the worst thing you could say to an upset customer is "Please don’t get excited. Calm down." What do you think?

I: I think that’s true. That’s bound to have opposite effect, with the customers becoming even more upset. It’s better to acknowledge their frustration and move on to a concrete solution as quickly as possible.

S: And what was the other job you hated?

I: Oh, this was much worse. When I was in college, I worked part-time as a file clerk for an insurance company on the brink of bankruptcy.

S: Bankruptcy! That must have been a stressful workplace.

I: In some ways, yes. But I think it was more stressful for customers, many of whom were trying to get their claims paid on time and in full. My job as a file clerk was easy and stress-free, I have to admit.  But I had several colleagues who worked as customer service reps, and they spent a day fielding phone calls from furious customers. One day, my supervisor pulled me aside, told me I was doing an excellent job, and offered me a promotion to customer service rep. I said thanks, but no thanks. I was just trying to earn for some extra cash for college and didn’t want to spend a day getting screamed at by customers.

・ file clerk    文書係

・ on the brink of ～    ～の瀬戸際で

・ claim 保険金の支払い要求

・ in full 全額

・ field （質問などに）うまく答える，処理する

・ thanks, but no thanks ありがとう。でも結構です。

S: Both Rosa Cortez and Jay Tyson mentioned store clerks, who would rather chat on their phones than help customers. Have you run into this problem in the United States?

I: Now, I have seen this once or twice and I’ve heard complaints from friends about this lack of service. But strangely enough, I’ve had an opposite sort of problem here in Japan with too much service.

S: Too much service? What do you mean?

I: Well, although I think customer service in Japan is excellent, there are times when I wish it were just a little so. For example, there are a couple of clothing stores in my neighborhood that I nearly stop going to altogether, because the salespeople follow me around the store the entire time I’m there. Now I hate to think they suspect(?) me of shoplifting, so I’m going to guess that they’re just trying to be available if I need any help. This happens occasionally in department stores too. Frankly, I find it really annoying.

S: I think their intention is to provide attentive service.

I: Well, yes. Though I appreciate that to a certain degree, I’m the type of shopper who just wants to be left alone to browse until I have a specific question or request. In the U.S., if a salesperson asks me if I need any help, I just say, "No thanks. Just browsing." And they leave me alone until I approach them. I haven’t figured out the way to say this huddling salespeople here in Tokyo without sounding really rude.

・ Just browsing. 「見てるだけです」 うるさい店員を追っ払う決まり文句。

S: Tony Hughes mentioned the trend of the past several years of outsourcing customer service to call centers in other countries.

I: Yes, and it’s a fascinating issue from the perspective of intercultural communication, for sure. Many companies offer intercultural training to call center employees. And some go as far as offering accent reduction courses and suggesting employees use English names while at work. Now, I think that  intercultural training is a good idea. While it’s certainly necessary to have understandable English, I don’t think it’s necessary to change their names just for work. There’s a computer-help line I called several times in the past when traveling in the U.S.. Every time I called them, I talked to someone in a different country. Now, most of the reps have lots of accent, but their English is easy to understand and most of the time the service was exactly what I’d expect in the U.S.. However, I’ve talked to a couple of reps who sounded as though they were speaking in a fake(?), kind of exaggerated American accent accent. And in both instances reps were really forceful and actually a bit rude in their interaction with me. As I mentioned, they tend to be very calm and friendly on the phone, so it was a surprise to be treated like that. I shrugged it off as a sort of cultural misunderstanding, but I can see how failure to their customer service reps effectively could lead to even more customer complaints.

・ from the perspective of ～ ～の観点で

・ go so[as] far as to V [Ving] Vさえする

  ・ shrug off   無視する，受け流す

2009.02.18

2009年02月第3週分 Lesson 10  Pet Economy (1)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Tyson, Kinkaid, Kim, and Shiga talk about how much money people are willing to spend on their pets, and how that spending has led to great performance for Great Lakes in the pet food business.

● go through the roof    （価格などが）急上昇する，怒っている

In English you can use the idiom "go through the roof" to talk about how rapidly sales are rising. You can also use words like soaring or rocketing, or even skyrocketing.

・ go through the roof    1.(of prices, etc.) to rise or increase very quickly   2. (also hit the roof) <informal> to become very angry    (OALD)

● deserve a pat on the back 賞賛に値する

Kinkaid says they "deserve a pat on the back." "A pat on the back" is an idiom for recognition or praise. Another way you could say this is to use the word attaboy. Attaboy actually comes from a phrase: the phrase is "That’s the boy," meaning "That’s correct," "That’s right," "Good job." But if you look in a dictionary now, attaboy is written as one word: A-T-T-A-B-O-Y.

・ a pat on the back (for something / for doing something)    praise or approval for something that you have done well; He deserves a pat on the back for all his hard work. (OALD)

・ Attaboy! いいぞ，よくやった    used when you want to encourage somebody or show your admiration of them, especially a boy or man  (OALD)

● put in one’s two cents’ worth 話に口をはさむ，自分の考えを（割り込んで）述べる

"To put in your two cents’ worth" is to give your opinion. Sometimes people use this phrase even without the word "worth." "Here’s my two cents." Nobody is quite sure where this phrase comes from. Some people think it might be related to the phrase "A penny for your thoughts," meaning "Please tell me what you think." "You’re being very quiet and I’ll give you a penny." Or it might come from poker games or gambling of that type where you wager some money before you make your play.

・ two cents (worth)    <American English> < informal>    your opinion or what you want to say about a subject: Everyone had to put in their two cents worth.  (LDOCE)

・ A penny for your thoughts[?] （黙って［考え事をして］いる人に向かって）何考えてるの？ 

a penny for your thoughts/a penny for them <spoken> used to ask someone who is silent what they are thinking about  (LDOCE)

● in the right place at the right time しかるべき時にしかるべき場所にいる

Occasionally, people will use this phrase in the opposite way to say bad luck in, say, "Oh, it was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

● gross の発音

Shiga mentions gross domestic product. Of course, that’s all the production of the country before taking out all the costs and things. But the word gross is kind of interesting. It came into English from Middle French and that might be why the o is pronounced as an [oʊ] sound ([groʊs]) instead of an [ɔ] sound, like other words that end with -oss. So, for example, you say cross[krɔ(ː)s] and floss[flɔ(ː)s], toss[tɔ(ː)s], moss[mɔ(ː)s]. All those words are spelled with -oss. Only gross is pronounced with the [oʊ] sound.

・ 杉田先生はgrossの発音を間違って覚えていたとおっしゃっていましたが，わたしもはじめて知りました。

● 典型的な犬の名前

Rex is one of the more traditional names or you could even say clichéd names for dogs in the U.S.. A couple of other very common or clichéd names are Fido[fáɪdoʊ] or Rover[róʊvɚ] or even Spot. I haven’t actually known any dogs actually with those names. But I think all English speakers in the U.S. anyway would know immediately that that’s probably a dog if they heard those names. I also read that people names become more popular and Max is one the most popular names for dogs these days.

2009.02.19

2009年02月第3週分 Lesson 10  Pet Economy (2)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The team talks about how the treatment of pets has changed over the years and then they talk about the new pet hotels people use when traveling without their pets.

● scraps from the table 食卓の食べ残し

Tyson talks about "throwing scraps from the table to the dog." I think that’s very typical of almost anybody anywhere who has a dog, but you can also use the phrase "throw someone scraps" or "throw someone a bone." It becomes an idiom that means you’re giving them a little something to try to keep them happy, although they’re actually rather disappointed or maybe a little angry about what’s happening.

・ throw somebody a bone    to give somebody a small part of what they want as a way of showing that you want to help them, without offering them the main thing they want    (OALD) 相手の機嫌をとるために譲歩する

● vet =veterinarian 獣医

Tyson uses the word vet to talk about the animal doctor. Vet is actually short for a much longer word that’s a little bit tough to pronounce. In fact, in the U.S., there are three very common pronunciations: veterinarian[vetɚrnɚriən], that’s the full phrase; but some people pronounce it [vetrənɚriən]; and you’ll even hear people say [vetɚnɚriən] occasionally.

● kennel (US)犬の預かり所，(UK)犬小屋

Basically, a kennel is a structure or shelter for a dog or dogs. And in the US, kennel usually means a larger facility where many dogs are kept. So, the kennel could be where hunters keep their dogs, or it could be where breeders keep their dogs. It’s often the word for where you take your dog when you can’t take them on your vacation with you, if you don’t have a pet hotel in your neighborhood. In the UK, kennel is also used for a single dog house in the person’s backyard. In the US, that is usually called a doghouse.

There’s also an idiom in the US. If you say someone is in the doghouse, it means they are in trouble; they did something wrong. You can’t use the phrase "in the kennel" with the same meaning.

・ in the doghouse 窮地に陥って，困って

be in the doghouse  <informal> to be in a situation in which someone is annoyed with you because of something you have done  (LDOCE)

● drop off 乗り物から途中で降ろす

● "the cable channel for pets"

I read an article once about a guy who made videos for his cat, because he’d noticed the cat paying attention to birds and things on television, just on regular television programs. And he thought the cat would really enjoy being able to watch more.

● dog’s life    惨めな暮らし

Kinkaid talks about a dog’s life being proverbial.  "It’s dog’s life" is used to talk about how difficult life can be. If you think about dogs in human history, mostly they were for work. They did all kinds of work and they were often not treated all that well. There’re a lot of phrases in English that use the word dog that means something not very good. So you can say things like going to the dogs. That means becoming bad, falling apart. You could say dog tired, which is very, very tired; die like a dog, which is a nasty way to die. You can call someone a dogsbody, which means they are rather subservient and they just run around doing what other people tell them to do. And there’s also dog-eat-dog competition: very hard, nasty competition. But interestingly thing is; younger people hear the phrase "It’s a dog’s life," and they’re beginning to understand that phrase as meaning luxurious, soft, and comfortable life. So, you can kind of tell people’s ages just by how they understand this phrase.

・ a dog’s life   an unhappy, full of problems or unfair treatment

・ go to the dogs 落ちぶれる    If you say that something is going to the dogs, you mean that it is becoming weaker and worse in quality. (INFORMAL) : They sit in impotent opposition while the country goes to the dogs.   (COBUILD)

・ dog-tired    Extremely tired  (American Heritage 4th)

・ die like a dog   惨めな死を遂げる

・ dogsbody    下っぱ，雑役係 a person who does all the boring jobs that nobody else wants to do, and who is treated as being less important than other people  (OALD)

・ dog-eat-dog 食うか食われるかの    when people compete against each other and will do anything to get what they want: It’s a dog eat dog world out there.   (LDOCE)

● Chihuahua チワワのつづり

Chihuahua is one of those words that people have trouble spelling in English. It actually comes from Spanish, and originally it’s the name of a Mexican state.

● move with the times 時流に従う (= keep up with the times)

・ move[change/ keep up] with the times   to change when other things in society, business etc change: We’ve got to move with the times.   (LDOCE)

2009.02.20

2009年02月第3週分 Lesson 10  Pet Economy (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Tyson observes that two thirds of US households have one or more pets and the others go on to comment on the development in the pet food market.

● on the rise 増加中で，出世の道を歩んで

Kim uses this phrase to talk about actual numbers, actual amounts that are increasing. But you can use this phrase to talk about anything that’s becoming stronger or becoming more powerful. You could say, for example, some politician is on the rise; they’re being quite successful and moving ahead in their career.

・ on the rise   becoming greater or more numerous; increasing; becoming more successful

on the + 動詞と同形の名詞 型イディオム

● sense of purpose, sense of pride, sense of humor, sense of urgency

Companies are often looking for employees who have sense of urgency; they want to get work done and they want it done soon, they want to achieve their goals earlier than the deadline. You can also use sense of shame.

・ さまざまな sense of ～

● outlet for ～ ～のはけ口

A retail outlet is a retail store: a place where you can go buy individual items. Individuals go buy what they want. It’s the opposite of wholesale. An outlet mall is a little bit different. In this case, outlet is short for factory outlet. So instead of sending products through retail outlets in the usual flow, things are sent directly from factories. Usually they’re not quite right in some way; they might be the last season’s goods; they might be perfectly good items but they weren’t dyed proper color, for example. Occasionally they have imperfections.

・ (retail) outlet 小売店 ←→ wholesale  卸売り

・ outlet mall  アウトレット店

● The number tell the story. 数字は語る。

Tyson talks about numbers telling the story. What he means is look at the data and see what’s actually true. This is the way in the US that business people often talk to each other. Saying that a customer complained about something is usually not enough of a spur or impetus to make them take careful action. You’ve got to show them what is wrong through the numbers.

● put a premium on ～ ～を重視する

・ put [place, set] a premium on ～ to think that somebody[something] is particularly important or valuable

● source locally  地元で調達する

Recently there’s been a new word coined to talk about sourcing your food locally. A person who does that is sometimes called a locavore: loca- comes from local and vore is the ending of words like carnivore—meat eater.

・ locavore   地元産の食べ物を好んで食べる人

carnivore  肉食動物 /  herbivore  草食動物 /  omnivore  雑食動物

● mirror 反映する

You probably know mirror as a noun. You can also use this as a verb and it’s fairly obvious what the meaning is. It’s "copy" or "follow along in exactly the same way."

● fancy get-up   高価でしゃれた服

Get-up is slang for outfit or costume. It can talk about the style of what you’re wearing or in another situation outside of fashion, it can also talk about the general composition or structure of something. I’ve usually heard it used to refer to somebody’s outfit. "Wow, that’s a nice get-up you’ve got on today!"

・ get-up   a set of clothes, especially strange or unusual ones  (OALD)

● You said it.   そのとおりです。

It might sound funny to hear Tyson tell Shiga what he just said. But this phrase is used to mean, "Boy, I agree with you very strongly."

・ you said it!
a) used when someone says something that you agree with, although you would not have actually said it yourself because it is not polite:  ‘I was always stubborn as a kid.’ ‘You said it!’
b) especially American English    used to say that you agree with someone: ‘Let’s go home.’ ‘You said it! I’m tired.’  (LDOCE)

2009.02.25

2009年02月第4週分 Lesson 10  Pet Economy (4)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The team talks about the effect the pet care business is having on many sectors of the economy.

● 犬のひも，lead とも言えるが， leash が多い

Yeah. You can use either word for dogs. Horses, though, usually you only use the word lead, if you attach a rope to a horse to walk it somewhere, when you’re not riding it. I think the difference in the meaning of those two words is, you lead a horse, you’re not tying it down or anything; but you leash a dog, you have the attachment on the dog to control it.

● house 会社

Tyson talks about fashion houses. He means individual fashion businesses. The word houses is used for some kinds of businesses in English. The main examples would be companies like groups of brokers or dealers or investment banks. They’re often called houses. Publishing companies are sometimes called houses. And casinos and movie theaters you’ll often hear called houses.

In fact, in casinos in some of the gambling games, the house has a hand in it. The house refers to business, not the customers who are also playing in the same game.

・ have a hand in ～ ～に関わっている

・ a fashion/ banking/ publishing / software house

● balloon 急増する，膨張する

Shiga talks about the ballooning cost of healthcare. Ballooning is often used to mean "rising very rapidly," "expanding very rapidly." You can also say the exploding cost of healthcare. I think you can even buy healthcare policies, healthcare insurance for your pets these days.

・ balloon (v.) to suddenly become larger in amount [= explode]: The company’s debt has ballooned in the past year. (LDOCE)

● buy on impulse   衝動買いする

● "It’s important to remember that a pet’s an animal, not a human being."

I think this is where a lot of people have trouble with their pets. They don’t realize that they can’t develop the kind of relationship you might have with a small child, with the pet, with an animal. They aren’t people, and you need to understand how animals act and what kind of security they need. It’s not quite the same as a little kid.

I read about problems, for example, where a dog will think it’s the boss of the family and will threaten some members of the family, if they are not responding the way the dog thinks they should.

● fall for ～   夢中になる，ほれる：詐欺の被害者になる

To fall for something is a phrase that has two meanings. In this case, it’s very clear to fall for a cute little creature means is to fall in love with it; to be captured by how cute it is, and how charming it is. But the other meaning to fall for something, usually, fall for a scam ― it means "become the victim of something. "

・ fall for somebody/something
1    to be tricked into believing something that is not true: He is too smart to fall for that trick.
2    to start to love someone: That was the summer I worked at the fairground, and met and fell for Lucy.
3    to like a place as soon as you see it   (LDOCE)

2009.02.26

2009年02月第4週分 Lesson 10  Pet Economy (5)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

== Key Phrases to Remember ==

● judging by ～ ～から判断すると

● deserve a pat on the back   賞賛に値する

→ 実践ビジネス英語 2009.02.18

There’s a similar phrase "give yourself a pat on the back." Sometimes that’s someone else who can’t really give you something, who can’t really give you the praise or some kind of recognition that you want. But you can do it for yourself.

● have the option    選択肢を持つ = opt

● on the rise 増加中で，上昇中で

→  実践ビジネス英語 2009.02.20

● sense of purpose   目的意識

→  実践ビジネス英語 2009.02.20

● put a premium on ～ ～を重要視する

→  実践ビジネス英語 2009.02.20

==  あんな時，こんな時 == 

話を元に戻す時 Going back to the subject of ～

● Let’s backtrack a bit.

This can also mean "Let’s review what we said recently." But this could be part of the steps going back to the main line of conversation or discussion.

・ backtrack   to return by the same way that you came: We had to backtrack about a mile.  (LDOCE)

● Let’s return from the digression.

Sometimes when someone takes the conversation off into some other topics, they’ll stop speaking and say, "Ah, but I digress," which is a cue for everybody to go back to the main topic.

・ digression  話の脱線

digress  to talk or write about something that is not your main subject:   Do you mind if I digress for a moment?   (LDOCE)

● Let’s not get sidetracked.  脇道にそれるのはやめよう。

・ sidetrack  

1    to make someone stop doing what they should be doing, or stop talking about what they started talking about, by making them interested in something else:  Don’t get sidetracked by the audience’s questions.
2    <American English>    to delay or stop the progress of something:  An effort to improve security was sidetracked by budget problems.   (LDOCE)

● But that’s beside the point. Let’s focus on the key strategy.

If you wanted to soften the phrase, you could add perhaps or maybe: "But that’s perhaps beside the point." "But that’s maybe beside the point."

● Attention.   注意を引く

It sounds like it must have been quite a large group of people.

・ One conference please.  一つのテーマに集中しよう。

話題をあえて変える時

● Not to change the subject, but …

・ Not to change the subject  「話を変えるわけではないんですが」といいつつ話を変える。

・ flops a film/movie, play, party, etc. that is not successful 完全な失敗（作）

● let me digress a bit and tell you a little story about …

2009.02.27

2009年02月第4週分 Lesson 10  Pet Economy (6)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

S = 杉田敏      I = Susan Iwamoto

S: We’ve been talking about pets and pet-related businesses recently. Susan, do you have any pets of your own?

I: Sadly, no. Not at the moment. I wish I did, though. I had a dog and a cat, growing up. My current building doesn’t allow pets. But I’d like to get a dog or a cat in the future. How about you, Sugita-san?

・ Sadly, no. Not at the moment. 「悲しいことにノーです。今のところは飼っていません。」 Not = I do not have any pets of my own.

S: When I was in elementary school, we kept a mongrel named Fuji, who lived to be seventeen. But I haven’t had a pet since. Ah, Rosa Cortez mentioned that many people viewed themselves as pet parents rather than pet owners.

I: Yes, I can understand that. For my family and friends, having a pet is like having another kid in the family. I grew up with three sisters and a female cat. And we used to joke that our dog was our little brother and my dad had bond with him as the only other male in the house. We had our dog Teddy  for eleven years, and a cat named Pussycat for seventeen years and they were truly cherished by our family. Now things seemed to be changing in that respect in Japan, too. Now I know there have always been people who’ve treated their pets as part of the family. But when I lived in Tokyo as a child and then after college, there were many families who would keep their dogs chained up outside all day and night. I rarely see this nowadays.

・ mongrel    雑種 「富士」なんて犬の名前は最近耳にしませんが，そういえばうちの犬も「フジ」だった。

S: Melinda Kinkaid mentioned that 40% of dogs in the US sleep in their keeper’s bed. Was that the case in your family?

I: Yes, for sure. Our dog and cat took turns sleeping in our beds most of the time. But to be honest, I was really happy when Teddy, the dog, chose one of my sisters’ bed, because he was a golden retriever and, frankly, he took up far too much space in my single bed.

・ S is the case.   = S is true.

・ take turns Ving 「かわるがわるVする」

S: Both Melinda Kinkaid and Shiga Hiroshi mentioned the increasing amount of money people are spending specialty pet food.

I: Yes, and that’s a big difference, compared to when I was growing up. Back then, we just bought basic dog and cat food at our local supermarket. I think it cost about a dollar for four cans of food. We’d occasionally give them table scraps or special treats, of course, but we kept that simple for the most part. Nowadays, my family and friends with pets all seem to buy specially formulated pet food, either at the supermarket or, more often, at the many specialty pet superstores that have popped up in the country in recent years. Those stores have an amazing array of pet goods, including the pet fashions Jay Tyson mentioned.

・ specialty store   専門店

・ treat   ごちそう

・ pop up   突然現れる

S: Pet fashions are very popular here in Japan, too.

I: That’s for sure. I have at least four or five pet specialty shops in my neighborhood alone. They stock loads of tiny raincoats, sweaters, and other fashions, and one of them even has a bakery, (?) birthday cakes and cookies made specially for dogs. I’m always amazed that dogs will let their owners dress up in those tiny fashions. Every time my sisters and I tried to dress our dog up, he would struggle and wriggle out of the T-shirt, (?), scarf, or whatever we’d chosen for him.

・ That’s for sure.   それは確かです

・ wriggle out of ～ 体をくねらせて～からでる，～を脱ぐ

S: Sue Kim and Melinda Kinkaid mentioned pet hotels as an alternative to kennels, when their owners travel. These seem to be gaining popularity in both the US and Japan.

I: True. And I also know many people who will ask a friend or relative to watch the pets while they are away. Others will hire dog- or cat-sitters, kind of like baby-sitters, to check in on their pets on a daily basis. Cat-sitters are a great option, as cats tend not to need as much attention as dogs. Kennels and pet hotels, though expensive, are a good alternative for those who don’t have that option. One of my friends in New York had an interesting approach to this. She went to Puerto Rico to visit her family this past Christmas, but couldn’t bring her dog along. She considered hiring a dog-sitter, but was worried that dogs needed more attention. Kennel seemed impersonal, so she decided to send her dog on a vacation of its own.

・ alternative to ～ ～に対する代案，選択肢

・ on a daily basis  = every day

S: A doggie vacation?

I: Yes. The dog went to a dog retreat in New Hampshire owned by a family with a large house and a lot of land. They had separate areas for older dogs, who didn’t want to be bothered by frisky puppies, and they made sure to give all the dogs good foods, plenty of exercise and lots of affection. Everything seemed to go well and she’s thinking of doing the same thing next year.

・ retreat   保養所，収容所

・ frisky   じゃれつく

2009年01月第1週分 Lesson 7  Online Privacy (1)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The team comments on companies trying to control the use of social networking sites on company time.

● yield to ～ ～に屈する

Yield is a verb in English that means "surrender" or "be defeated" or "give up the right to someone else." On highways, sometimes you see a sign that says "Yield." That means the other flow of traffic has the right of way and you don’t. You have to wait for the others to go by and leave a space open for you. The word comes from old, very old English word that used to mean "pay."

● backlash 反発

Tony Hughes also uses the word backlash. Backlash comes from using whips. To count each whip stroke, you call it a lash. A backlash is a whipping motion that comes backward. So it’s an adverse reaction or a bad reaction to some action that you’ve already taken. It’s also sometimes called push-back or resistance.

・ backlash     a strong negative reaction by a number of people against recent events, especially against political or social developments : The 1970s saw the first backlash against the women’s movement. /  The management fear a backlash from fans over the team’s poor performances.   (LDCOE)

● break やすみ

Summer is usually not called "summer break," because it’s not a pause within a larger time frame. It’s actually the change from one year to the next.

● productivity の発音

You might have heard Jay Tyson say productivity, pronouncing the first vowel sound as /ɑ/. Many people also pronounce it /ou/ — /proudʌktɪvətɪ/. Both are fine.

● on company time = during office hours

● pull the plug やめにする

"Pull the plug" refers to taking power away from some kind of electronic gadget or instrument. Generally, though, as an idiom, "pull the plug" means "stop something." You can use it in almost any situation. It doesn’t have to have anything to do with electronics or electricity.

・ pull the plug (on something)   <informal>    to prevent a plan, business etc from being able to continue, especially by deciding not to give it any more money:  The Swiss entrepreneur has pulled the plug on any further investment in the firm.   (LDOCE)

● time wasting and procrastination

I think managers have worried about these two problems for a long time, even within their own behavior. But also computers make it a little easier to do it without getting caught. So that’s probably what Kinkaid is referring to here.

● computer as a productivity enhancer or a source of inefficiency

Productivity in computers has been a big topic ever since companies started introducing them into their offices, especially. I don’t remember hearing so much discussion in plants and production facilities, but especially in offices. I suppose part of it is because it takes a while to get used to using a computer, so the first few years it was just money out, not much return. But once people got used to computers, I think there has been a huge rise in productivity, even among white-collar workers in offices.

2009.01.08

2009年01月第1週分 Lesson 7  Online Privacy (2)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The group talks about distractions and the lack of privacy online at work.

● knowledge worker

A knowledge worker is a kind of white-collar worker. They’re the people who especially focus on, or handle, the company data and information.

● untamed information flows 勝手に流れる情報

・ untamed   allowed to remain in a wild state; not changed, controlled or influenced by anyone (OALD)

● e-mail の処理に関する日米差

I think I’ve noticed the differences in how people in the U.S. handle their e-mail and how people in Japan handle their e-mail; generally, of course, each individual’s a bit different. But I think generally in the U.S., people will take a look at their e-mail and see what needs to be done that day and the things they don’t have to read, you know, if they’re just copied or things that don’t need to be done that day, they’ll just leave for the next day. It seems to me, though, that Japanese people tend to read and answer all of their e-mail every day, even if they have to stay overtime to finish it up.

● under siege 包囲されて

"Under siege" is a phrase that comes from war. An army carries out a siege, when it surrounds an enemy and waits for them to run out of food or water. Usually the people being sieged are in some sort of fort or some strong, fairly easily defended place. The siege often has many small attacks on the target. Nowadays you can call almost anything under siege, if it’s in a situation where it seems to be surrounded and it’s being attacked or challenged again and again and again.

・ be under siege a) to be surrounded by an army in a siege b) to be being criticized, attacked, or threatened all the time: The TV station has been under siege from irate viewers phoning in to complain.  (LDOCE)

● lazybones 怠け者

Lazybones is kind of an interesting word. The singular and plural are the same: lazybones. So depending on whether you’re talking about one person or many people, you choose the verb accordingly. It’s been used in English since the 16th century, so it has a long history. A similar phrase is lazy Susan. But lazy Susan is a kind of revolving tray. In English, it’s what you would call that part of the table in Chinese restaurants that revolves. Also sometimes lazy Susans are found in cabinets that have hard-to-reach corners.

・ lazybones = used to refer to a lazy person  (OALD)

・  lazy Susan 回転盆，回転棚，回転卓

● sales reps 営業担当者 

・ sales rep = sales representative     an employee of a company who travels around a particular area selling the company’s goods to shops/stores, etc.  (OALD)

● happy medium 中間，中庸，折衷（案）

・ a happy medium (between something and something) a way of doing something that is not extreme but is somewhere between two possible choices: I always tried to strike a happy medium between having a home that looked like a bomb had hit it and becoming obsessively tidy. (LDOCE)

● grim reminder いやなことを思い出させるもの

Grim is a word that means unpleasant, or forbidding or sinister. It draws(?) up a kind of a dark and unpleasant atmosphere. It’s probably not related to Grimm’s Fairy Tales. In that case, Grimm is a family name.

● rekindle 再燃させる

Also, rekindle. Rekindle means "revive" or "renew." Probably employees have complained about company censorship of private e-mail in the past. Kindle itself is a verb that means "build a fire" or "start a fire" or "ignite." And the material that you use to get fire started is called kindling.

・ kindling たきつけ

2009.01.09

2009年01月第1週分 Lesson 7  Online Privacy (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Cortez observes that you should act as if you are being monitored when you’re on line and Tyson talks about a salesman caught stealing company data to take to a competitor.

● belittle 見下す，けなす

・ belittle = to make somebody or the things that somebody does seem unimportant : She felt her husband constantly belittled her achievements.  (OALD)

● The walls have ears. 壁に耳あり

"The walls have ears" is a very old expression in English, meaning "you never know who’s listening, anybody could be listening, you’d better be careful."

Another phrase that warns people to be careful with what they are talking about, also from the wartime, is "loose lips sink ships."

・ Loose lips sink ships   直訳は「しまりのない唇は船を沈める」。うっかりしたひと言が，利敵行為であるということ。  → The Phrase Finder

● legality について

Hughes is talking about the legality of what companies can do. Sometimes in English, people will talk about the narrow legal meaning, which is what Hughes is doing here, and then they will say, "Well, yes, it’s legal, but is it moral? Is it right?"

● eavesdrop 立ち聞き･盗み聞きする

Eavesdropping is kind of an interesting word in English. Some people mishear it and think it’s *easedropping — e-a-s-e-dropping. When people mishear like that, it’s called a mondegreen. The word itself actually comes from the eaves of a house. The eaves is the part of the roof that extends out beyond the outside walls. And people used to stand under there sometimes when it was raining to avoid getting wet. And of course if you’re standing under the eaves, you are very near the walls, so you can probably hear what’s going on in the house. So through that pathway, eavesdropping became the verb for listening to things you really shouldn’t be listening to.

・ mondegreen  聞き間違いによって別な意味で解釈されてしまう語 → Wikipedia

● fabric of trust 信頼の基盤・構造

・ the fabric of a society is its basic structure, way of life, relationships, and traditions (LDOCE)

● draw a line between ～ ～の間の線引きをする，区別する

When you draw a line between two things, you either distinguish between them, meaning you find the point where they begin to differ, or you separate them; you show exactly how they are different and that they are two different things.

● poke one’s nose into ～ ～に干渉する

Kinkaid talks about "a corporate nose", which sounds a little bit funny, but noses are often used in phrases in English, to talk about paying attention to things that are none of your business. If someone is asking you or telling you or getting too closely involved into your business, your private matters, you can tell them to stop poking their nose in your business. They are just coming too close to matters where they don’t belong. So "poking a corporate nose" into what employees are doing means the employees think the company is going too far into their private business.

You can also describe a person who regularly does those kinds of things as a nosy person.

・ If someone pokes their nose into something or sticks their nose into something, they try to interfere with it even though it does not concern them. (INFORMAL) : We don’t like strangers who poke their noses into our affairs. / Why did you have to stick your nose in?    = meddle    (COBUILD)

・ nosy   = too interested in things that do not concern you, especially other people’s affairs

● privileged info 部外秘の情報

・ privileged <law>   privileged information is private and is not allowed to be made public by law  (LDOCE)

● jump ship 会社を辞める

To jump ship is a phrase that’s often used in English to mean defect or desert or quit, go away, give up — words like that. Jump ship is a maritime phrase. And it was used to describe sailors who left their ship, usually at a foreign port, and disappeared. They escaped from their duty, whether they’d signed up for it voluntarily or whether they had been pressed into service.

・ jump ship a) to leave an organization that you are working for, especially in order to join another: The best employees jumped ship at the first opportunity.
b) to leave a ship on which you are working as a sailor, without permission   (LDOCE)

2008.01.14

2009年01月第2週分 Lesson 7  Online Privacy (4)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Hughes talks about his grandson and other youngsters who don’t worry about being observed because they grew up online with the different idea of privacy.

● breach 契約などを破る

Breach is the verb that means "break the rules," "break something," or "break through." It spells b-r-e-a-c-h, but the same word [briːʧ] with a different spelling, b-r-e-e-c-h, means the buttocks. There are some kinds of pants called knee breeches, and trousers are sometimes called britches, which is another variation of the word breech.

● underhand tactics 不正な策略

Hughes also talks about "underhand tactics." The adjective underhand is also used, probably just about equally, as underhanded. Both of them are acceptable; both of them can be used in any situation. Whichever one comes easy to you, please choose it.

・  underhand also underhanded     dishonest and done secretly: They did it all in such an underhand way. / He’s been involved in some underhand dealings.  (LDOCE)

● old-school 時代遅れの

If you call something old-school, you’re saying it’s traditional or conservative. You can use it positively or negatively depending on the context. Sometimes old-school is a good thing, and sometimes old-school is bad and you wanna criticize it.

・ old-school old-fashioned or traditional

● reality TV 一般の人の生活の様子を見せる番組

・ reality TV television programmes that feature real people doing real things, for example police officers chasing after stolen cars, or people who have been put in different situations and filmed continuously over a period of weeks or months (LDOCE)

アメリカの「サバイバー」とか日本の「あいのり」とか。

● World Wide Web

I haven’t heard people actually talking about World Wide Web recently. I think nowadays people usually say "the Internet" or "online." So I wonder how many young people actually know that WWW stands for World Wide Web.

● conduit 導管，パイプ役

・ conduit a person, an organization or a country that is used to pass things or information to other people or places

● as natural as brushing their teeth

The phrase "as natural as something" is used quite a bit in English actually.  In this phrase, I don’t know the brushing teeth is natural, but everybody does it without thinking about it much. If you look online, you’ll find the phrases like as "natural as gravity," "as natural as sneezing," and I even found one web site describing labor strikes as being "as natural as argument between husbands and wives."

● way back then  ・・・という昔に，かつては，という時代にさかのぼると

・ way back = a long time ago

・ back then = a long time ago when things were different

● When their parents and grandparents chatted with one another, they did so by telephone.

And that’s a land line telephone as well, not even cell phones.

● candid 率直に，ざっくばらんに

Hughes talks about "speaking candidly online." Candid means "honestly," "straightforwardly," and "clearly." There was even a TV show on in the U.S. called "Candid Camera." The TV show developed from an earlier radio show that had some other name, but it was the same guy doing it. Nowadays you can’t see the show on TV, regular broadcast TV or cable, but you can find it online and I think they’re still putting new videos up.

2009.01.15

2009年01月第2週分 Lesson 7  Online Privacy (5)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

== Key Phrases to Remember ==

● lost productivity 生産性の損失

● on company time 勤務時間中に ⇔ on private time

be suspended 停職・停学になる

In school, also kids are suspended if they’ve done something pretty bad. It means they can’t go back to school for a certain amount of time — a couple of days or week, whatever. And they have to later make up the work, if they want to graduate together with their class.

● be distracted by ～によって注意を妨げられる，～で気が散る

In this phrase, distracted means "have your attention pulled away from what your actual focus is, but the noun distraction can be used to mean extreme mental or emotional disturbance. It’s similar to obsession. For example, you could talk about a kid loving a puppy to distraction, or you could tell someone that they’re irritating you so much they’re driving you to distraction.

・  drive somebody to distraction    to continue annoying or upsetting someone very much: The baby’s constant crying drove me to distraction. (LDOCE)

● in turn 順に，今度は

You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours. 「あなたがわたしの背中をかいてくれたら，わたしはあなたの背中をかいてあげます。」

Another very informal way people might use for saying the same thing is "I’ll trade ya (=you)."

● fellow worker 仕事仲間，同僚

fellow = fell(e)a

It’s interesting because the word fellow comes from an old Norse word that meant "business partner." That idea of a partner having similarities and being together, continues even now in the word.

● be aware of ～を知っている，承知している

==  あんな時，こんな時 ==

「好きだ」という表現 I like ..

● アメリカ人はlove を使う

People use love to show they not only like something, but they really, really, really like it. It’s a very strong way to say you like something. But a lot of kids — I’m sure they still do this; if one kid says "Ooh, I love that car," the other kids might say, "Well, so go marry it."

● イギリス人は be keen on を使う

North Americans understand this phrase, but most of them don’t use it unless they’re going for some kind of special effect.

● have a soft spot (in one’s heart) for ～ ～に対して好感を持つ

If you have a soft spot for someone or something, you feel a great deal of affection for them or like them a lot. : Terry had a soft spot for me. (COBUILD)

● like 対 be fond of

It’s hard to say what’s different between "to be fond of something" and "to like something." Like is probably a fall-back expression: you can use it anytime, anywhere and it won’t seem unusual. Fond is maybe a little softer sounding or a little more vague sounding. It’s similar to "dote on" someone, I think, if you are talking about people. Fond maybe sounds a little more old-fashioned or gentile. Like is a bit stronger, maybe a bit sharper than being fond of something.

● go for ～

・ go for ～ <informal>    to like a particular type of person or thing:  Annie tends to go for older men.  (LDOCE)

● be crazy about ～

This phrase "be crazy about something" is very close to saying you love something.

● You can’t beat Hokkaido crabs in this restaurant.

If you say you can’t beat a particular thing you mean that it is the best thing of its kind. : You can’t beat soap and water for cleansing. (COBUILD)

● I’m sold on computer games.

・ be sold on (doing) something (=think an idea or plan is very good) :  Joe’s completely sold on the concept. (LDOCE)

● I fancy French food tonight.

If you fancy something, you want to have it or to do it. (mainly BRIT INFORMAL) :  What do you fancy doing, anyway? /  I just fancied a drink.  (COBUILD)

2009.01.16

2009年01月第2週分 Lesson 7  Online Privacy (6)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

S = 杉田敏      I = Susan Iwamoto

S: In our current vignette, we looked at the impact personal use of e-mail and Internet has had on employee productivity.

I: Yes. You know, despite all the initial gains and productivity, the Internet has brought on some challenges to time management as well, whether it’s dealing with the daily flood of e-mail or trying to resist the urge to take care of personal business during work time. Plus, the Internet can be a great distraction, particularly for procrastinators of the world.

S: Do you fall into that category?

I: Sure, I know I’m not alone out there. Though I do try to get on the present tasks out of the way earlier in a day, sometimes it’s tempting to check my e-mail just one more time, or look at news headlines before jumping into a project. As much as I appreciate the quick and easy access to information, I sometimes feel I need to escape to a place with no Internet access to really make some progress in my various projects.

・ out of the way if a particular matter, job etc is out of the way, it has been done or dealt with: I’d rather get the interview    out of the way in the morning. / As soon as the contract’s out of the way, we can start. (LDOCE)

・ As much as S + V  ≒ Though S + V

S: Well, many companies have restricted access to the Internet as a way of fighting back against the loss of employee productivity. Have you experienced that in companies where you’ve worked, Susan?

I: Yes, definitely. Jay Tyson mentioned that one of Great Lakes employees in Europe was caught trying to e-mail confidential information to his home computer. Now, one of my former employers had similar concerns about the potential loss of confidential product information and decided to block access to all web-based e-mail sites. Later, they cracked on access to other Internet sites as well. But I think there was more of an interest in preventing employees from wasting time on personal pursuits.

・ crack down to become more strict in dealing with a problem and punishing the people involved
crack down on   
The government is determined to crack down on terrorism. / The police are cracking down hard on violent crime.  (LDOCE)

S: How was that received by employees?

I: Well, there was a lot of grumbling at first. But I think people could understand the concerns of the company. However, I think they went a bit overboard in some respects.

・ go overboard    to do or say something that is too extreme for a particular situation: I hope politicians will not go overboard in trying to control the press. (LDOCE)

S: In what respect, for example?

I: Well, occasionally I would be blocked from sites I needed to access for work. The red tape necessary to gain permission to use the site was very annoying. It sometimes took a day or two to finally be approved to access that site. Of course, by that time, I would have already given it up and just research the information on my home computer. I think they’ve improved the process since then, and as Jay Tyson mentioned in the vignette, companies are trying to find a good compromise that protects the company but also acknowledges the fact that employees want some access to the Internet for personal use.

・ red tape You refer to official rules and procedures as red tape when they seem unnecessary and cause delay.: The little money that was available was tied up in bureaucratic red tape. (COBUILD)

S: Yes, and Tony Hughes mentioned that Great Lakes allows access to popular social networking sites during specific time of the day. Do you think this will be effective?

I: I think it will be effective to a certain extent, but there will always be employees in search of distractions. I used to feel really guilty about checking news sites from time to time at my former company, but now that I work primarily as a consultant, all of my personal use of the Internet happens on my own time. I can feel the effects of any loss of productivity directly. And that actually  helps me manage my time better.

S: Well, speaking of time management, many employees complain that they spend too much time out of their working day reading and replying to e-mail. Rosa Cortez mentioned that many companies are establishing zero e-mail Fridays.

I: I think this is an interesting idea, but I wonder how feasible it is. E-mail has become such a daily part of work life and I can imagine employees liking the idea in theory, but also going into withdrawal if they can’t access their e-mail. Still, it highlights the need for setting aside block of time uninterrupted by e-mail or phone calls so that you can really throw yourself into a project. For many of us, that seems like a luxury at this point.

S: Do you do this yourself?

I: Well, I do a lot of training work, so it’s natural to limit my e-mail access to breaks. However, on days when I’m working on my own, I try to only check e-mail every hour or two. The biggest change I’ve noticed over the years, though, is that e-mail has blurred the line between work time and private time. Years ago, I only had access to work e-mail at the office, so it was easy to leave work at work, but now I can read my e-mail twenty-four seven.

・ twenty-four seven (24-7)  <informal> if something happens twenty-four seven, it happens all the time, every day (LDOCE)

S: How do you deal with that?

I: (?) to a certain extent, I don’t mind. Sometimes it’s nice to get a quick answer to a work question, because I know that my colleagues are checking the e-mail regularly too. However, I do try to limit checking e-mail on weekends. Or when traveling, I check urgent messages. But I still sometimes feel guilty for not getting back to people promptly even when I’m on vacation. My experience is not unique in that regard, and just another example of e-mail being a blessing and a curse.

・ get back to somebody    to talk to someone or telephone them later in order to answer a question or give them information: I’ll find out the prices and get back to you. (LDOCE)

2009.01.21

2009年01月第3週分 Lesson 8  Keeping Fit (1)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Shiga’s looking for a health club and Cortez, Hughes, and Kim give him some advice.

● gym

Shiga mentions a gym, which is short for gymnasium. Usually, gymnasium or gym refers to a room that has facilities for indoor sports. But people often use it very generally, just to mean a place where you can exercise.

● trim off some extra pounds ぜい肉を落とす

・ trim (off) to cut away unnecessary parts from something (OALD)

● You’ve come to the right place. それならまかせてください。それには私（ども）がまさにぴったりです。

This is the phrase people often use to mean "You can rely on me," or "The answer is here," or "I have the answer," or "I can tell you what to do."

● I’m all ears too. ぜひ聞きたい。

・ be all ears    <informal>   to be very keen to hear what someone is going to tell you: As soon as I mentioned money, Karen was all ears.  (LDOCE)

● Let’s see. えーと，そうですね。

Almost any time you’re trying to think of what to say next, you could say, "Well, let’s see." It’s a very strong signal that you’re thinking.

・ let’s see also let me see <spoken> used when you are thinking about or trying to remember something:  Today’s date is – let me see, March 20th. / Now, let’s see, where did I put your application form?   (LDOCE)

● shop around あれこれ比較していいものを探す

"Shop around" is a phrasal verb that you can use even if you’re not actually going to shops, but if you’re going to buy something, it means "compare prices," "compare quality," "see what you can get" before you make a decision.

・ shop around (for something) to compare the quality or prices of goods or services that are offered by different shops/stores, companies, etc. so that you can choose the best; Shop around for the best deal. (OALD)

● Quality remains after the prices is forgotten.

ネット上には，

• The recollection of quality remains long after price is forgotten.
• The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of cheap price is forgotten.

という2つのパージョンが見られる。主語は逆だが，結局は同じこと。

● bad press マスコミで報道される悪評

・ get/be given a bad press    to be criticized in the newspapers or on radio or television: The government’s policy on mental health care is getting an increasingly bad press. (LDOCE)

● get ripped off 不当な金額を取られる，ぼられる

・ rip something off   cheat someone, especially financially (NOAD)

● sign on the dotted line 署名欄に署名する

The phrase "sign on the dotted line" is often used to mean not only to sign some kind of document, but also to say you approve of something or you accept something. Another word you could use is endorse. Or you could even say "put your John Hancock on it." John Hancock was one of the founders of the U.S. and he had a very large and fancy signature on the Declaration of Independence.

・ John Hancock
NOUN:    Informal A person’s signature.
ETYMOLOGY:    After John Hancock (from the prominence of his signature on the Declaration of Independence). (American Heritage)

hancock 「署名する」という動詞も。

● between the lines 行間を（読む）

Kim uses the phrase "between the lines." There’s an idiom "to read between the lines," which means "understand more than is directly stated." I think she’s kind of referring to this when she talks about contracts being interpreted between the lines. It’s often used to describe a person who’s good at reading or other signals besides what’s just on the surface.

● fly-by-night 夜逃げ

Fly-by-night: in this case, fly means escape or run away. So something that runs away at night is something that you probably can’t trust very easily. It could be a company or a person. It’s often someone who owes money but doesn’t wanna have to pay.

・ fly-by-night [only before noun]    <informal> a fly-by-night company or businessman is one that you cannot trust because they have only been in business for a short time and are only interested in making quick profits  (LDOCE)

● in the blink of an eye 一瞬にして，またたく間に

Hughes also talks about these untrustworthy fitness clubs "shutting down in the blink of an eye." That means "very rapidly" like as quickly as people can blink their eyes. This phrase has a couple of variations; you could say "in the wink of an eye," "in the bat of an eye." All of them refer to how quickly you can open and close your eyes.

・ in the bat of an eye は辞書にはないが，ネット上にはある

・ それ以外に， in the[a] twinkling (of an eye)

● pay in a lump sum 一括で支払う

・ lump sum an amount of money given in a single payment: When you retire you’ll get a lump sum of £80,000. (LDOCE)

● アメリカ人は「自動引き落とし」を信用せず，毎月の請求書を確認の上，小切手で支払う人が多い。

I think that’s still the most popular way to pay any kind of bills in the U.S.

2009.01.22

2009年01月第3週分 Lesson 8  Keeping Fit (2)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Hughes gives Shiga tips on how to identify a quality club and Cortez points out the importance of cleanliness.

● the same old story いつものこと，よくある話

Shiga uses the phrase the same old story. That usually means "again and again and again the same thing," "nothing changed." Sometimes you’ll hear people say, "The same old, same old." And I think you can use that in the same situation, but it’s slightly different. I think it’s a little more satirical or ironic, the same old, same old. And you don’t even add the word story.

・ the (same) old story what usually happens:  It’s the same old story of a badly managed project with inadequate funding.  (OALD)

・ Same old, same old used to say that a situation has not changed at all: ‘How’s it going?’  ‘Oh, same old, same old.’ (OALD)

● spic-and-span きちんとした，こざっぱりした

Spic-and-span is a phrase you’ll hear when somebody’s talking about something that is spotlessly clean. It’s beautiful, it’s like it’s brand-new and fresh.

・ spic-and-span [not before noun]  <informal>  a room, house etc that is spick and span is completely clean and tidy  (LDOCE)

● in tiptop condition 最良の状態で

  ・ tip-top  <informal>  excellent:  The car’s in tip-top condition. (LDOCE)

● with an eye for ～ ～に眼識があって，～に注意して

Shiga mentions that he visited health clubs with an eye for health hazards. The phrase "with an eye for" can be used literally; he was probably looking carefully for health hazards. But you can use the phrase for almost anything that you want to keep in mind or the thing you really wanna focus on during some activity.

● takeaway 持ち帰り（の）

・ takeaway a meal that you buy at a shop or restaurant to eat at home [= takeout American English]  : Let’s have a takeaway tonight. (LDOCE)

● germ ばい菌

Germ or germs is a word in English that has many uses. The way Cortez is using it is to mean microorganism or pathogen — something you can’t see that causes disease. It’s been used with that meaning since the late 19th century in English. A more informal or casual word is bug; sometimes people talk about catching a bug.

● dumbbell ダンベル，ばか，のろま

Cortez, when she says dumbbells, is talking about exercise equipment. Dumbbell is also slang for a person who’s maybe not as bright as many other people. Kids tend to use it to insult each other: "You dumbbell! Why did you do that?"

● You said it. そのとおり。

・ you said it!  <spoken>
a) used when someone says something that you agree with, although you would not have actually said it yourself because it is not polite: ‘I was always stubborn as a kid.’ ‘You said it!’
b) <especially American English> used to say that you agree with someone: ‘Let’s go home.’ ‘You said it! I’m tired.’ (LDOCE)

● staph ブドウ球菌

Hughes talks about picking up a nasty staph infection. Staph is short for staphylococcus — a group of bacteria that cause many common infection in people. Staph is spelled s-t-a-p-h in this case, although the pronunciation is the same as the word for a group of people who work together in a specific area, staff — s-t-a-f-f.

● ジムにおける衛生の問題

The group’s been talking about hygiene from the point of view of germs and diseases that you can pick up in locker rooms or gyms. But I often hear about health clubs telling members to wipe off the equipment after you use it. So there is more, I think, to hygiene and sanitation than just avoiding a disease. You could also be trying to avoid other people’s sweat and things like that. It might not make you sick, but it is pretty unpleasant.

● Hygiene tops the list トップを占める，筆頭である

・ top (verb) to be in the highest position on a list because you are the most successful, important, etc. :  The band topped the charts for five weeks with their first single.  (OALD)

2009.01.23

2009年01月第3週分 Lesson 8  Keeping Fit (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Shiga talks about finding good training advisors and Cortez wants to know which health club she decides on because she’s looking, too.

● Better safe than sorry 用心するにこしたことはない

"Better safe than sorry" is basically a set phrase just to remind people that they should be cautious.

・ Better late than never. まったく来ないより，遅れてきた方がいい。

● clean とその名詞 cleanliness

Shiga talks about equipment being cleaned. There’s a phrase in English: Cleanliness is next to godliness. Cleanliness might be a little bit difficult to pronounce if you’ve never heard it before, because it’s spelled c-l-e-a-n-, the same as clean, but it’s pronounced /klen/: cleanliness.

・ Cleanliness is next to godliness. 清潔は敬神に次ぐ美徳

● be short on ～ ～が不足している

・ be short on something <informal> lacking or not having enough of a particular quality : He was a big strapping guy but short on brains.  (OALD)

● be wait-listed 順番を待たされる

・ wait-list (verb)  to put somebody’s name on a waiting list : He’s been wait-listed for a football scholarship to Stanford.  (OALD)

● pour into ～ ～に押し寄せる

Kim uses the phrasal verb pouring into to talk about the great amount of people who are going to the good health and fitness centers. Pour into is a phrase you can use for almost anything that flows into something in large numbers. It’s very similar to pouring water but it doesn’t have to be a liquid.

・ Matsushita さんは，the great amount of people と，可算名詞で amount of を使っています。大学入試的には☓にされてしまいますが，時々使われるようです。

● keep up a good head of steam 気力の充実を維持する

"To keep up a good head of steam" is an idiom that means "keep your power and energy in good supply." It comes from the old days of steam engines, when they had to build up enough pressure, (that’s a head of steam) to make the locomotive start moving, (that’s a lot of heavy steel) to move with steam. By the way, in Japan they are often called SL (steam locomotive). I think English speakers won’t know what you are talking about if you only say SL.

・ head of water/steam     pressure that is made when water or steam is kept in an enclosed space (LDOCE)  head 圧力

・ get/build up a head of steam    to become very active after starting something slowly (LDOCE)

● bona fide 正真正銘の，本物の

Bona fide is a phrase that comes from Latin originally. It’s used in English to mean authentic or genuine or real. And because it comes from a foreign language, it tends to have various pronunciations: /bounə faid/, which is the way I usually say it, but you can also say /bɑnə faid/ or even /bɑnə faidi/.

Used in the plural, it means credentials or reputation. And then I usually hear it pronounced /bɑnə faidiːz/, although sometimes people will say /bounə faidz/.

・ bona fide real, true, and not intended to deceive anyone: Only bona fide members are allowed to use the club pool. (LDOCE)

● ward off 追い払う，寄せ付けない

If you ward something off, you avert it or turn it away or repel it. The word ward in all its various meanings in English is almost always somehow related to the idea of protection.

・ ward ～ off to protect or defend yourself against danger, illness, attack, etc. : to ward off criticism / She put up her hands to ward him off.   (OALD)

● sales pitches 売り込み（口上），セールストーク

・ pitch  <informal>   the things someone says to persuade people to buy something, do something, or accept an idea: an aggressive salesman with a fast-talking sales pitch   (LDOCE)

● best bet 最も確実な方策

・ your best bet    <spoken>    used when advising someone what to do: Your best bet is to put an advert in the local newspaper. / The train might be a better bet.   (LDOCE)

● flex one’s biceps 力こぶを作る

Cortez talks about a trainer who "flexes his biceps." Flex is the word that’s often used together with muscles to mean "move your muscles", "use your muscles". Biceps are the main muscle in the upper half of your arm. So flexing your biceps is showing off your muscles. But you can also use the phrase "flex one’s muscles" as an idiom. And in that case, it means showing your power or your strength or your influence.

・ flex your muscles   to show somebody how powerful you are, especially as a warning or threat

● blow a whistle ホイッスルを吹く，内部告発する

・ 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)

2009.01.28

2009年01月第4週分 Lesson 8  Keeping Fit (4)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The group talks about the advantages of exercise and the importance of not overdoing it.

● act your age 年相応に振る舞う（主に若者ぶる人に）

If you tell someone to act their age, it sounds like you could use it in any situation, if they’re acting too young or too old. But usually in English, this phrase is used to tell people who are being childish or acting too young to act as old as they are.

Another phrase people use sometimes with pretty much the same meaning is "Grow up."

・ act [be] your age to behave in a way that is suitable for somebody of your age and not as though you were much younger (OALD)

・ act young 若ぶる

・ "Grow up." 子どもみたいなまねはよせ！

● strain muscles and bones 筋肉と骨にムリをさせる

・ strain   to injure yourself or part of your body by making it work too hard

● be nowhere near ～ ～にはほど遠い

・ nowhere near ～   far from ～; not at all ～: The job doesn’t pay anywhere near enough for me. (OALD)

● cardiac disease 心臓病

You’ll often hear people talking about heart disease rather than cardiac disease. They’re the same thing. Cardiac is an adjective used to mean heart, usually in relation to health and fitness.

● pushup 腕立て伏せ

Pushup is often used as sort of the all of general kind of exercise that’s supposed to be good for you. All kinds of people do pushups for all kinds of reasons. And people have been doing pushups for a long, long time, many years. I think they fairly recently came back in style because they are very good for training, all kinds of muscles in your chest and your back and your arms.

・ sit-up 腹筋運動

And all those sit-ups are now pretty much out of fashion, because it’s easy to hurt your back by doing old-fashioned sit-ups. Now people tend to do things called crunches.

・ crunches 脚を曲げたまま上体を起こす腹筋運動

● backbends 後屈

Backbends also, I think, are not such a common exercise these days. I can’t remember really hearing much about backbends since I was a kid. Kids tried to do ‘em a lot.

● payback 見返り

・ payback the advantage or reward that somebody receives for something they have done; the act of paying something back :  His victory was seen as payback for all the hard work he’d put in during training. / It’s payback time! (=a person will have to suffer for what they have done.)

● heavy

Kim talks about "Hughes not being too heavy." She means he’s not fat. He doesn’t have too much extra weight. Heavy in slang can mean cool or OK or great. On the other hand, if you describe someone as heavyset, it usually means they have heavier bones and heavier, larger muscles than maybe the average person. And one more: a heavy is a kind of a thug or the guys in a gang who use their physical power to persuade people to do what they want.

・ heavy 悪役，ならず者

・ heavyset having a broad heavy body

・ heavy weight  業界で力がある・知識がある

● bottom line 重要な点，肝心なこと

・ the bottom line    used to tell someone what the most important part of a situation is, or what the most important thing to consider is: In radio you have to keep the listener listening. That’s the bottom line. (LDOCE)

● cutoff （効力などが切れる）期限［段階］

・ cutoff a point or limit when you stop something: The government announced a cut-off in overseas aid. / Is there a cut-off point between childhood and adulthood?  (OALD)

● dawn and dusk 早朝と夕暮れ

● That seems to do for her workout.

If you say "That’ll do," you mean it’s enough, it’s fine; that takes care of everything; it’s satisfactory.

・ do used to say that something will be enough or be acceptable:
We don’t have a lot of wine for the party, but it should just about do. / I can’t find my black shoes so these will have to do. / A few sandwiches will do me for lunch. / It won’t do (=it is not acceptable) to say that the situation couldn’t have been avoided. (LDOCE)

2009.01.29

2009年01月第4週分 Lesson 8  Keeping Fit (5)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

== Key Phrases to Remember ==

● apply for ～ ～に申し込む，～を申請する

You can also apply to someone or something for some purpose, so seniors in high school are always talking to each other about "Where did you apply?" "Which school did you apply to for college?"

A little more formal way to say it is that you applied to the state university for a matriculation.

● sign on the dotted line （文書の）点線の上に署名する，署名欄に署名する

→ 実践ビジネス英語 2009.01.21

● in the blink of an eye 瞬く間に，あっという間に

  → 実践ビジネス英語 2009.01.21

● in the midst of ～ ～のさなかに，真っ只中に

● in tiptop condition 最良の状態で

Tiptop has many synonyms. You could say "excellent" or "the highest," "the best," "A-1" or even" topnotch."

   → 実践ビジネス英語 2009.01.22

● to the list トップを占める，筆頭である

  → 実践ビジネス英語 2009.01.22

==  あんな時，こんな時 == 

 アドバイスを求める表現 I need some advice.

● I can use some advice from a lawyer. 「弁護士からのアドバイスを必要としている」

● vase 高額な花瓶は/vɑːz/と発音。

Although I think a lot of  people in the U.S. would find that a little bit over the top.

・ over the top done to an exaggerated degree and with too much effort: His performance is completely over the top. / an over-the-top reaction    (OALD)

● get out of the bind 窮状から脱する

・ bind   an annoying situation that is often difficult to avoid

インフォーマルな場合

● What would you do?

This one is probably usually pronounced with the focus on the word do, because it probably follows up the speaker saying what the problem is and then turning the focus onto the listener.

2009.01.30

2009年01月第4週分 Lesson 8  Keeping Fit (6)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

S = 杉田敏      I = Susan Iwamoto

S: Recently  we’ve been talking about fitness clubs and the challenges of making time for exercise during the week.

I: Yes, and this is definitely an important topic and something I struggle with quite a lot. I’m definitely an on-again, off-again exerciser. I like to exercise. But after a long day of work, sometimes all I want to do is settle in a couch with a good book. How about you Sugita-san? Are you an avid exerciser?

・ on-again, off-again 断続的な existing briefly and in an intermittent unpredictable way (11th Collegiate)

S: Well, I wouldn’t call myself an avid exerciser, but I try to exercise every morning at a downtown fitness club before I get to work. Most of the time I ride a stationary bike for half an hour to an hour. It’s so refreshing at the start of the day.

I: Oh, I know what you mean. I belong to a gym, too, but I’m going in spurts; sometimes I’m a regular(?) and sometimes I feel I’m just pouring money down the hole.

S: Shiga Hiroshi mentioned that the challenges of finding a good fitness club, and Tony Hughes and Rosa Cortez gave him some good advice about shopping around for quality facilities with solid contracts. What’s important for you in a fitness club, Susan?

I: Well, everyone has their own priorities, but for me the location and hours of operation are crucial. My current gym is about seven-minute walk from my apartment, and frankly, I have a hard enough time getting myself there. If I had to travel any further, I probably wouldn’t go there at all. I like to work out at night and I love the fact that the gym is open until midnight. I sometimes wish it would be open earlier in the morning, though, so that I could squeeze in a workout before heading to the office. I’ve noticed that many more gyms in the U.S. than Japan just do that. There seems to be many more 24-hour gyms in the U.S., though I can’t imagine there are many people on treadmill at 3 A.M.

・ squeeze in to give time to somebody/something, although you are very busy: If you come this afternoon the doctor will try to squeeze you in.  (OALD)

S: Hiroshi mentioned that the economic downturn is having an effect on gym memberships. Do you find that to be the case?

I: Yes, definitely. People are looking for ways to trim the budget as well as their waistline, and are looking for inexpensive alternatives to fitness clubs. Some employers offer gym memberships as part of their benefits package, but many people have to pay out of their own pocket for the gym. I have quite a few friends and relatives in the States who’ve quit their gyms in favor of weekend hikes, biking to work or going for morning jogs. And that includes people who are eligible for gym discount through work. Even with a discount, it’s still an expense that can easily be cut.

S: Have you had gym membership through your employers in the past?

I: Well, one of my former employers was a large corporation and we had a company gym on the premises. It was free for all employees to use and it had excellent facilities. The same employer also offers discount tickets for private business clubs for employees who prefer to work out in their neighborhood.

S: Many cities and towns in Japan also have public gyms that are very inexpensive.

I: Yes, and I think it’s wonderful. It’s a nice alternative for people who would like to participate in aerobics classes or go swimming but who don’t want to shell out over 10,000 yen a month on the gym membership. One of my friends in Tokyo lives near a wonderful public gym with facilities that are just as nice as private fitness clubs nearby, but at a fraction of the cost.

・ shell out If you shell out for something, you spend a lot of money on it. (INFORMAL) : You won’t have to shell out a fortune for it. /  an insurance premium which saves you from having to shell out for repairs   (COBUILD)

S: Sue Kim mentioned the dangers of our sedentary life style and this is of particular importance as people get older.

I: Yes, sad but(?) true. For many people, myself included, once they hit their thirties, they realize it takes a lot more effort to maintain a healthy weight. Sitting around all day in front of a computer certainly doesn’t help. Exercising at least three times per week is recommended by most experts, as is  incorporating exercise in a subtle way during the day: now for example, taking the stairs instead of escalators or elevators, and walking instead of driving.

・ hit to reach a particular level or number: Sales have hit the    1 million mark. /  hit a peak / an all-time high etc / Earnings hit a peak in the early 1980s. / hit rock-bottom (an all-time low) etc  / Oil prices have hit rock-bottom.  (LDOCE)

S: This is something that has been getting a lot of attention in Japan, too, particularly with all of the recent focus on metabolic syndrome.

I: True. I’ve noticed a huge increase in the number of diet products available in Japan in the last ten years or so. When I moved to Japan after graduating from college, it was difficult to find things like low-fat milk or sugar-free yogurt. But now there are shelves full of products geared towards dieters. And diet crazes seem to be becoming commonplace here too. Just a few months ago, bananas were selling out at supermarkets all over Japan because of some celebrity diets. I wonder what’s next.

・ geared towards [to] ～ / geared to V designed or organized to achieve a particular purpose, or to be suitable for a particular group of people : The programme is geared to preparing students for the world of work. / The resort is geared towards children. (OALD)

2008年12月第1週分 Lesson 5  Airport Hassles (1)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Kinkaid relates her most recent troubled travel, and the team joins in.

● Exactly what happened? いったい何があったんですか。

Shiga adds the word exactly to his question "What happened?" It makes it sound a little bit more like he really wants the details, although he could’ve said just "What happened?"

・ exactly <informal> used to ask for more information about something : Where exactly did you stay in France? / Exactly what  are you trying to tell me?  (OALD)

● get stranded 足止めされる，立ち往生する

・ stranded    a person or vehicle that is stranded is unable to move from the place where they are [= stuck]:
Air travellers were left stranded because of icy conditions.   (LDOCE)

● grounded 離陸できない，地上待機になっている

In this case, the word grounded makes very literal sense: the planes have to stay on the ground. But grounded is also used as a kind of punishment. It has a broader meaning that says you have to stay where you are, not that you can’t take off. So often in the U.S., a parent will punish their kid, usually older kids like teenagers, by telling them they’re grounded — they can’t go out of the house, they can’t do anything fun and special, they can only go to school.

・ Do you want to be grounded? 遊びに行けなくなってもいいの。 （ジーニアス大英和）

・ ground  

If an aircraft or its passengers are grounded, they are made to stay on the ground and are not allowed to take off. : The civil aviation minister ordered all the planes to be grounded. / A hydrogen leak forced NASA to ground the space shuttle.

      When parents ground a child, they forbid them to go out and enjoy themselves for a period of time, as a punishment. : Thompson grounded him for a month, and banned television.    (COBUILD)

● on a wait list 順番待ちをしている

・ wait list = waiting list

● the Great Lakes は日本では「五大湖」と言っているが，

I think everybody knows there’s five of them

● some かなりの，ちょっとした

Some, of course, means "not all but more than none", but another way to use some is as an intensifier. It has pretty much the same meaning as remarkable or remarkably.

● take refuge 避難する

・ take/seek refuge (in something)   
During the frequent air-raids, people took refuge in their cellars.

● cove 入り江

A cove is actually a fairly small and rather sheltered inlet or bay, so massive tankers were probably not actually in coves. But choosing the word cove makes it sound nice and cozy and safe.

● 接続詞の only

(LDOCE)  used like ‘but’ to give the reason why something is not possible: I’d offer to help, only I’m really busy just now.

(OALD)  except that; but   : I’d love to come, only I have to work.  /  It tastes like chicken, only stronger.

(COBUILD)  1. Only can be used to add a comment which slightly changes or limits what you have just said. <INFORMAL> :  It’s just as dramatic as a film, only it’s real. / Drop in and see me when you’re ready. Only don’t take too long about it.  = but, except 

2. Only can be used after a clause with ‘would’ to indicate why something is not done. <SPOKEN>  : I’d invite you to come with me, only it’s such a long way. / I’d be quite happy to go. Only I don’t know what my kids would say about living there.  = but

● a seven-hour flight to nowhere

Flight to nowhere. You can say something to nowhere to describe something that you think is useless. It doesn’t even actually have to be some kind of transportation or something that moves you. I checked on the Internet. You can find all kinds of things. For example, the fuel to nowhere or the pipeline to nowhere, the diploma to nowhere. It’s something that doesn’t help you.

・ in the middle of nowhere なんにもないところに

● cover ～を補償する

Cover is a verb you can often use to talk about paying for something. You can cover the cost, you can cover a bill. The same word is used in insurance. "Does your insurance cover your costs for medical care or getting your car repaired?" for example.

● signage 案内表示，標識

signage    = signs, especially ones that give instructions or directions to the public  (OALD)

● 空港における表示のわかりにくさについて

Yeah, that can be pretty irritating, especially if you’re in a rush, if you weren’t able to have enough time between flights. Another thing that really annoys me is customs and immigration, because .. I don’t mind them asking questions so much, they’re doing the right job, but it seems like there’s often not enough people processing travelers. We came from Mexico once through Houston. Hundreds, hundreds and hundreds, probably thousands of people were in lines trying to get through. Luckily, we were coming into the U.S. and I’m a U.S. citizen and my husband could come with me because we were married. But it still took us probably an hour to get through.

● get mixed up 頭が混乱する

・ mixed up  [not before noun]    confused, for example because you have too many different details to remember or think about:  I get all mixed up over the money whenever I travel abroad.  (LDCOE)

2008.12.04

2008年12月第1週分 Lesson 5  Airport Hassles (2)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Shiga says he worries about losing his luggage. And the others talk about how the system works.

● connecting flights （飛行機の）乗り継ぎ便

● transfer 乗り継ぎする，乗り換える

My parents just went to Lincoln. And they flew from Mexico and then they had to transfer twice in the U.S.

● per se  それ自体は

Tyson uses the word per se. It’s two words — p-e-r and then a space and s-e. I think most English speakers don’t know exactly what those words mean. They come from Latin. The meaning, though as a phrase they understand it, means as such or the thing as it is.

・ per se used meaning ‘by itself’ to show that you are referring to something on its own, rather than in connection with other things : The drug is not harmful per se, but is dangerous when taken with alcohol. (OALD)

● drive ～ clean out of one’s mind  ～の頭をおかしくさせる

Tyson also talks about "being driven clean out of his mind." Clean can also be used to mean thorough or complete. You can use it, for example, in the phrase "clean getaway."

・ drive somebody out of their mind / drive somebody up the wall  = make someone feel very annoyed  (LDOCE)

・ clean     Clean is used to emphasize that something was done completely. (INFORMAL) :  It burned clean through the seat of my overalls. /   I clean forgot everything I had prepared.  (COBUILD)

● harried 責められている，悩まされている，いらいらした

Harried is very similar to harassed in meaning. It means you’re being disturbed or bothered as if by repeated attacks. So something that keeps irritating you and bothering you and it comes again and again there’s(?) many similar ones makes you feel harried.

・ harry   to make repeated attacks on an enemy  (OALD)

● scramble to V     先を争って～しようとする

Scramble is a verb that, of course, means mixed-up eggs. But you can also use it to mean struggle or fight franticly. It’s often used when there isn’t enough of something and everybody is trying to get it at the same time. In this situation, you could also use the phrase, "Hurry up and wait," which sounds like an oxymoron, but doesn’t it feel like that in the airport? You hurry, hurry, hurry to get to the right place at the right time and they you wait. Hurry up and wait!

・ scramble   to try to do something difficult very quickly
scramble to do something     :  They were scrambling to give the impression that the situation was in control. (LDOCE)

● pilfer くすねる，盗む

・ pilfer   to steal things of little value or in small quantities, especially from the place where you work (OALD)

● meet the same fate 同じ運命に遭う

● go missing なくなる

・ Two files have gone missing. / Our cat’s gone missing again. (OALD)

● file （書類などを）提出する

・ file  <law>   to give a document to a court or other organization so that it can be officially recorded and dealt with 

 file a complaint/lawsuit/petition etc (against somebody)  :  Mr Genoa filed a formal complaint against the department.   (LDOCE)

● lost baggage claim 紛失届け

Tyson talks about "filing a lost baggage claim." A claim is a paper or statement that says something is true. It’s often about a complaint but it’s not a complaint itself.

● some dark corner of the world 世界のどこかの暗い片隅

You can use the phrase "some dark corner of the world" to talk about places where things disappear, you can’t really see it very well. It sounds like a bit of a  doubtful or dangerous kind of a place. You could say an out-of-the-way place. But that has a more neutral meaning.

・ out-of-the-way  人里離れた，へんぴな

= far from a town or city   (OALD)

● song and dance 大騒ぎ，ごたごた

The phrase "song and dance" can be used to refer to almost anything that’s meant to mislead, that’s kind of confusing, that is a sort of an explanation or justification of something that happened.

・ a song and dance (about something)    <informal>
a) <British English>    if you make a song and dance about something, you behave as if it was worse, more important, more difficult etc than it really is: Suzy was there, making a song and dance about her aching feet.
b) <American English>    an explanation or excuse that is too long and complicated: She gave us a long song and dance about why she was late.  (LDOCE)

2008.12.05

2008年12月第1週分 Lesson 5  Airport Hassles (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The group discusses how luggage gets lost and what you can do about it.

● carousel 回転コンベアー

A carousel is a circular conveyer, especially the kind you see in airports. But you can also use the word to mean merry-go-round, which is sometimes a circular conveyer for kids to play on.

● hub ハブ空港（貨客を中継する役割を持った拠点空港）

A hub is a central point of a circle. So also on cars, the centers of wheels are called hubs and so cars have hubcaps.

● "Connecting bags and travelers can become a real nightmare"

Cortez uses the word connecting at the beginning of her sentence, but she’s not talking about connecting flights. She’s using it also in the meaning of "put together", but in this case she means keeping bags and the people who own them on the same flight.

● antiquated 時代遅れの，老朽化した

Although many people like antique, if you use this antiquated, it’s always used negatively to mean something that’s really too old and needs to be updated.

・ antiquated old-fashioned and not suitable for modern needs or conditions – used to show disapproval [= outdated]: antiquated laws (LDOCE)

● stop over 途中下車する，旅の途中で止まる

stop over    = to stop somewhere and stay a short time before continuing a long journey, especially when travelling by plane: The plane stops over in Dubai on the way to India.  (LDOCE)

● business pitch   = business presentation

Pitch, in English, has many meanings. In this case, a business pitch is usually some kind of proposal, some kind of a plan that you want the other people to go along with.

・ go along with ～ ～を支持する = agree with ～

● I didn’t think to plan ahead

Tyson starts off by saying "I didn’t think." He could have said "it didn’t occur to me." That phrase might be a little difficult for non-English speakers to use. It doesn’t seem like it sort of logically will come into your head to use the word occur to talk about something you are thinking about.

● think to V Vすることを予想する・予期する(expect)

・ [think to inf.] to remember something; to have something come into your mind : I didn’t think (= It did not occur to me) to tell her.

● trans-   横断の

Kinkaid talks about transatlantic travel. Trans- is a prefix you can use with many words to mean "across" or "on the other side" or even "through." So you will also hear transpacific, the trans-Siberian railways, very famous, and transcontinental is used quite a bit in the U.S. because people do go all the way across the continent fairly often.

2008.12.10

2008年12月第2週分 Lesson 5  Airport Hassles (4)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Kinkaid observes that no matter what you’re up against when flying you’ll do better if you stay calm and treat airline workers politely.

・ be up against ～ 直面する = facing problems or opposition : Teachers are up against some major problems these days.  (OALD)

● check one’s luggage 荷物を預ける

・ check （所持品を札などと交換に）一時預ける

● ship 発送する

Almost anything larger than a letter that you send somewhere, you can say you are shipping it.

● walk off

Walk off is kind of a nice verb to use here, because it sounds like "walk off the plane." You don’t have to go near baggage claim. You just take your time and stroll away. You could also use the verb walk off, though, to show that you’re not paying attention to someone. Instead of talking or interacting, you just walk off.

・ walk off = to leave someone by walking away from them, especially in a rude or angry way: Don’t just walk off when I’m trying to talk to you! (LDOCE)

● 飛行機登場の際の液体の持ち込み規制以降，荷物の量が異常に増えたこと

I was unlucky enough to be flying the day after this happened, when everything was still pretty chaotic. But luckily, I got to the airport really early, like almost four hours early, and of course at that point I went right through all of the security and everything and ended up waiting for hours until I could get on my plane.

・ end up Ving しまいにはVする，Vするはめになる

● Duty-free shop で買ったものも規制される場合があり，空港によってまちまち

It’s always best to check every time you fly.

● slash 削減する

= reduce something by a large amount

● take it on the chin 状況を受け入れる

Kinkaid uses the phrase "take it on the chin." This phrase is often used when you just have to put up with something. You could say you have to be stoic, you have to be brave and not complain. A similar phrase is "take it like a man."

The idiom comes from boxing. If you can take a punch on your chin, and continue fighting, you are considered a very good boxer.

・ take something on the chin =  to accept a difficult or unpleasant situation without complaining — used to show approval: One of our great strengths is our ability to take it on the chin and come out fighting.  (LDCOE)

● Believe me. ほんとうですよ。

・ Believe (you) me.     You can use believe you me to emphasize that what you are saying is true. : It’s absolutely amazing, believe you me.   (COBUILD)

● empathize with ～ ～の身になる

・ empathize = to understand another person’s feelings and experiences, especially because you have been in a similar situation  (OALD)

● you get better service, if you can empathize with the harried person standing on the other side of the counter.

I’ve even read lots of advice that says, if you can be extra-kind and helpful to the counter people, at times like this. If there’s a chance of giving something away, you’ll be considered long before many other people.

● counterproductive 逆効果を招く

・ counterproductive = having the opposite effect to the one which was intended  (OALD)

● at the end of the day 結局は，最後には

・ at the end of the day  <spoken> used to give your final opinion after considering all the possibilities:  At the end of the day, it’s his decision.  (LDOCE)

● in one piece 無事に

Tyson makes a nice. .., almost, pun, using the word piece. If you’re in one piece, it means you came though OK, you’re safe, you’re not damaged, everything is fine. But he also uses the word piece to talk about luggage. When you count luggage, you count pieces of luggage. So, if you get through the airport in one piece (meaning you’re safe) with all your pieces (with all your luggage), you’ve had a pretty good trip.

・ in one piece    If someone or something is still in one piece after a dangerous journey or experience, they are safe and not damaged or hurt. :  … providing that my brother gets back alive and in one piece from his mission.  ( = intact)   (COBUILD)

2008.12.11

2008年12月第2週分 Lesson 5  Airport Hassles (5)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

== Key Phrases to Remember ==

● get stranded 足止めされる，立ち往生する

→ 実践ビジネス英語 2008.12.03

 Get stranded is kind of an interesting phrase. Strand as a noun is another word for "beach." So, if you get stranded, it’s similar to a boat being left on the beach, away from the water. A similar phrase is "be left high and dry."

・ high and dry （船が）岸に乗り上げて，どうしようもない状態で 1. in a position out of the water  2.  in a difficult situation, without help or money  (OALD)

● massive 巨大な

● file a claim 賠償［補償］要求を出す，被害届を出す

→ 実践ビジネス英語 2008.12.04

This is a good way to use the word claim. It’s never used in English to mean complaint. It’s a formal statement of something that you say is true. I think the mix-up occurs because often you file a claim you formally say that something was not correct. It’s a formal complaint. I guess you could think of it that way.

● be at risk 危険にさらされる

● on the verge of ～ ～しかけて，～の直前で

I think it’s only … , as a noun, it’s only used in this phrase. As a verb, it’s also used quite a bit to mean you’re coming too close to something you shouldn’t do. So, for example, you could warn someone who’s written a strong letter that what they’ve written verges on libel. Maybe you’re not quite sure if it tips into the legal description of libel or not, but it’s very very close.

・ verge on ～ ～に近い，ほとんど～に等しい to be very close to an extreme state or condition:  Some of his suggestions verged on the outrageous.  (OALD)

・ libel 名誉毀損

● downturn 低迷，沈滞

Downturn is used a lot and has many synonyms such as fall, decline, down trend or even downswing. The opposite, upturn, is the same: upturn, increase, upswing, up-trend.

== あんな時，こんな時 ==

「心配している」と言う時

● go under = go bankrupt 破産する

● be worried sick 心配して病気になりそう

There’s a similar phrase, "I’m worried to death about tax audits." So, maybe that worry was pretty accurate.

● Something’s not right.

There’s a similar phrase: something has been gnawing at me.

・ gnaw かじる，苦しめる

2008.12.12

2008年12月第2週分 Lesson 5  Airport Hassles (6)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

S = 杉田敏      I = Susan Iwamoto

S: Recently we’ve been discussing the downside of air travel; namely, delays, lost luggage and other frustrations. Any horror stories of your own, Susan?

I: Well, I’ve had my share of hassles, but I’ve heard a lot worse from other hardened travelers. Of course it’s important to be prepared for delays, and also for security and checking procedures, which may vary from airport to airport. It’s helpful to have some sort of contingency plan. And by this, I don’t mean that you have to have everything planned out to the last detail. But you need to have some idea of what you might do if a problem arises.

・ horror stories 悲惨な体験（談） a report that describes an experience of a situation as very unpleasant  (OALD)

・ hardened 常習の，常連の

S: Right. Be prepared, right?

I: Exactly. For example, like I always allow extra time for delays and I bring work or magazines, books, other reading materials, just in case I end up with too much time on my hands. I wear clothes and accessories that aren’t likely to set off the metal detectors, and shoes that can be easily slipped on and off. Now Rosa Cortez in the vignette mentioned the lack of clear signage in many airports. I think this is definitely another important point. If I have a connection, especially in an airport that I’m not familiar with, I check the airport web site in advance to get the rough idea of the layout. That way, I can have a clear idea of how to get where I need to go once I arrive. Often connection times are really tight and I had to dash through airports on numerous occasions to make my connection. I once ran at full speed through several concourses at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport to make a connection, only to find out my connecting flight was delayed for two hours, but I definitely got to work for the day.

・ allow time 時間を見込んでおく

・ have ～ on one’s hands ～を抱え込む

・ set off （アラームなどを）鳴らす

S: That happens sometimes.

I: Definitely. 

S: Have you ever had any problems with lost or delayed luggage?

I: Sure, my bags have been delayed or (?) in the past. Now the first time it happened, it was really stressful. I was flying in for friend’s wedding and I had packed my bridesmaid’s dress which was this(?) really formal dress that had been selected by the bride for me to wear. I put that into my suitcase and checked my luggage, and it was lost, delayed. And I was really stressed out, really worried. Now luckily, the suitcase showed up in time for the wedding. But from that moment on, I’ve always made sure that if I have anything that’s crucial or not easily replaced, I put it in my carry-on bag. I’d really hate to be faced with Jay Tyson’s situation, having to show up to meet in aloha shirt and shorts.

・ bridesmaid 新婦の付き添い

・ be stressed out 神経がすり減っている，ストレスに陥っている

・ carry-on  機内持ち込みの

S: Right. Shiga Hiroshi mentioned shipping luggage by express delivery service as one way to deal with that, and certainly many business travelers prefer not to check luggage at all, preferring to pack everything in a carry-on bag.

I: Yeah, definitely. That seems to be the most popular rule. And especially I think too, recently. A lot of airlines have introduced fees for checked bags, and so I think more people are going to try to pack as much as possible into the carry-ons. Now of course I understand their reasoning, but I’m a little worried that this is going to cause more problems on board the airplane itself. Even now, passengers argue a lot about space in the overhead bin. And I can’t imagine that the flight attendants and other members of the crew are going to be too happy about having to settle even more arguments about that. Now for me, I do try to take carry-ons for trips of about two or three days. But for anything longer, I tend to check bags. I haven’t really mastered the art of packing lightly.

・ on board ～ （前置詞） ～に乗って

S: Have you ever been stranded at an airport?

I: Yes, yes. This is going back a few years, but I was stuck in Atlanta overnight once. I was delayed getting out of Boston due to heavy snow storm. And even when I got on the plane in Boston, I knew that I was going to miss my connection in Atlanta, so I had already prepared myself for that, mentally I think. I arrived too late for my connection and the airline didn’t give any vouchers for hotels, so I thought about it and that, well, should I spend extra money or time for a hotel when really I could probably just stick it out for a few hours in the airport and catch the early flight? I tend not to get too stressed out about misconnections, because I’m always convinced that there’s something that the airline staff can do, I mean. But of course that depends on the patience and the very smart approach with the airline staff.

・ voucher クーポン券，割引券

・ stick it out かんばる，がまんする

S: Both Rosa and Melinda mentioned the importance of keeping cool when dealing with airline personnel in the event of delay or other problems. I’ve seen plenty of passengers, though, who take the opposite approach and end up shouting at the airline staff.

I: I know, it’s terrible as I’ve seen that many times. But, you know, there’s an old saying: You’ll catch more flies with honey than vinegar. And I think this is really true. I have a lot of sympathy for airline staff, because they have to deal with these, you know, really angry, irate passengers every day, and sometimes all at once if there is some major problem with the flight. And you know that the lack of common courtesy of these passengers really bothers me, and I found that the gate agents or ticket agents or other members of airline staff — they are much more receptive to a very calm, friendly approach. And to be honest, I’ve had a lot of success over the years with that, and have had some unexpected benefits as a result, such as being bumped up to first class on a few occasions.

・ be bumped up to ～ ～に格上げされる

S: Well, lucky you!

I: Indeed. A few kind words go a long way.

・ go a long way 大いに役立つ

2008.12.17

2008年12月第3週分 Lesson 6  Corporate Volunteering (1)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

A Great Lakes colleague has just returned full of enthusiasm for his experience as a volunteer in Vietnam.

● savvy 精通している

Computer-savvy. Savvy is a word that’s often used to talk about people who are in the know, who are kind of hip. They know a little more about something that everybody would like to know about. It comes from a Spanish word for "you know"; sabe. You can also use it negatively; you can  call someone unsavvy. And the word then is usually used for new comers or inexperienced or untrained people.

・ If you describe someone as having savvy, you think that they have a good understanding and practical knowledge of something. (INFORMAL) :  He is known for his political savvy and strong management skills.   (COBUILD)

・ in the know 内情に通じた （having more information about something than most people (LDOCE)）

・ hip ものしりの，情報通の

● early-bird presentation 早朝のプレゼンテーション

Early-bird is often used to talk about anyone who does things early, and it also carries the meaning of cheerful and happy and up early and everything’s fresh and new when we are getting started. It really makes things sound kind of chipper and that. You often see it in coffee shops or diners. For breakfast, they often have an early-bird special.

・ chipper 機嫌の良い，元気な（happy and active）

● "Take a look for yourself."

Tyson could have said simply, "Take a look." But "Take a look for yourself" means "Persuade yourself," "You really need to see this yourself, not just listen to what I say."

● intranet と Internet の発音

Intranet and Internet are a little bit hard to hear the difference between in English. However, if you listen to North Americans who are speaking very rapidly, you’ll probably hear Internet pronounced more like Inernet, Innernet. You can’t hear the t, which is the very common pronunciation change in North America. Intranet always has the t sound.

● spread one’s wings 活動の幅を広げる

Spread one’s wings. This is an idiom that people often use to describe trying new experiences or making fuller use of your talents and abilities. It’s a very positive kind of idiom. If you think about standing up and stretching and doing something new and fresh, you could say you spread your wings.

● do-good 慈善家ぶった

・ do-good     designed or disposed sometimes impracticably and too zealously toward bettering the conditions under which others live   (Merriam-Webster)

● pro bono 無料奉仕の

Pro bono is short for pro bono publico, and it’s a well-known phrase in the U.S. Usually you’ll hear only pro bono. Most people use it to describe work done for free as volunteers. But the basic meaning of it is something done for the public good.

・ pro bono [only before noun] (especially of legal work) done without asking for payment

2008.12.18

2008年12月第3週分 Lesson 6  Corporate Volunteering (2)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Cortez says that she was skeptical of corporate volunteerism at first, but changed her mind when she’d learned more about it.

● on company dime 会社の負担で

"On company time and on company dime" is kind of a nice set of phrases. "On company time" of course means "during the time when you should be focusing on your work." "On company dime" means "the company pays for it," so probably they’re paying your salary and they’re paying your expenses and things like that. Similar to this is; if someone asks you for permission or agreement, you can say, "Sure, it’s your dime," meaning "you pay for it."

・ dime  10セント

● skeptical 懐疑的な

Cortez talks about being skeptical about some of these corporate volunteer programs. In English, you can be skeptical about something for various reasons; it could be because you don’t think it’s true; it could be because you don’t think it’s as it was presented, it has some other character; it doesn’t really work the way it was described. You could say you are skeptical because you don’t accept it at face value.

・ at face value 額面どおりに

・ take something at face value   to believe that something is what it appears to be, without questioning

● "what specifically is in it for Great Lakes?"

It sounds like Shiga is also wondering if this really has some benefits for Great Lakes as well as the organizations that they help. He’s worried that it is a do-good scheme.

・ do-good  → 実践ビジネス英語 2008.12.17

● "I look at it as something like a three-base hit in a ball game."

In US English, almost always if you say "a ball game," the first thing people will think of is baseball.

● come in handy 役立つ，非常に多くの

・ If something comes in handy, it is useful in a particular situation. : The $20 check came in very handy.   (COBUILD)

● ongoing 進行中の

・ An ongoing situation has been happening for quite a long time and seems likely to continue for some time in the future. :  There is an ongoing debate on the issue. / That research is ongoing.  = continuing   (COBUILD)

● revamp 刷新する

Revamp is kind of an interesting word. It means patch or restore or renovate. And it comes actually from shoemaking. One part of the top of shoes is called vamp. It’s basically between the toe and the laces on a very basic kind of shoe. And replacing that was called revamping. Then the word broadened, so now you can use it for anything that you’re improving.

・ revamp  <informal>  to change something in order to improve it and make it seem more modern:  Many older companies are revamping their image.  (LDCOE)

・ vamp （靴の）つま皮   → VISUAL DICTIONARY

● own a project プロジェクトを責任者として取り仕切る

Recently in companies in the U.S., to own something, to own a project, to own a result — the verb own has been used a lot to talk about employees who are dedicated to a specific task or project, especially projects where they are a part of the management, part of making sure the results come out the way they’re supposed to.

2008.12.19

2008年12月第3週分 Lesson 6  Corporate Volunteering (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The team discusses how companies ensure that their volunteer programs are effective.

● "getting paid for volunteer work"

"Getting paid for volunteer work" almost sounds like a sort of oxymoron — paid volunteer work? But the word volunteer is often used as a joke even in this way. So sometimes you might hear someone say "I was ordered to volunteer." Or, you can also talk about being volunteered, meaning someone forced you to do it.

・ oxymoron 撞着語法・矛盾した言い方

● Companies are subsidizing volunteers for their time and expertise.

And here’s the answer: volunteers aren’t being paid by the people they are helping; in that cases they wouldn’t be volunteers. They’re being supported by their companies to do volunteer work; to do work for free for the recipients.

Subsidize or a subsidy is often money or support from governments to private groups that are doing good for society. But you can often use the word quite a bit more broadly to talk about any kind of support for good work.

・ subsidize ～に助成金を与える

● with open arms 心から喜んで

Hughes talks about "greeting volunteers with open arms." You can also say "welcome with open arms." And in this case, it might be literally "with open arms;" some cultures greet each other by hugging each other. But you can also use this phrase to simply mean ready to embrace, ready to accept, a new idea, a new person, a new way of doing things.

● groundwork 活動の準備，根回し

・ groundwork        something that has to happen before an activity or plan can be successful: His speech laid the groundwork  for independence.  /  Much of  the groundwork has already been done. (LDOCE)

● get a boost 勢いを得る

Tyson talks about small companies getting a boost. He could have also said a leg up. You can use both phrases also literally, like to help somebody climb over a fence.

・ boost 押し上げること，上昇，励まし，はげみ something that gives someone more confidence, or that helps something increase, improve, or become successful (LDOCE)

get/receive a boost    The community will get a boost from a new library and recreation center.

・ leg up 後押し  

give somebody a leg-up    <informal>   a) to help someone to get up to a high place by joining your hands together so they can use them as a step   b) <British English>    to help someone succeed in their job

● millennial = those young workers born after 1980

I’ve also heard millennials described as people who came of age in the year 2000 or after that.

・ come of age 成人する

● when and as ～

When focuses on the point; as focuses on the span of time.

● social welfare 社会福祉・奉仕

Social welfare refers to working for the benefit of society and it really focuses on the poorest member of the society.

● canvass 訪問して回る 

・ canvass    to ask somebody to support a particular person, political party, etc. especially by going around an area and talking to people:  He spent the whole month canvassing for votes. / Party workers are busy canvassing local residents.  (OALD)

● stack up 比べられる

To stack up has two meanings. One is the physical meaning of pile something up. The other meaning and the way Hughes uses it here is compare with. You can also say measure up. Measure up is very similar to stack up and both of them use the adverb "against something else" — a way to compare them.

・ stack up    If you ask how one person or thing stacks up against other people or things, you are asking how the one compares with the others. (INFORMAL) :  How does this final presidential debate stack up and compare to the others, do you think? ( = compare)  (COBUILD)

・ measure up against [with] ～ ～と比較する，～との優劣を試す

measure A against B to judge someone or something by comparing them with another person or thing: Bridget did not think she had to measure herself against some ideal standard.  (LDOCE)

2008.12.24

2008年12月第4週分 Lesson 6  Corporate Volunteering (4)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Shiga observes that skills-based volunteering is different from traditional financial charity.

● in-depth 徹底的な，突っ込んだ

・ in-depth  = very thorough and detailed : an in-depth discussion/ in-depth study   (OALD)

● on the spot その場で，即座に

"On the spot" sounds like a location kind of a phrase, but it can also be used temporally to mean "at that moment."

● payback 見返り，復讐

Payback is sort of an interesting word. In this context, it’s clear that it means the return, the profits, the benefits. But payback can also be used to mean revenge.

・ payback

1 [countable]    the money or advantage you gain from a business, project, or something you have done: The immediate payback for them is publicity.
2 [uncountable]    <American English>    <informal>    when you do something to make someone suffer because of something they have done to harm you [revenge]: I guess it’s payback time.

● sweet charity 思いやりを大切にする慈善事業

Sweet charity is kind of an interesting phrase to use. It sounds very nice. It’s with also the name of the Broadway play from the 60s, the main character with a young woman named Charity. Sweet charity is also the name of the confectioner’s benevolent fund in the U.S. Benevolent funds are often set up by industry group so that they can give financial aid to other organizations or causes that they want to support.

・ benevolent fund 共済基金

● a matter of lending your head rather than your hand

If you think back to the beginning of this vignette, the group was talking about what corporate volunteerism used to be; for example, cleaning up parks or rivers. Those are good examples of how companies used to try to give back to the society that were active in: using their hands. They have large workforces. Recently, although they keep up that kind of corporate volunteerism, they have also shifted to this more skills-focused help.

● It’s more about donating expertise rather than money, yes.

Because Tyson adds the word yes to the end of the sentence, it sounds like he’s setting up to either add more information to it or perhaps even somewhat say what’s different about this statement.

● scheme of things ものごとのあり方，体制，事態，状況

・ in the scheme of things 全体から見れば，大きな枠組みで見れば

in the scheme of things    in the way things generally happen, or are organized: the unimportance of man in the whole scheme of things

● in the long view 長い目で見れば

● hobnob with ～ ～との交流を深める

Cortez uses an interesting verb: to hobnob. Hobnob is used to mean socialize with. But it almost always means socialize with people at some higher level. So they could be celebrities, or they could be top management from the company. But in any case, if you can hobnob with someone, you’re socializing with someone that you admire or would like to be like. There are a couple of similar phrases. You could say you rub your elbows with, or rub shoulders with the same kind of people.

・ hobnob to spend a lot of time with somebody, especially somebody who is rich and/or famous

・ rub elbows with ～ （有名人と）交わる

● take a shot at ～ ～をためしにやってみる

To take a shot at something means to try it, to give it a go.

・ shot = attempt [countable]   < informal >   an attempt to do something or achieve something, especially something difficult
shot at (doing) something    This is her first shot at directing a play. / If Lewis won his next fight, he would be guaranteed a    shot at the title (=chance to win the title). /  I decided to have a shot at decorating the house myself. / I didn’t think I had much chance of winning the race, but I thought I’d give it a shot (=try to do it).
The network finally Keaton a shot at presenting his own show.

・ give it a go 試す

● fit in the big picture 全体の中で位置づけられる

2008.12.25

2008年12月第4週分 Lesson 6  Corporate Volunteering (5)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

== Key Phrases to Remember ==

● the needy 貧しい人たち

Needy used with the refers to people who don’t have enough money. And it’s a collective noun, so usually it’s used with a plural verb. So most of the time you’ll hear something like "The needy are …"

・ Santa’s pot 社会鍋

● come in handy 役立つ，重宝する

→ 実践ビジネス英語 2008.12.18

● revamp 革新［刷新］する

  → 実践ビジネス英語 2008.12.18

● poll 世論調査

・ pollster 世論調査員，世論調査会社

・ straw poll 非公式な調査

● in-depth 徹底的な，突っ込んだ

→ 実践ビジネス英語 2008.12.24

・ eye-opener   an experience from which you learn something surprising or new: The whole trip has been a real eye-opener. (LDOCE)

● innovative 創造的な，革新的な

Innovative is related to other words meaning new or different, such as novel and novelty.

 ==  あんな時，こんな時 ==

be skeptical 「懐疑的だ」という時

● I doubt it. どうでしょうかね。

‘Do you think there’ll be any tickets left?’ ‘    I doubt it (=I don’t think so).’  (LDCOE)

● call in sick 電話で病欠を伝える

● マリッジ・ブルーは和製英語

In English if you said marriage blue, I think nobody would know what you are talking about. In fact, I even think about the idea that you should have something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue when you get married. The bride should have those things. In the U.S., people would say "they are getting cold feet."

・ get/have cold feet    <informal>    to suddenly feel that you are not brave enough to do something you planned to do: The plan failed after sponsors got cold feet.  (LDOCE)

● wonder drug 特効薬，妙薬

●  I’m not so sure if it’s a good idea to …

Another phrase people use in exactly the same way is "I wonder." "I wonder if it’s a good idea to go to Alaska in January."

● with a grain of salt 懐疑的な態度で，割り引いて

・ take something with a pinch/grain of salt  <informal>  to not completely believe what someone tells you, because you know that they do not always tell the truth:  Most of what he says should be taken with a pinch of salt.  (LDOCE)

● I’m from Missouri. 疑い深い，証拠なしでは受け入れようとしない

2008.12.26

2008年12月第4週分 Lesson 6  Corporate Volunteering (6)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

S = 杉田敏      I = Susan Iwamoto

S: Our recent vignette took a closer look at the growing trend of corporate volunteer programs and the benefits they bring to everyone involved.

I: That’s right and I think this is a really exciting trend in corporate social responsibility. And it definitely can be a rewarding experience all around. In the past, many people volunteered in their spare time, perhaps on weekends, during the vacations, or just after work, but it’s great to see that corporations are seeing the value in having their employees donate time and expertise to work with causes, rather than just focusing on giving money, — you know, monetary contribution. Sometimes companies focus on local projects, but as we heard in the vignette, there’s a growing trend toward sending employees on overseas volunteer projects as well.

S: Have you been involved in this area?

I: No, not officially, not through a corporate volunteer program. Any volunteering I’ve done has been on my own or as a member of social organization. However, I did recently find out that one of my old college buddies is now heading up global brand philanthropy for a large corporation in the States. And this was just really wonderful to hear, because this friend of mine has always been active in volunteering, but for her career she chose to go the corporate route rather than working for non-profit organization. But now it’s just the perfect position for her. She can contribute her formidable business skills to helping all sorts of causes. Now she’s involved in, you know, the over-all organization, and also raising money. But she also rolls up her sleeves to pitch in on things like building homes for people affected by hurricane Katrina.

・ head up    to be in charge of a team, government, organization etc: David was asked to head up the technical team. (LDOCE)

・ roll your sleeves up to start doing a job even though it is difficult or you do not want to do it:  It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get some work done on the basics. (LDOCE)

・ pitch in If you pitch in, you join in and help with an activity. (INFORMAL) : The agency says international relief agencies also have pitched in /  The entire company pitched in to help.  (COBUILD)

S: Jay Tyson talked about an employee of Great Lakes volunteering in Vietnam for fourteen weeks. It seems more and more companies are offering these types of opportunities for their employees.

I: That’s true, and this is definitely on the increase, although it’s still unusual enough to give corporations an edge, when it comes to attracting new employees.

・ edge If someone or something has an edge, they have an advantage that makes them stronger or more likely to be successful than another thing or person. :  The three days France have to prepare could give them the edge over England.  /  Through superior production techniques they were able to gain the competitive edge.   (COBUILD)

S: Hmm. Both Tony Hughes and Rosa Cortez mentioned that corporate volunteer programs may help when recruiting new employees, especially those right out of school.

I: Yes. The millennials, also known as generation Y. Now, that generation in particular seems to place a high value working for companies that are committed to giving back to society. Now of course, these kinds of volunteer programs are a great way to attract employees of any generation who would like to combine volunteering with corporate work. I have several friends in the U.S. who worked for U.S. Peace Corps or other non-profit organizations or NGOs. But this doesn’t suit everyone. There are certainly many people who choose corporate work for financial reasons among others, but who would jump at the chance to be involved in corporate volunteer projects.

S: Charitable organizations always welcome skilled volunteers. And volunteers themselves also benefit from the experience, don’t they?

I: That’s right. You know, as Rosa Cortez said, it’s a great way to get to know other volunteers from your corporation whom you may not work with on regular basis. And Jay Tyson pointed out the opportunity to learn new ways of doing business and seeing things from a broader perspective. Those are excellent points. And also corporate volunteers who are working in small teams have a great opportunity to sharpen their skills all around, especially managing limited resources or adjusting to rapidly changing circumstances.

S: These kinds of programs help the corporate standing in the communities as well.

I: Yes. It’s all a part of good corporate citizenship. Many NPOs, consultants, and institutes or universities are offering advising services to the private sector, helping corporations design and implement corporate volunteer programs. Well, it’s good for the public image of the brand, of course, and it may help attract new employees or shareholders. It also reflects the trend in how corporations view their relationship with the society at large.

2008年11月第1週分 Lesson 3  Complete Streets (1)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Shiga visited a typical American small town and tells everyone about the new city planning that’s going on there.

● vibrant 活気に満ちた，躍動する

Vibrant is an adjective related to vibrate. Something that’s vibrant is pulsing or thriving with energy. It’s very positive way to describe something.

● all-American いかにもアメリカらしい

Shiga uses the phrase all-American to describe Peoria. All-American comes from football, and it meant nation level, nationwide level, so if you can play football at all-American level, if you are an all-American, you are at the highest level in the sport. But the meaning of the phrase has expanded, and nowadays I think it tends to be used to describe something that shows all the good qualities of the U.S.

・ all-American  1. having good qualities that people think are typically American : a clean-cut all-American boy

2. (of a sports player) chosen as one of the best players in the US  (OALD)

● Peoria

Shiga also ends the sentence with the phrase "see how things play there." There is a phrase "Will it play in Peoria?": that used to use to ask if something would be accepted in middle America, if regular people in U.S. would like it. Sometimes new ideas start from the East Coast and the West Coast. But East and West Coast are often considered a little bit different from the Heart Land — the central part of the U.S. So if something would play in Peoria, if it was popular in Peoria, it would probably be popular all over the U.S.

・ Peoria a small city in the US state of Illinois. The opinions of the people who live there are considered to be typical of opinions in the whole of the US

・ Will it play in Peoria?  それはピオリアで受けるだろうか？

→ Wikipedia (English)

● stroll around ぶらつく

Stroll is a way of walking. It tends to be rather a slow, relaxed, comfortable kind of walking. It’s also related to something that in Japan people call a baby car. In the U.S. we don’t call that thing a baby car. Most people call it a stroller.

● gain momentum 勢いを増す，気運が高まる

・ momentum はずみ，勢い

・ gain/gather momentum   
The campaign for reform should start to gather momentum in the new year. : incentives to maintain the momentum of European integration / Governments often lose momentum in their second term of office.  (LDOCE)

● shoulder 路肩

→ ビジュアル辞典

● read all about it

The phrase "read all about it" was also used in the past before the Internet and before there was a lot of radio and television to sell newspapers when something had recently happened. So newspapers would pat out special editions to report about surprising events and you would see newsboys standing on the street shouting "Read all about it!" trying to sell their extra editions of the newspapers. That was quite a while ago. I’ve only seen it in movies. I don’t have personal experience of that time.

● What’s black and white and read(red) all over?

The answer is a newspaper or a blushing zebra!

● put a premium on ～ ～を重視する

・ put/place a premium on something    to consider one quality or type of thing as being much more important than others: Modern economies place a premium on educated workers. (LDOCE)

2008.11.06

2008年11月第1週分 Lesson 3  Complete Streets (2)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The group discusses bike riding and the overall health benefits brought by the complete street design concept.

● crutches 松葉杖， 支え・頼り

Tyson talks about crutches which people use physically to support them when they can’t move by themselves without some support. But the word crutch is also used figuratively to mean a temporary support, but usually it’s used when it’s an inappropriate support, like you should be able to learn to not use the crutch. Drugs and alcohol are often described as a crutch helping people through stressful time.

・ Matsushitaさんが言っている「比喩的な意味」は，LDOCEによれば，

something that gives someone support or help, especially something that is not really good for them: As things got worse at work, he began to use alcohol as a crutch.

● a new lease of [on] life

The phrase "a new lease of life" is usually used when someone gets a second chance. They have a new bright future ahead of them. Some event gave them hope and maybe even happiness. But the phrase is interesting because I always knew it as "a new lease on life." In the real world, you get "a new lease on an apartment." When we recorded this, many people objected to using the word of because like me they know the phrase as "a new lease on life." But I checked on the Internet, and it turns out that using the phrase with on is much less common that using the phrase with of. So maybe it’s changing.

・ take[get, have] a new[fresh] lease on[of] life （病気を克服して）寿命を延ばす，元気［生きる望み］を取り戻す，新たな気持ちで再出発する （ジーニアス大英和）

a new lease of life    <especially British English>    a new lease on life   <American English>
a) if something has a new lease of life, it is changed or repaired so that it can continue: Historic buildings can have a new lease of life through conversion.
b) if someone has a new lease of life, they become healthy, active, or happy again after being weak, ill, or tired: an operation to give her a new lease of life

● payoff 成果，見返り

・ payoff an advantage or a reward from something you have done (OALD)

● bike

Shiga uses the word bike here to refer to bicycle. In the U.S, usually even without context, if someone says bike, it means bicycle. To get the meaning motorcycle, usually you need a context that indicates it is a motorized vehicle.

● in the past month 今から一ヶ月以内

・ 今が11月15日だとすると，last monthは10月を指し，the past monthは10月15日から11月15日までのひと月を指します。

● It comes as no surprise that … ・・・は驚くようなことではない

・ come as a surprise (to somebody) (=happen unexpectedly)    : The triumph came as a surprise to many fans.  /  It should come as no surprise (=you should expect it to happen) that cycling builds leg strength.   (LDOCE)

● celebrate a banner business year 商売の景気がよい年を祝う

A banner business year — in this case, Kinkaid is using the word to mean "unusually good" or maybe more specifically "distinguished from all the others" because it’s excellent. A banner is a kind of flag, so I suppose if something has a banner on it, it’s noticeable.

・ banner year   <American English>  a year which is good because something is successful  (LDOCE)

● escalate 上昇する，高騰する

Kinkaid uses the verb escalate. Escalate is a verb that was made from a noun. And the noun originally was actually a brand name. It wasn’t until the late fifties and the early sixties that it came to be used as a verb to mean "increase" or "go up."

・ もともと OTIS 社の商標であった escalator ということばから作られたことば

● bike lane 自転車専用レーン bike path 自転車専用の小道

Shiga mentions both bike lanes and bike paths. Bike lanes tend to be a part of the street. It’s designed into the street. There are special markings to show where the bike lane is. And drivers have to be very careful about people possibly being in that lane. A bike path tends to be separated from the road or maybe has nothing to do with the automobile road system at all. It could be a path through a park or any other part of the city where it’s not sharing the road. Occasionally you’ll also hear bike trailer or bike track. And those tend to be even further away from automobiles out in the mountains or rougher ground like that.

● forefront 最前線

・ at / in / to the forefront (of something)  in or into an important or leading position in a particular group or activity (OALD)

● muscle toning 筋肉を鍛えること

・ tone (up)   to make your muscles, skin, etc. firmer and stronger  (OALD)

2008.11.07

2008年11月第1週分 Lesson 3  Complete Streets (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Kinkaid, Shiga, and Tyson comment on how civic planning often has to reconcile conflicting interests.

● dusty bicycles ほこりをかぶった自転車

Kinkaid mentions "dusty bicycles." I suppose if they’re hanging in the garage they probably have collected quite a bit of dust. But I think you can also use this adjective just to mean something that’s unused, whether it actually has dust on it or not.

(アメリカではしばしば車庫の壁に自転車を掛けておく)

That keeps them out of the way when you’re not using them and they’re safe and they’re dry and you still have plenty of room to put a car in.

・ out of the way じゃまにならないように

● itch to V Vしたくてたまらない

Kinkaid mentions that "high-school kids may itch to drive a car." Often people say "have an itch" when actually what you have is an urge. It doesn’t  have to a physical itch. It’s some kind of strong and restless desire.

Another way you can talk about something you really, really want to do is to say you’re dying to do it.

So in this sentence, you could say "high-school kids may be dying to drive a car."

・ be itching to do something, be itching for something    <informal>   to want to do something very much and as soon as possible: He was itching for a fight.   (LDOCE)

● "us somewhat older folks want to pump the bike pedals"

She also mentions "us somewhat older folks." If you think about it grammatically, us is part of the subject, so why not say "we somewhat older folks." You could say that. It is correct, but I think it sounds hypercorrect to most people. It makes you sound very  prim and proper and not so much interested in meaning but only interested in being correct.  You should probably think about it as a set phrase — us older folks, us young people. It’s used quite a bit.

・ prim 堅苦しい，しかつめらしい always behaving in a careful and formal way, and easily shocked by anything that is rude   (OALD)

● pump the bike pedals 自転車のペダルをこぐ

・ pump    to move something quickly up and down or in and out : He kept pumping my hand up and down.  (OALD)

● a good excuse 格好の理由

・ いい意味での「理由」をあらわすexcuse

excuse a good reason that you give for doing something that you want to do for other reasons

● prick up one’s ears 聞き耳を立てる，興味を示す

・ prick (up) your ears  (of a person) to listen carefully, especially because you have just heard something interesting: Her ears pricked at the sound of his name.   (OALD)

● people in all walks of life あらゆる階層の人々

・ walk of life the position in society someone has, especially the type of job they have

from every walk of life/from all walks of life Our volunteers include people from all walks of life. (LDOCE)

● No pun intended. しゃれではありません

The only problem with the phrase "No pun intended" is that people often use it even when they really did mean a pun.

If you’re listening earlier, you probably heard us talk about a riddle that’s based on a pun. It’s "What’s black and white and red(read) all over?" Do you remember the answer? It’s either a newspaper or a blushing zebra, which is what makes all the little kids laugh. That’s a very well-known pun in the U.S. Here’s another one. This is also an old kid’s pun and it’s usually presented as a riddle: Why did the silly Billy go to bed with shoe polish? The answer is "he wanted to rise and shine."

・ rise and shine    元気よく起きる <spoken>    used humorously to tell someone to wake up and get out of bed (OALD)

shine は「靴を磨く」の意味も。

● Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. 産湯と一緒に赤児を流すな。

This is a very common proverb to talk about not throwing out good things together with bad things. And it actually comes from German and wasn’t even used much in English until probably the late 19th century, early 20th century.

2008.11.12

2008年11月第2週分 Lesson 3 Complete Streets (4)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Kinkaid expects better environments to result in citizens being happier when out and about in a town.

・ out and about = 1. able to go outside again after an illness  2. travelling around a place : We’ve been out and about talking to people all over the country.   (OALD)

● keynote concerns 基本的な関心事

Shiga uses the word keynote to describe concerns. Keynote means main or major or even basic or fundamental. It’s often used to describe speeches at conventions and other kinds of large meetings. But you can use it to describe almost anything that’s a major element in any situation.

・ keynote (adjective) [only before noun] relating to the most important part of a formal meeting, report etc

● get around 動き回る，歩き回る

・ get around = get about   to move from place to place or from person to person  (OAL)

● health and welfare 健康と福祉

Shiga mentions people’s health and welfare. Welfare focuses on their living conditions, whether they’re living well, well enough, or not. But also in the U.S., the system of government support for poor people is called welfare system.

● figure into ～ ～に盛り込む

・ figure in If a person or thing figures in something, they appear in or are included in it. : Human rights violations figured prominently in the report.  (COBUILD)

● again 繰り返しになりますが，前にも言ったように

・ You can use again when you want to point out that there is a similarity between the subject that you are talking about now and a previous subject. :  Again the pregnancy was very similar to my previous two…

● safe and sound 安全で確実な

Safe and sound are very similar words, but not quite the same. Safe, of course, means "without danger," "without threats." And sound focuses a little bit more on being strong and correct and reliable. It can also be used to mean "healthy."

● boulevard は 「広い大通り」

Usually. But people often use street names to try to make their home sound better. So, for example, my father grew up on "Grand Boulevard." But there’s nothing grand about it, and it also really isn’t a boulevard. It’s a small street that only the people who live on it need. It doesn’t take you somewhere else in their suburb, but it sounds nice.

● with an eye to ～ ～のことを考えると

You can use the phrase "with an eye to" for all kinds of different things when you mean considering or taking into consideration or while thinking about A and then make your comment about it.

・  with an eye to (doing) something    if you do something with an eye to doing something else, you do it in order to make the second thing more likely to happen:  Most novels are published with an eye to commercial success.  (LDOCE)

● feel upbeat 明るい気分になる

・ upbeat  = positive and enthusiastic; making you feel that the future will be good: The tone of the speech was upbeat. / The meeting ended on an upbeat note.

● cabstand タクシー乗り場

Kinkaid talks about cabstands. You could call it a cabstand or taxi stand. In the U.S., people use cab and taxi pretty much interchangeably for the same thing. Cab comes from an old word cabriolet, which was a kind of horse-drawn vehicle. Taxi actually comes from a word taximeter, which I think no more ever thinks about any more these days. It was a meter for a cab. So two words kind of got all mixed up together. And nowadays people usually use only a taxi or a cab, although the drivers are usually called cabbies.

● "bus stops are set apart and highlighted"

Kinkaid also talks about bus stops and cabstands being set apart. I think some of the elements of complete streets wouldn’t make drivers very happy, but this would, because buses and taxis stopping in the road interrupt traffic flow terribly. So if it was easy for buses and taxis to stop and for people to get on and off without disturbing the traffic flow, I think this would be really highly valued by anybody driving, not just pros.

● whopping 100 percent なんと100パーセント

・ If you describe an amount as whopping, you are emphasizing that it is large. (INFORMAL) : The Russian leader won a whopping 89.9 percent yes vote.   (COBUILD)

2008.11.13

2008年11月第2週分 Lesson 3 Complete Streets (5)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

== Key Phrases to Remember ==

● strike someone as ～ 人に～という印象を与える

fickle 飽きっぽい，気まぐれな

● put a premium on ～ ～を重視する

→ 実践ビジネス英語 2008.11.05

・ job-hop （しばしば）転職する

・ premium 賞金，賞品，保険料

・ Mandarin 北京官話

I think in the U.S., most people learn or most people think they know there are two major Chinese languages: one is Mandarin, and the other is Cantonese.

● come as no surprise 驚きではない

  → 実践ビジネス英語 2008.11.06

・ rampant 猛威をふるう

● be in the forefront of ～ ～の最前線にいる

    → 実践ビジネス英語 2008.11.06

● prick up one’s ears 聞き耳を立てる，興味を示す

  → 実践ビジネス英語 2008.11.07

● stir up ～をかき立てる

・ stir かきまぜる

== あんな時，こんな時 ==

「驚きではない」と言う時

● I’m not surprised (that) …

● I wouldn’t be surprised if …

● … surprised no one.

● It’s not surprising (that) …

● Nobody was panicked by …

・ panic のつづり

Be careful with this past tense spelling of panic. You have to add a k ; otherwise you’d have to pronounce it [pænist].

会話では，

● No doubt. I don’t wonder [it's no wonder.]

● I knew it was coming. Now give it to me straight.

・ Give it to me straight.  はっきり言ってくれ。

There was an older phrase that was popular probably in the late 60s, maybe early 70s. If you wanted someone to tell you bad news directly and clearly, you’d say, "Sock it to me!"

・ Sock it to me. はっきり言ってくれ，そのまま伝えてください，さあかかってこい

sock it to somebody    <old-fashioned>    to tell someone to do something in a direct and forceful way  (LDOCE)

I think it comes also from the idea that you are hit by the bad news. You almost feel it physically.

・ sock  = 「なぐる」 から

● It’s just as I expected [thought].  思った通りだ

● I knew it would turn out that way sooner or later. いずれそうなるだろうと思ってたよ。

● What a surprise.(↘) I knew it was done deal.

・ done deal 出来レース，完了した取引  < informal >   an agreement that has been made and cannot be changed:  The merger is far from a done deal. (LDOCE)

2008.11.14

2008年11月第2週分 Lesson 3 Complete Streets (6)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

S = 杉田敏      I = Susan Iwamoto

S: In our current vignette, we looked at urban renewal, particularly in smaller cities such as Peoria, Illinois.

I: That’s right. And this is a welcome trend in many cities across the U.S. Many residents of small cities and suburbs have grown tired of strip malls, and big box stores that have overtaken main street mom-and-pop shops.They long for a more pedestrian-friendly environment and a stronger sense of community. Just this past summer, I visited such a place. An American friend of mine moved back to the US after over ten years in Tokyo. She’s now living in a small city of sixty thousand people in the state of Connecticut.

・ strip mall 大通りのショッピングセンター

・ box store 倉庫形式のディスカウントストア

・ mom-and-pop 家族経営の，零細な

S: That must have been quite a change.

I: Definitely. She loved her old neighborhood in Tokyo, where everything was short-walk or train-ride away. Though she was happy to move back to the U.S., she didn’t want to live in a place where she would have to rely on a car to go everywhere. She found a happy balance in her new city, which is the suburb of the state capital, Hartford. When I visited her the summer, she took me on a tour and pointed out some of the latest development projects in the city, designed to foster a stronger sense of community. The city has worked on improving and expanding its center, with many shops, restaurants, theaters and public facilities such as libraries and parks.

・ short-walk or train-ride away 歩いてすぐ，または電車で行けるくらいの所にある

S: Sounds like a nice place to live.

I: Doesn’t it? Whether you can call it complete streets, new urbanism, or suburban redevelopment, there is definitely a movement of foot(?)  to counteract years of urban sprawl. Sometimes this means taking a new urban planning approach to an existing city or sometimes it’s creating a planned community from scratch. This is a welcome trend and something I wish had happened years ago in some of the places where I grew up.

・ urban sprawl スプロール化現象（郊外に向けて宅地が無秩序に広がっていくこと）

・ from scratch ゼロから，最初から

・ something I wish had happened ずっと前に起きていてほしかったこと（連鎖関係節）

S: What do you mean?

I: Well, though I was born in one of the largest cities in the U.S., Philadelphia, I grew up mostly in the suburbs. I spent four years in elementary school in Tokyo, and after that my family moved to a suburb outside Washington D.C. for a couple of years. My sisters and I definitely went through culture shock at first.

・ go through ～ ～を経験する

S: Culture shock? What made it difficult to adjust?

I: Well, we’d grown used to a certain level of independence in our neighborhood in Tokyo. We had parks, playgrounds, and of course the all-important toy stores and candy stores within walking and biking distance. Suddenly we are in a suburban neighborhood filled with house after house with parks, playgrounds and shops all car-ride away. It took some getting used to. Many of the other towns I lived in after that were similar. They all had their own charms. But most didn’t really have a city center — a place where you might bump into your neighbors while you’re running out errands or just enjoy an evening stroll. I definitely prefer living in cities with a high level of walkability.

・ with parks, playgrounds and shops all car-ride away 付帯状況。「公園，遊び場，お店などがみな車で行く距離にあって」 all は前の3つの名詞と同格。

S: I guess that’s why you’ve been in Tokyo all these years.

I: That’s definitely one of the reasons. Unlike my friends, I’ve often wondered if I could get used to suburban life in the U.S. again, after enjoying the conveniences of a big city. However, I’ve been happy to see that many communities in the U.S. are really making efforts at urban or perhaps suburban renewal.

・ このへんは郊外(suburbs)のイメージが日本の郊外とは違うような気がします。日本の郊外は，コンビニもあれば，なんたらショッピングセンターがあってさほど不便な感じはしないと思いますが。

S: Both Shiga Hiroshi and Jay Tyson pointed out the benefits of complete streets for senior citizens and people with disabilities.

I: Yes, and Rosa Cortez also mentioned how increasing walkability of cities can help decrease the rate of obesity. It’s clear that this kind of redevelopment can do a lot to improve the quality of life for many residents. I can think of a few of my relatives who would really benefit from this sort of improvement to their community. They can no longer drive and must rely on family members and friends to get around. This can take a toll on people who have been so independent for so long. My parents live in Florida — a state that has long attracted retirees. They live in a housing development for people aged 55 and over in a city with many shops, restaurants, and other facilities, very few of which are within waling distance. Many of the residents, including my parents, are still young and healthy enough to drive, and they help the older or less mobile residents by giving them rides to doctors or supermarkets. Though it is nice to see neighbors helping one another, it must be tough to rely on another all the time.

・ relatives who would really benefit from this sort of improvement to their community 仮定法のwould。直訳すると，「もしそういうところに住んでいるなら利益を受けるであろうような親戚」

・ take a toll on ～ ～を犠牲にする，～に害を与える

・ give ～ a ride ～を車に乗せる

S: Do you think this urban renewal trend will continue in the United States?

I: I certainly hope so. Cutting down on car usage in favor of walking or cycling is certainly better for the environment and for one’s health. The social benefits are considerable as well. Many of these communities have outdoor events throughout the year, whether festivals or farmers’ market. And these are the great way to get to know your neighbors better.

2008.11.19

2008年11月第3週分 Lesson 4  Diversity in the Workplace (1)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Tyson introduces Sue Kim, a new hire from Chicago, who brings more diversity to the team.

● "I’d like to welcome Sue Kim"

Jay Tyson starts off by saying "I’d like to welcome …"  He could say, "Please welcome .." or "Let’s welcome Sue Kim."

● admin assistant 秘書，アシスタント

He also uses the shortened form of administrative; he only says admin. Admin can be used for administrative, administrator, or even administration.

● diverse, diversity の発音

You’ll probably notice throughout this lesson people tend to say [dəvəːs] or [daivəːs], [dəvəːsti] or [daivəːsəti]. All of them are correct. It depends mostly on the person’s dialect, or the rhythm and focus of the sentence. Both of them are used, so be prepared to hear it either way — [daivəːs] or [dəvəːs].

● fit in なじむ，うまく溶け込む

・ fit in    if someone fits in, they are accepted by the other people in a group: I never really fitted in at school. (LDOCE)

● Hey!

Later, when we have a chance, take a look at the spelling, when it’s this interjection, it’s spelled HEY. If you’re talking about food for horses, it’s spelled HAY, although the pronunciation is the same. When I was a kid, we used to make jokes sometimes: when we were driving, we’d see, you know, dried grasses growing in fields and say, "Hey, hay!"

● tamale タマーレ

Tamale is in the U.S. a fairly common and fairly popular food these days. It’s a dish from South America. The U.S. version is probably mostly from Mexico. And it’s made with corn flour and usually has a kind of meat stuffing and it’s often steamed and wrapped in corn husks.

● bologna sandwich ボローニャ・ソーセージのサンドイッチ

In the U.S., there’s two pronunciations for this word. [bəlouni] is probably the most common one when you’re talking about the sausage. But if you’re talking about the city in Italy, I think most people would say [bəlounjə]. One other thing: for the pronunciation [bəlouni], there is a second spelling, and a different meaning. If you spell it b-a -l-o-n-e-y, it means pretentious nonsense. So if someone is telling you something that you disagree with, you can look at them and say "Baloney!"

・ baloney = boloney たわごと    something that is silly or not true [= nonsense]: Don’t give me that baloney.  (LDOCE)

● bite into ～ ～にかじりつく

bite into / through / at / down

• She bit into a croissant and took a sip of coffee.
• An adult conger eel can easily bite through a man’s leg.
• Nina pushed her fist into her mouth and bit down hard.

(LDOCE)

● go for ～ ～を選ぶ，（選んで）～にする

・ go for something

1. to choose something : I think I’ll go for the fruit salad.
2. to put a lot of effort into something, so that you get or achieve something: Go for it, John! You know you can beat him. / It sounds a great idea. Go for it! (OALD)

"Go for it!" は「がんばれ！」

● "our diversity"

Cortez talks about "our diversity." She could be referring just to Great Lakes or even just to her team. But even if she is referring to that specifically, I think the same list of characteristics applies all over the U.S.

● discrimination based on age, sex and race

He’s referring to the idea that some people don’t like other people because of their age or their sex or their race. So to talk about that kind of idea negatively, he could have said ageism, just like you can say sexism, or racism.

● build on ～ ～をさらに増強・拡大する

・ build on something to use something as a basis for further progress: This study builds on earlier work.  (OALD)

● "to manage increasingly diverse work-forces since the 1970s"

Yes, I remember this fairly clearly. I think it was first in the 1970s in the U.S. that more and more women started taking up part-time work. But not only that, there were quite a few who started developing careers, not just part-time work to earn more money, but with a clear focus that they wanted to work hard and climb through a company, getting more experience, and more responsibility.

2008.11.20

2008年11月第3週分 Lesson 4  Diversity in the Workplace (2)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Cortez says that companies are becoming more diverse and that this diversity is becoming commonplace.

● fill positions 地位に就く

Cortez talks about "filling positions." She could have said "in positions," or "occupying positions," or even "taking positions."

● pink-collar job 伝統的に女性の職種だった秘書，交換手など（white-collar, blue-collar のもじり）

Some people even call those jobs the pink-collar ghetto, because it was very difficult to get out of.

・ 最後の文のitはthe ghetto をさす。It … to なら，終わり方が out of it のはず。

・ pink-collar jobs/workers/industries etc    <especially American English>    low-paid jobs done mainly by women, for example in offices and restaurants, or the women who do these jobs

● awesome 畏怖の念を起こさせるような（万能語: nice に近い）

Awesome is the word that’s been fairly popular for maybe the last two decades or so, to describe something that gave you a very strong and good impression.

If you really want to make it clear that you’re using awesome more in the slang way, you can add dude to it. "Awesome, dude!"

・ awesome   1    extremely impressive, serious, or difficult so that you feel great respect, worry, or fear: an awesome responsibility / the awesome sweep of the scenery
2    <especially American English>    <informal>    very good: Their last concert was really awesome.   (LDOCE)

YouTube のコメント欄なんかにほめ言葉としてよく見かけますね。

● "Nobody thinks twice about it"

"Nobody thinks twice about it" means it’s commonplace, it’s not unusual, it’s not remarkable.

・ think twice about ～ to think carefully before deciding to do something

● It’s not only an issue of women climbing the corporate ladder then and now, I think.

Kim put the phrase "I think" at the end of her sentence. Sometimes this means it’s my opinion, but often if you put "I think" at the end of the sentence, it means I’m not exactly sure about what I’m saying. So if you want to be very clear that it’s your opinion, put "I think" at the beginning.

● onslaught 襲来

The word onslaught is often used in a negative way when something is too powerful in coming to you //in gripping huge waves and you can’t withstand it. But you can use it more neutrally just to mean something that’s rather overwhelming.

・ onslaught   1    a large violent attack by an army
onslaught on/against    In December they launched a full-scale onslaught on the capital.
2    strong criticism of someone
onslaught on/against    his public onslaught on the Conservatives
under the onslaught of something    He praised his wife for her dignity under the onslaught of the tabloid press.
3 the onslaught of something    the effect of something that is unpleasant and could cause damage: plants that will survive the onslaught of winter   (LDOCE)

● adept 熟達して

Hughes uses the word adept. There’re two other words that are very similar — adopt and adapt. They’re all different only in the central vowel sound. Adept, the word Hughes uses, means good at something. Adopt means take something up and make it your own. And adapt means change to fit something or suit something. I sometimes hear people mix the word up or type the wrong word in texts, and especially in e-mail when they’re busy and not paying really close attention.

●  in charge of relations

Cortez mentions that their senior VP is in charge of relations, but she doesn’t really spell out what kind of relations or relations between whom she is talking about. But because she is talking with colleagues, they all know the person she’s referring to. So it’s not really necessary to explain it at all really clearly here.

● sit on the board ～の理事［役員］を努める

・ sit    to be a member of a committee, parliament, or other official group  ～の一員になる
sit in/on :   They both sat on the management committee. / He was the first journalist to sit in parliament. (LDOCE)

● be on top of things 事情をしっかり把握している

・ on top of something   in control of a situation : Do you think he’s really on top of his job?

● catchword スローガン，標語

・ catchword   1. a briefly popular or fashionable word or phrase used to encapsulate a particular concept  2. a word printed or placed so as to attract attention

2008.11.21

2008年11月第3週分 Lesson 4  Diversity in the Workplace (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The team talks about some of the lessons they’ve learned in the Great Lakes diversity training program.

● promoting diversity in the workplace

These days in the U.S., I think most companies have some sort of diversity training for their employees. Not only does it ensure that all their workers work well together, no matter what kind of backgrounds they come from. But it also can serve a sort of a defense against a discrimination lawsuit, because it shows the court that the company intends to, and is trying to, set up an environment where people can work together, no matter what their backgrounds are.

● first and foremost まず第一に

・ first and foremost used to emphasize the most important quality, purpose, reason etc: Dublin is thought of first and foremost for its literary heritage. (LDOCE)

● corporate clones 企業の中のクローン人間

Corporate clones would be employees who all seem the same. They are interchangeable; they look the same; they think the same way. They really have the stamp of the company on them. In the past, I think, sometimes corporate clones were called cogs. Cogs are a small part of intricate machinery. They are interchangeable. You can’t really tell them apart. But they go in, they do the work, they leave. It’s kind of a dull and boring way to talk about company employees.

・ cog 歯車

● get grounded 地面に足をつける，基礎を身につける

● get centered かたよらない

Hughes talks about being "grounded and centered." Grounded refers to having your feet on the ground, being effective and matter-of-fact, concrete and focused on what you’re doing. Centered is a little more about not going too far in any direction, not being extreme, knowing what you’re doing and doing it well and doing it carefully.

・ matter-of-fact 実務的な

・ grounded 1    reasonable and in control of your emotions, even when this is difficult
2    someone who is grounded understands their own character and knows what is really important: Simmons says that her family keeps her grounded.  (LDOCE)

・ centered   feeling calm and in control of your life and feelings: Julia seems very centred nowadays.  (LDOCE)

● a couple of ～ 2つの～，2, 3 の～

Cortez mentions "a couple of those training programs." Couple tends to mean two. It could be  two, three, maybe four, even, depending on the conversation. It’s a very vague way to talk about the number of something.

It’s probably better to think of a couple as meaning more than one, but not a lot.

  ・ a couple of ～ (1) two people or things  (2) a small number of people or things  (OALD)

● alleged の発音

Alleged (/əledʒd/), or /əledʒɪd/ is kind of an interesting word. Both pronunciations are acceptable in this case: /əledʒd/, /əledʒɪd/. But if you change it into the adverb, people use the three-syllable version: /əledʒɪdli/.

Also, if you listen to news stories when the reporter is talking about someone who is suspected of a crime, they usually say alleged (/əledʒd/), or /əledʒɪd/, until that person has been convicted in a court.

・ allege to state something as a fact but without giving proof

・ the alleged killer  (= that somebody says is one)  「殺人犯だとされている人」

● get a grip on ～ ～を理解する

If you get a grip on something, you get in control of it; you learn how to handle it.

  ・ grip an understanding of something : I couldn’t get a grip on what was going on. / You need to keep a good grip on reality in this job.   (OALD)

● "Men are inclined to oversell their capabilities and women tend to undersell themselves."

This is true in the U.S. There’s also cultural differences between countries. In some countries, U.S. style, selling yourself, wouldn’t work. And sometimes in the U.S., foreign workers seem to be underselling themselves. I think Japanese style would be seen as underselling.

・ oversell 売り込みすぎる  to say that somebody/something is better than they really are

・ undersell  控えめに売り込む  to make people think that somebody/something is not as good or as interesting as they really are

● "consign them to a corporate trash basket"

・ consign ゆだねる，（廃棄するために）～を入れる

consign somebody/something to something
1    to make someone or something be in a particular situation, especially a bad one: It was a decision which consigned him to political obscurity.
consign somebody/something to the dustbin / scrapheap / rubbish heap etc  : Many older people feel they have been consigned to the medical scrapheap. 

2    to put something somewhere, especially in order to get rid of it:  The shoes looked so tatty that I consigned them to the back of the cupboard.  (LDOCE)

2008.11.26

2008年11月第3週分 Lesson 4  Diversity in the Workplace (4)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Tyson notes that Great Lakes trains managers embrace diversity, and back the training up with financial incentive.

● get down to brass tacks 問題の本質に取り組む

"Get down to brass tacks" is an idiom that means focus  on key issues or "get serious" or "get down to basics." Nobody is exactly sure where this phrase comes from, but the earliest references are from 150 years ago in Texas of all places.

・ get down to brass tacks    <informal>    to start talking about the most important facts or details of something  (LDOCE)

・ of all places(people) よりによって

● revamp   改良する

Revamp is a verb that people use to mean "make better" or "improve", "shake it up so that it becomes better." It’s a little different from "change." It tends to include the idea of improvement.

・ revamp   to make changes to the form of something, usually to improve its appearance   (OALD)

・ shake something up   to make changes to an organization in order to make it more effective: the government’s plans to shake up the educational system  (LDOCE)

● shed light on new twists

・ twist くふう，要領，新方式 a clever device  : TRICK  : questions demanding special twists of thinking <New Yorker>  (Merriam-Webster)

● wear different hats 様々な役割をこなす

To wear different hats refers to having different roles. Another quite often used phrase is wear two hats, meaning you have two roles. And although these two phrases seem very, very familiar to me and very .. like something that’s been in English for a long time. They’ve actually only been used since about the 1950s or 1960s in the U.S.

・ hat  <informal> a position or role, especially an official or professional role, when you have more than one such role: I’m wearing two hats tonight — parent and teacher.  (OALD)

● mentor メンターになる，助言を与える

A phrase similar to the meaning mentor is to take someone under your wing. And it means "take care of them," "watch them," "help them grow and develop."

・ mentor  a : a trusted counselor or guide  b : TUTOR, COACH  (v.) to serve as a mentor for

・ take somebody under your wing   かばう，保護する to take care of and help somebody who has less experience of something than you

● it backs up the program with money.

So you could say Great Lakes is putting their money where their mouth is. They are not just paying lip service to diversity.

So here too, you can see bonuses in the U.S. is not quite the same thing as bonuses here in Japan. They are usually not automatic, and occasionally they’ll be for something that you did that surprised your boss. It’s not always something you know you’ll get ahead of time.

・ put your money where your mouth is <informal>  to show by your actions that you really believe what you say （金を払って）約束を果たす，行動で自分の言ったことを裏打ちする

● keep the ball rolling ものごとを進め続ける

・ set/start/keep the ball rolling    to start something happening:
To start the ball rolling, the government was asked to contribute £1 million. (LDOCE)

2008.11.27

2008年11月第3週分 Lesson 4  Diversity in the Workplace (5)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

== Key Phrases to Remember ==

● asset 資産，貴重なもの，人材

● awesome 畏怖の念を起こさせる，圧倒されるような

→ 実践ビジネス英語 2008.11.20

● prompt someone to   （人）を・・・するよう促す

And many politicians these days use TelePrompTers to help them make good speeches.

● be on top of things 事情をしっかり把握している

→ 実践ビジネス英語 2008.11.20

・ I’m on top of things [it].   大丈夫。わたしは状況を把握しているから。

It also means "You can rely on me.

● keynote 基調

● point of view 視点

== あんな時，こんな時 ==

「・・・を望みます」という時 I hope ..

● I’m hoping for another bumper crop this year.

・ bumper crop 豊作

You can also use the phrase to refer to anything that you hope to have a lot of this year.

● hopefully  うまくいけば，できれば （文修飾的な使い方には批判的な人もいる）

OALD の解説では，"Although this is the most common use of hopefully, it is a fairly new use and some people think it is not correct." とある。

But I think it’s pretty much become standard in the U.S., and if you insisted on not using it this way, people would probably think you’re pretty much of a  curmudgeon.

● Here’s hoping for success [the best].

乾杯する時の典型的な言い方。

Yeah, you could probably use it for almost anything if you’re right at the starting point — just as you take that as a first step.

● Keep your fingers crossed and hope for a miracle.

keep one’s fingers crossed  は成功を祈るおまじない。

・ keep one’s fingers crossed    to hope that your plans will be successful (sometimes putting one finger across another as a sign of hoping for good luck   (OALD)

It sounds a bit like you have nothing else to rely on. And to emphasize this, sometimes people will say they have their fingers and their toes crossed.

● Jack pinned all his hopes on hitting the jackpot.

・ hit the jackpot （スロットマシンなどで）大当たりすること

And nowadays you can use "hit the jackpot" to refer to almost any kind of unexpected success or award.

・ pin [ set, fix, build ] one’s hopes on ～ ～に期待をかける

The company is pinning it hopes on the new project.  (OALD)

●  Hope so.  = I hope so.    /    Hope not. = I hope not.

● cling to [entertain, harbor] the hope that …  希望に執着する :

2008.11.28

2008年11月第3週分 Lesson 4  Diversity in the Workplace (6)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

S = 杉田敏      I = Susan Iwamoto

S: Our most recent vignette covered the topic of diversity in the workplace. What’s your take on this, Susan?

I: Well, this has been a buzzword in the U.S. for some time now. Organizations are looking to leverage the experience and perspective of the diverse workforce. And as we heard from Rosa Cortez and Tony Hughes in the vignette, this diversity includes culture, gender, age and race among other things.

・ leverage ～に影響を与える

S: Sue Kim mentioned that Great Lakes has a chief diversity officer. What is required of them?

I: Good question. Well, you know, you can find chief diversity officers at corporations, universities, and other organizations. Many organizations without a C-level position, CDO for chief diversity officers in that area, may have diversity officers in  HR divisions. People in these positions need to be innovative, persuasive, and well-versed in change in management. They often look for ways to improve recruiting, management development programs, and performance management with an eye toward broadening the talent base of the organization. At universities, this may also involve curriculum development.

・ C-level  = top level  肩書きに chief がつく

S: What are some of the challenges organizations face in this area?

I: Well, one of these is recruiting. When I worked in HR for a bank in the U.S. years ago, I remember one of my colleagues saying that it was a challenge to find diverse-ful of candidates for management positions. Despite the bank’s concerted effort to do so, they were hoping for up and coming executives with backgrounds that reflects the local community. But it was often hard to find candidates even when you’re using professional recruiters. Another challenge with recruiting is to make sure that  interviewers are well-trained in being able to recognize good candidates for a particular position. This may sound obvious, but when faced with the selection of good candidates, interviewers often go with the person they click with. And that connection may be deceiving.

・ up and coming 元気いっぱいの

・ go with ～ ～を選ぶ

・ click with ～ ～と気が合う

S: What do you mean?

I: Well,  they may miss out(?) someone who will connect better with certain clients, or perhaps will bring a new perspective to marketing or product development. Their different approach may not be what the interviews’re used to and interviewers may overlook some promising candidates as a result.

S: Recruiting and promotions are internal issues for organizations. Corporations must deal with diversity in the marketplace as well.

I: Yes, and that’s exactly why it’s beneficial to have a variety of people with different backgrounds in their organizations. This is true for the domestic market, but especially for companies doing business globally. Corporations are investing more and more in employee training programs for working on multicultural teams throughout the organization and for how to work with clients from different cultures.

・ invest A in B AをBに投資する

S: You do a lot of this kind of work yourself, don’t you?

I: Yes, that’s right. I conduct diversity and intercultural management training programs for Japanese and foreign multinationals. Sometimes I work with expatriates, who’ve been assigned to a foreign country. But I also do programs for executives who have multicultural project teams and diverse client base. There’s definitely a lot more to global multicultural work environments than just knowing some business etiquette.

・ There is more to A than B. Aに関しては，B以上のものがある。Aについては，はなしはBにとどまらない。

S: What do you mean by that?

I: Well, one of the things we discuss is the importance of being able to embrace multiple perspective and to see the value of diversity on your team. It’s very easy to make quick judgments and evaluations of situations or people, but when working with people who come from different backgrounds, you may find that you’ve jumped to the wrong conclusions.  We tend to evaluate situations through lens of our own culture or life experience. Well, this is not necessarily wrong. It may cloud a perception of a situation. Being open to different ideas and approaches can be very beneficial, whether in your working relationships with colleagues or with client relations.

S: How so?

I: Well, for example, you may have some people on your team with different approaches to time. Some people come from cultures that value schedules and strict time management. Well, others take a more .. flexible approach, adjusting the schedules according to the situation at hand. And depending on your own style, you may view that first person as either very responsible or very rigid and inflexible. In the case of the second person, you may see them as disorganized or disrespectful or you may see them as very effective at prioritizing and able to adjust quickly to change. The important thing is to understand your own style, recognize that it’s not necessarily the global standard, and then attempt to understand where your team members are coming from. You may find you share the same objective but their approach may be the best one for that particular situation.

・ prioritize ～を優先させる

S: Any other examples?

I: Sure. There’re some cultures that emphasize expressing emotions and feelings in an open and vocal way and accept this as normal in the workplace. Other cultures tend to value a more neutral approach, expressing feelings in a more restrained way. You can imagine the misunderstanding this may cause. The expressive team member may think that the more reserved colleague doesn’t care about a particular issue, while the other member may view the passionate colleague as overreacting to the situation or behaving in a childish way. In fact, they may both feel strongly about the issue at hand, but by failing to understand each other’s perspective, they may lose valuable time that could be spent dealing with the main issue. Interculturally-savvy team leaders and managers can identify these potential road blocks and take measures to resolve them, creating a smoother working relationship among team members. That can mean a much more productive team in organization as a whole.

2008年10月第1週分 Lesson 1  Belt Tightening (1)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Great Lakes is just about to hire a new guy who is returning to work to supplement his pension.

● who has の発音

Jay Tyson pronounces "who has" fairly clearly here, but you often hear people shorten it to "who’s." It sounds exactly the same as "who is."

● lot 一組，ひと山，（同じ種類の人・物の）群れ，連中

・ lot =  a group of people or things considered together

● credentials 経歴，業績，資格，適性，人物証明書

I think  because they’re talking in the office, Tyson uses the full word credentials. Often you hear the phrase, though, street cred. Cred is short for credentials. And because it’s street cred, it means you have some kind of believability out on the mean streets.

・ credentials someone’s education, achievements, experience etc that prove they have the ability to do something
credentials for/as : She had excellent credentials for the job. / There are doubts over his credentials as a future Prime Minister. / He spent the first part of the interview trying to establish his credentials as a financial expert. (LDOCE)

・ 辞書ではstreet cred のcredはcredibility の略となっている。street cred 「人気，流行，若者文化に通じていること」

● fill one’s shoes 役目を引き継ぐ

To fill someone’s shoes is to take over their position or duties, and not only do that but be able to do it as well as they did. There’s another very similar phrase, step into someone’s shoes, which doesn’t quite include the idea of doing it as well as the previous person.

・ step into/fill somebody’s shoes    to do a job that someone else used to do, and do it as well as they did: It’ll be hard to find someone to fill Pete’s shoes. (LDOCE)

● by way of introduction 紹介しておくと，

by way of  = You use by way of when you are explaining the purpose of something that you have said or are about to say. For example, if you say something by way of an introduction, you say it as an introduction. : ‘I get very superstitious about things like that,’ she said by way of explanation.  (COBUILD)

● sluggish 怠惰な，無精な

Sluggish is an adjective that means slow or without much movement. It’s used when slow or unmoving is a negative thing. Sluggish comes from slug, one of the meanings of which is the kind of animal, a creature like a snail but without a shell. You could also call a lazy person a sluggard or even a laggard with the same ending, although laggard focuses a little more on being last.

● resourceful 機知に富んだ，やりくりのうまい

・ resourceful   = good at finding ways of doing things and solving problems, etc. (OALD)

● cut corners 節約する，怠ける

When you cut corners, you use the quickest, easiest, or cheapest way of doing something. When that’s a good thing, it’s used positively, but you can also use it when you want to criticize someone for not doing a better job.

・ If you cut corners, you do something quickly by doing it in a less thorough way than you should. :  Take your time, don’t cut corners and follow instructions to the letter. (COBUILD)

● way back when ずっと以前（から）

・ way back (also way back when) <informal> long ago (OALD)

● easy credit 簡単な融資

Easy credit is short for easy credit terms, meaning the company wants to attract many customers because it’s easy to continue paying back. And nowadays if you look easy credit up on the Internet, you’re often directed to the phrase "predatory lending," which actually sounds much more negative, even though it’s pretty much the same phenomenon.

・ predatory lending =  Any of a number of fraudulent, deceptive, discriminatory, or unfavorable lending practices. Many of these practices are illegal, while others are legal but not in the best interest of the borrowers.

This content can be found on the following page: InvestorWords.com

● as if the sky is the limit 青天井で

The phrase "the sky is the limit" is used in English to say basically there is no limit, because the sky just goes on and on and on. There’s a similar phrase. You could say "as if there were no tomorrow." So sometimes people spend all their money today because they don’t need it tomorrow if there isn’t a tomorrow.

・ the sky’s the limit    <spoken>    used to say that there is no limit to what someone can achieve, spend, win etc: Francis believes the sky’s the limit for the young goalkeeper. (LDOCE)

● tighten one’s belt 倹約する，財布のひもを締める

In English, using the phrase tighten your belt means you don’t have enough money so you haven’t been eating enough, so you have to put your belt on the next hole because you’ve lost some weight.

・ If you have to tighten your belt, you have to spend less money and manage without things because you have less money than you used to have. :  Clearly, if you are spending more than your income, you’ll need to tighten your belt.  (COBUILD)

● cash and carry 現金払いで持ち返る

Cash and carry is a phrase businesses use sometimes to advertise sales or special liquidation like if going out of business. If you pay cash and you take it yourself, you can often get a better price.

And the two c’s make a nice alliteration, so I think that’s why the  phrase is used.

2008.10.02

2008年10月第1週分 Lesson 1  Belt Tightening (2)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Kinkaid, Shiga, Tyson, and Cortez consider the effects of the tight economy.

● posted prices 提示価格

Kinkaid talks about the posted prices for homes. You could also say the asking prices for homes. And especially in a down market,that’s usually the starting point for negotiating the actual price of a house.

● high spender 浪費家 ←→ penny-pincher 締まり屋，倹約家

・ big spender とも。

・ penny-pinching = unwilling to spend or give money [↪ mean]:
penny-pinching governments (LDOCE)

● shopping spree 買い物をしまくること

A spree is an overindulgence. You can have a spree with all kinds of different things; you can go on a shopping spree, like Shiga says; you can go on a gambling spree. Anything when you overindulge could be called a spree.

・ spree = a short period of time that you speed doing one particular activity that you enjoy, but often too much of it  (OALD)

● Buy now, pay later 今買って，払うのは後

"Buy now, pay later" is a phrase also used by businesses to try to encourage people to come buy larger purchases, so you’ll often see it in advertisements for furniture or cars or maybe even other large household appliances like refrigerators or stoves.

● wind down だんだんと縮小する

Tyson also talks about some kind of activities winding down. You can also say wind up, meaning "pick up speed, become more common or more popular."

・ wind something down    to gradually reduce the work of a business or organization so that it can be closed down completely

● credit squeeze, credit crunch 金融引き締め

Cortez talks about credit being squeezed. You could also use it as a noun and call it a credit squeeze or even a credit crunch.

● go from bad to worse さらに悪化する

・ go from bad to worse    to become even more unpleasant or difficult: The schools have gone from bad to worse in this area. (LDOCE)

● up-swing 急激な上昇

・ upswing = an improvement or increase in the level of something (LDOCE)

● conspicuous consumption

Cortez talks about conspicuous consumption. This is a phrase that was coined in 1899, and it’s used to mean buying things to show off. It’s trying to establish your position in society and show how rich you are by buying noticeable, expensive items. It’s similar to talking about keeping up with the Joneses, which means seeing what your neighbors are doing and trying to do one better.

・  keep up with the Joneses =try to have the same new, impressive possessions that other people have (LDOCE)

● live beyond one’s means 収入以上の生活をする ←→ live within one’s means

・ If someone is living beyond their means, they are spending more money than they can afford. If someone is living within their means, they are not spending more money than they can afford. : The more gifts she received, the more she craved, until he was living beyond his means.   (COBUILD)

● fly in the ointment 台無しにするもの

The phrase "a fly in the ointment" is used to mean a problem, but it often refers specifically to a kind of problem that’s a small defect, but ruins something valuable, something really useful, even though it’s a small thing.

・ If you describe someone or something as a fly in the ointment, you think they spoil a situation and prevent it being as successful as you had hoped. : Rachel seems to be the one fly in the ointment of Caroline’s smooth life.   (COBUILD)

2008.10.03

2008年10月第1週分 Lesson 1  Belt Tightening (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The team talks about how people are responding to the tight economy.

● ethanol の発音

In the U.S, ethanol is usually pronounced with a short e sound. In the U.K, though, they tend to say it with a long e sound: [íːɵənɔːl].

● That takes you full circle back to the cost of flour それが回り回って小麦粉の値段に影響する

・ come full circle 一周して戻る

come/go full circle also turn full circle   <British English> to end in the same situation in which you began, even though there have been changes in the time in between:  Sooner or later, fashion comes full circle.  (LDOCE)

● ～-proof ～に強い，～知らずの

Kinkaid uses the phrase recession-proof. You can attach the word proof to almost anything, if you want to say it is fully or successfully resistant, it’s impervious. Some very common ones are oven-proof for dishes that you can put into the oven; water-proof, which means water will not come in and damage, whatever it is you are describing; and fire-proof, which means that won’t burn.

It’s sort of interesting, though. In the case of dishwashers, you describe dishes as dishwasher-safe. I guess it’s because you don’t want it to be resistant to the dishwasher. You just want it to be able to bear up under the heat and detergent that’s used to clean dishes in the machine.

● hike 値上げ，引き上げ

・ hike (in sth) <informal, especially NAmE> a large or sudden increase in prices, costs, etc.

● give ～ second thoughts ～に二の足を踏ませる，再考させる

To have second thoughts or to be given second thoughts means you’re reconsidering your previous decision; you’re no longer sure about what you’d originally been thinking. Sometimes it also is used to mean regret.

・ have second thoughts    to start having doubts about a decision you have made: You’re not having second thoughts, are you?  (LDOCE)

● fleet (of cars) 社用車の集合

● hybrid 雑種，混成物

Hybrid is a word that comes from genetics, and it describes the offspring of parents who are genetically different. So something that’s hybrid is an unusual mixture of two different things. It comes from the Latin word for mongrel, which is the word describing a dog that isn’t the result of special breeding; it’s a mixed kind of a dog.

● staycation という新語

Yeah, I’ve heard it on the radio. When I was a kid, we had staycations, too, my family. In fact, most families I knew had staycation, but we didn’t call it that. You just didn’t have to go to school.

● have a ball 楽しむ

・ have a ball    <informal>    to have a very good time

● chafe at ～ からにいらいらする

→ 実践ビジネス英語 2008.05.01

2008.10.08

2008年10月第2週分 Lesson 1  Belt Tightening (4)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Because consumers have become more cautious, companies are working hard to find creative ways to get them to spend more.

● cogitate on ～ ～をよく考える

 Cogitate is another word for think. It comes from a Latin word for think. And think itself is part of the original Germanic base of English.

・ cogitate = to think carefully about sth  (OALD)

・ もちろん cogito, ergo sum. （我思う故に我あり I think, therefore I am.）のcogito。

● sundry さまざまな，雑多な

・ sundry  <formal>   not similar enough to form a group [= various]: He makes films about animals, plants and sundry other subjects. (LDOCE)

● cater to ～ ～に答える

cater to ～  = provide with what is needed or required, try to satisfy (a particular need or demand) : The school caters to children with learning difficulties. (NOAD)

● rule the roost 支配する，牛耳る

If you talk about someone "ruling the roost," you’re talking about them because they’re in control, because they dominate, because what they say becomes what everyone else does.

・ If you say that someone rules the roost in a particular place, you mean that they have control and authority over the people there. (INFORMAL) : Today the country’s nationalists rule the roost and hand out the jobs.  (COBUILD)

● name brands ブランドもの

"Name brands" are of course famous brands — companies that everybody knows,  luxury items that people probably don’t really need to buy. A name brand could be anything in the supermarket that’s well known.

Also in supermarkets, sometimes you can find generic products, which means they have no known-brands. It doesn’t belong to the supermarket, it doesn’t belong to famous companies, but because it has no name, it tends to be a lot cheaper.

● hallmark 特徴

Goldsmiths' Hall

Tyson talks about hallmarks. A hallmark is a market quality or excellence. It’s a recognition of something good. And it comes from Goldsmiths’ Hall in London. Goldsmiths’ Hall was a place where you could take gold or silver articles, and have them appraised and then have it stamped with a mark that told of its quality. So something with a hallmark nowadays is something that people recognize as being a good thing.

・ hallmark = a feature or quality that is typical of sb/sth (OALD)

・ appraise 鑑定する，査定する

● "even red meat sales are on a downturn"

I think Kinkaid says "even red meat sales are on a downturn," because generally in the U.S. red meat is very popular, and I think it’s almost considered sort of a basic staple of diet.

・ be on a downturn 落ち込んでいる，減少している

downturn = a fall in the amount of business that is done; a time when the economy becomes weaker (OALD)

● buffalo meat

I think he mentions buffalo meat because it’s not so common and many people don’t really want to eat it, so the price is lower when you can find it.

● pricey (pricy) 高価な

Pricey is an adjective people use when something is expensive and they think really it shouldn’t be quite that expensive. It’s sort of a negative way to say expensive.

● "Dining out is out for many American families."

Cortez uses the two words out — the first one with dining to mean eating in restaurants, and the second out to mean out of fashion or out of style.

・ out = no longer fashionable [≠ in]:  You can’t wear that – maxi skirts have been out for years.  (LDOCE)

● mainstay 頼みの綱，支え

・ If you describe something as the mainstay of a particular thing, you mean that it is the most basic part of it. :  Fish and rice were the mainstays of the country’s diet. : This principle of collective bargaining has been a mainstay in labor relations in this country. (COBUILD)

● toss out 外へ投げ出す

・ toss out = to get rid of something that you do not want: I tossed most of that stuff out when we moved.   (LDOCE)

2008.10.09

2008年10月第2週分 Lesson 1  Belt Tightening (5)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

== Key Phrases to Remember ==

● belt tightening 耐乏（生活），緊縮（政策）

「財布のひもを締める」 tighten one’s purse strings

You can also talk about a person who’s good at spending very little money as a person who keeps a tight hold of the purse strings.

・ hold [control] the purse strings 財布（のひも）を握る，財政を預かる

● cost of living 生活費，生計費

・ the cost of living  =  the amount of money you need to pay for the food, clothes etc you need to live

● shopping  spree 買い物をしまくること

A similar word binge is used when it’s in an especially bad episode of whatever you’re doing too much of. A spree is a little bit lighter, a little more enjoyable and fun.

・ spree a short period of time when you do a lot of one activity, especially spending money or drinking alcohol どんちゃん騒ぎ

● be on the rise 上昇している

● have a ball 楽しむ

・ have a ball    <informal>    to have a very good time : have a ball    informal    to have a very good time (LDCOE)

● spur someone to ・・・ （人）を･･･（するよう）に駆り立てる

・ spur O to V(原形), spur O to 名詞[Ving],  spur O into Ving などの形

= あんな時，こんな時 =

「辞める」という意味の表現 resign

● "I’ve had it up to here with the jerk." もうこれ以上我慢できない

喉のあたりに手を当てるしぐさとともに

・ be up to here / have had it up to here  <spoken> to be very upset and angry because of a particular situation or person

be up to here with : I’m up to here with this job; I’m resigning.

・ jerk 「いやな奴」 を表す数多くの語のひとつ。よく使われる。

It’s probably one of the safest ones to use if you need to use one of those words.

jerk   <informal>  =  someone, especially a man, who is stupid or who does things that annoy or hurt other people: I swore at him for being such a jerk. (LDOCE)

● die with my boots on 戦いながら死ぬ，死ぬまで仕事する

Sometimes people say "die in harness" with the same meaning.

● give the up-and-comers a go at it

・ up-and-comers 将来有望な人 = up-and-coming person

・ give a go    ためす = give a try

● tender one’s resignation 辞表を提出する

・ tender  <formal>  to formally offer or show something to someone:
As company secretary, you must tender the proposal.
tender something to somebody   
The seller has the right to keep the goods until payment is tendered to him.  /  Minton tendered her resignation on Friday.  (LDOCE)

● golden handshake [parachute]  （辞めてもらうための）特別割増退職金

You could say it’s a kind of severance package.

・ golden handshake  <British English> a large amount of money given to someone when they leave their job

・ golden parachute <informal>  part of a business person’s contract which states that they will be paid a large amount of money if they lose their job, for example if the company is sold

● turn in his badge [uniform] バッジ（制服）を返却する

2008.10.10

2008年10月第2週分 Lesson 1  Belt Tightening (6)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

S = 杉田敏      I = Susan Iwamoto

S: Now, Susan, in our most recent vignette, we’ve been talking about the economic downturn, and the belt tightening that accompanies it.

I: Yes, and it’s certainly a subject on many people’s mind all over the world. People are looking for ways to be frugal, and some, like the newest member at Great Lakes, Tony Hughes, are going back to work after retirement.

S: Tony’s case isn’t that unusual in the United States, is it?

I: No, recently more and more people of his generation are either choosing to delay their retirement from the current jobs, or retiring and then going back into the workforce on a part-time or project basis, perhaps as a consultant. Come to think of it, nearly all of my aunts and uncles too are in their sixties and still working, because they feel they’re still healthy and energetic, so why not delay full retirement for a few more years? Now for one of my aunts, this means working a few days a week at a nearby school and for one of my uncles, it means running a manufacturing company. But that seems to be the case more and more in Japan too. Don’t you think?

・ on ～ basis ～にもとづいて，～的に

・ come to think of it そういえば

S: Hmm…, yes…, though it’s still not as common as in the United States. Most Japanese business people still retire at sixty or so.

I: That does seem to be the case. When I worked for a Japanese corporation, the official age of retirement was indeed sixty, but we had a program that allowed employees to return to work for up to three more years, if they were so inclined. The interesting thing to me, however, was that they would give up the management roles and take staff-level of positions. I worked with several guys like this over the years, and they seemed content with their situation. They were still interested in working and making a bit of extra money, but also very happy to be able to leave at 5 p.m. every day. It seems like a nice way to ease into retirement.

・ be inclined (to V) V したい気になる

S: Belt tightening is happening across all generations, isn’t it?

I: That’s for sure. Of course, everyone would like to maintain their current quality of life, so many people look for painless ways to cut costs at first. For me, this means saying goodbye to extras like massages and manicures and making my lattes at home instead of buying them at cafés. I have to admit, though, I’m not always the most careful budgeter, but recently, I’ve been making more of an effort to plan my menus around what’s on sale at the supermarket. This past summer, I tried to use my air-conditioner as infrequently as possible — something that’s definitely good for the environment and my health in addition to reducing energy costs. My friends and family in the U.S. are also looking for ways to cut costs. All three of my sisters have given up their land lines in favor of cell phones, as it’s an easy way to save around 50 to 60 dollars a month. Other friends and relatives have stopped the cable television service or have gone back to public libraries instead of buying the latest releases at the local bookstores. The biggest change for many of them, though, is the rising costs of gas.

・ That’s for sure. 確かにその通り。

・ careful budgeter 金を計画的に使う人

S: Shiga Hiroshi mentions cutting back on driving and riding his bike more often. What are some other ways people are dealing with this?

I: Well, bikes and public transportation are attractive options for many people in cities, but for those in the suburbs or who live in cities without adequate public transportation, it’s a challenge. Two of my sisters live in Manhattan, and they’re blessed, just as I am in Tokyo, with an excellent public transportation system, plus, loads of stores, restaurants and entertainment options within walking distance. My parents and many of my other relatives and friends live in the suburbs where there’re no supermarkets, banks or other shops within walking distance. They can cut down on driving and car pool when possible, but it has a big impact on their daily lives.

・ cut back on ～ ～を削減する，縮小する ≒ cut down (on) ～

・ be blessed with ～ ～に恵まれている

・ loads of ～ たくさんの～

・ within …. distance (of ～) (～から)･･･の範囲内にある

S: What other measures are people taking?

I: Well, as Melinda Kinkaid mentioned in the vignette, more and more people are choosing to bring their bag lunches to work, instead of going out to lunch every day. And as Jay Tyson mentioned, staycations were on the increase this past summer, with many families staying home, or looking for interesting day trips in the towns and cities in the area. Many of my relatives vacation in places within driving distance of their home. In addition, some people are taking second jobs to supplement their incomes. Often they  look for something that brings added their benefits. For example, I have some friends and relatives who work a couple nights a week for local department stores. Not only do they earn some extra money, but they can also take advantage of the employee discounts to buy clothes and other daily necessities.

・ a couple a couple of の of が省略されることがある

S: That’s a good idea.

I: I think so. I just wonder if all this attention to thrift will fall by the wayside once the economy recovers. Cutting energy costs in particular is something that would be well worth continuing and living frugally in good economic times and bad is always a wise idea.

・ fall by the wayside 途中で挫折する

2008.10.15

2008年10月第3週分 Lesson 2  Social Networking for Seniors (1)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Tony Hughes, the new hire, is looking into social networking services for older people.

● What are you up to? 何をしているんですか？

"What are you up to?" is the very typical phrase people use when they’re first beginning to talk to somebody. You could also say, "What are you doing?" It has the same meaning. Or "How are you?" even, of course, is often used in this way. "What are you up to?" though, depending on the tone of voice, could be an accusation — "What are yóu up to?"

● mission 任務

Hughes sounds a little bit like he is looking at his task today as sort of a military operation, because he uses the word mission. He could have said any of many other words, such as goal or objective or even assignment or duty.

● cater to ～ ～にこたえる

・ cater to ～  = provide with what is needed or required, try to satisfy (a particular need or demand) : The school caters to children with learning difficulties. (NOAD)

● on-going research 継続的に行っている調査

・ on-going = continuing, or continuing to develop: ongoing negotiations / The discussions are still ongoing. (LDOCE)

● springing up 生じる，誕生する

Cortez could have said appearing, but by using the verb spring, spring up, it sounds much more energetic and like many of them are popping up, maybe almost like mushrooms after rain.

● be well-heeled financially 裕福である

Well-heeled is kind of an interesting adjective. It means well provided for, it means having money and resources. There’s another phrase, down-at-the-heels, which means poor, because poor people probably don’t have enough money to replace the heels on their shoes. But using heel in these two ways is kind of a coincidence, because well-heeled actually seems to come from cock-fighting. In cock-fighting, people would attach a blade to the heels of the cocks, the chickens the roosters. And then that meant that they were armed or provided for. So, slowly the meaning changed from cockfighting, meaning armed,  to meaning well-provided for or wealthy.

・ well-heeled  <informal>  rich:  a well-heeled businessman (LDCOE)

・ down at (the) heel(s)  = unattractive and not well cared for, because of a lack of money: The town today is a shabby, down-at-heel place.  (LDCOE)

● have a nose for ～ ～をかぎつけるのが上手だ

If you have a nose for something, it means you’re good at finding it. I think it probably comes from the way animals find what they are looking for. They tend to sniff around until they identify it.

・ have a (good) nose for something  =   to be naturally good at finding and recognizing something: a reporter with a good nose for a story   (LDOCE)

● flit around 飛び回る

・ flit  = to move lightly and quickly from one place or thing to another

● like-minded, like-aged 同じような考え方の，同じような年齢の

Hughes uses two adjectives — like-minded, like-aged. Like-minded is used quite a bit to describe people who tend to think in the same way or hold the same opinion. Like-aged is probably a new coinage here. Everybody understands it very easily, but I could only find  one other phrase using like- and that was like-kind. Like-kind is used legally to talk about tax purposes. If you trade two like-kind properties, so for example you trade a car with a friend of yours, if the value is different, the person who gets larger value doesn’t have to pay tax on it, because it’s a like-kind exchange. If you are exchanging a car for a house for example, you would have to pay taxes on the value difference.

2008.10.16

2008年10月第3週分 Lesson 2  Social Networking for Seniors (2)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

This time, Tyson notes that social networking started with teenagers and office workers, because they were already comfortable using computers to interact with other people.

● irksome 面倒な，やっかいな

・ irksome = annoying or irritating  (OALD)

● delicate issues デリケートな問題

Hughes talks about delicate issues. He could have said sensitive issues or even difficult issues.

● tech-smart 技術に強い

● with-it 流行に敏感な

Tyson uses the phrase with-it as an adjective. With-it is a kind of slangy way to say interested in or knowledgeable about the latest styles and trends. You can also use it, though, to mean mentally competent. People would use it, for example, if they come to work and say "Wow, I only had three hours of sleep last night, but I seem to be with-it anyway."

・ knowledgeable 精通している

・ with-it = fashionable and modern in the way that you dress, think etc [= trendy]   (LDOCE)

● Madison Avenue 「広告業界」の代名詞 (= Mad Avenue)

・ Madison Avenue = the American advertising industry (Merriam-Webster)

● -ee のつく名詞

Tyson talks about Internet devotees. Those are people who are devoted to the Internet. But that ending -ee, usually with a stress, is fairly common in English. Besides devotee, there’s also divorcee, examinee,  and interviewee, and even employee, although the word employee can also be stressed on middle syllable, emplóyee.

・接尾辞 -ee について（ジーニアス大英和）

1. （動詞のあとで） ～される人 employee
2. ～する人 absentee
3. ～を受ける人 biographee

● staid まじめな

Hughes uses the adjective staid. You don’t hear that so much. And sometimes it’s used rather negatively, mildly negatively. It tends to mean serious or sedate or someone with dignity.

・ staid = serious, old-fashioned, and boring: a staid old bachelor (LDCOE)

・ sedate くそまじめな

・他人のことをいう場合

Yeah, in that case, you should use serious or dignified.

● race around かけめぐる

Race around or run around are(sic.) phrases that can be used either positively or negatively. If what you want to talk about is a good thing, you can use the phrase positively. The phrase is used negatively when a person is rushing around without being effective. I think in this case he means rather negatively.

2008.10.17

2008年10月第3週分 Lesson 2  Social Networking for Seniors (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The group talks about how older people respond to networking sites customized to their taste, when there is a focus on fun and easy interaction.

● tantalize じらす

・ tantalize  = to make a person or an animal want something that they cannot have or do : Such ambitious questions have long tantalized the world’s best thinkers.

● come-on 誘い文句，売り文句

Come-on is a rather informal noun that means inducement or teaser, or you could also use the words lure or bait. It’s something that attracts other people.

・ come-on  <informal>  an object or action which is intended to attract somebody or to persuade them to do something : She was definitely giving him the come-on (= trying to attract him sexually).  (OALD)

● get going 1. 始める，とりかかる 2. [命令文で]がんばって，やってごらん

・ get doing something  = to begin doing something

We got talking about the old days.
I think we should get going quite soon.
What are we all waiting for? Let’s get moving! (LDOCE)

● spending money

Kinkaid uses the phrase spending money. That usually means the money that you don’t have to use for other things, such as rent and electricity and gas payments. Another way to say spending money is to call it discretionary income.

・ spending money  = money that you have available to spend on the things you want rather than need

・ discretionary income 裁量所得

● on the premise that … ･･･という前提で

● A picture is worth a thousand words. 1枚の写真は千のことばに匹敵する

The proverb "a picture is worth a thousand words" seems to have been used in pretty much that form in the U.S. since about the early 1920s.

● so-called generation gap

I think Hughes describes the generation gap as so-called, because in this instance, what he’s talking about is a gap that’s beginning to disappear. Older people and younger people are using computers more and more and the gap is becoming less and less clear.

● snicker at ～ ～を冷笑する

Cortez talks about computer-savvy older people snickering at the others, who are not so up-to-date technologically. To snicker is to laugh in a way that’s rather disrespectful. Snickering is often partially secretive, as if you are trying to hide it, but you just can’t quite hide it.

・ snicker   <American English>    to laugh quietly and in a way that is not nice at something which is not supposed to be funny [= snigger British English]
snicker at     The other students snickered at Steve.  (LDOCE)

● dial telephone

Cortez also talks about dial telephones. I don’t think I’ve seen a dial telephone in years, although I grew up with them. I also read that in some places in the U.S, you can’t use the dial telephone unless you make special arrangements with your local telephone service.

● Wake up and smell the coffee! 目を覚まして現実に目を向けろ。

"Wake up and smell the coffee!" is kind of a cliché, I guess you could say, which means, "Pay attention. Learn what’s going on. Don’t be so old-fashioned."

● people of advanced age

Tyson starts off talking about "people of advanced age." That’s a kind of polite way to say "old people." And people of advanced age would be older than middle-aged.

● shy away from ～ ～からしりごみする

And Tyson says these older people shied away from computers and all that kind of technology. If you shy away from something, you draw back from it or recoil even, which is the, … , more like jumping back away from something that causes fear or makes you feel cautious.

・ shy away from something = to avoid doing or dealing with something because you are not confident enough or you are worried or nervous about it: They criticized the leadership, but shied away from a direct challenge.  (LDOCE)

● make full turns 見方を一変させる

He also talks about those people making a full turn. What he means is changing their minds completely in going in the other direction. Another way you could say that is they made a one-eighty. A hundred-and-eighty-degree turn means you’re facing the opposite direction. In politics, it’s sometimes called a flip-flop.

・ one-eighty 180度回転

・ flip-flop If you say that someone, especially a politician, flip-flops on a decision, you are critical of them because they change their decision, so that they do or think the opposite. (mainly AM INFORMAL) / He has been criticized for flip-flopping on several key issues.  / He seemed so sure of his decision, how could he flip-flop so dramatically now?  (COBUILD)

2008.10.22

2008年10月第4週分 Lesson 2  Social Networking for Seniors (4)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The group discusses how online networking is good at breaking down barriers between people because everyone can communicate as equals.

● multilingual translation options

You can already do this somewhat with various Web sites, although it doesn’t happen instantaneously while you’re typing, but you have to be very careful with these translations — machine translations — because they’re usually not very accurate, especially if the two languages are very different from each other.

・ ためしに上の文を訳させてみると(Yahoo!)，

「あなたがタイプする間それが即座に起こらないが、あなたはいろいろなウェブサイトでいくぶんすでにこうすることができます、しかし、あなたはこれらの翻訳に非常に注意しなければなりません — 機械翻訳 — 特に2つの言語が互いと非常に異なるならば、彼らが通常あまり正確でないので。」

おっ，けっこういい線いってますね。「彼ら」じゃないけど。

● I must say that …

Tyson starts out using the phrase "I must say that …" This phrase is often used when someone wants to emphasize, or really make everyone focus on, what he’s going to say next.

● confiscate 没収する

Confiscate is a fairly formal-sounding verb that means take away. It tends to be used with legal authorities who take something away from a citizen.

・ confiscate =  to officially take something away from somebody, especially as a punishment  (OALD)

● bug 悩ませる

Cortez talks about something that’s bugging their children. Something that’s bugging is irritating you or irking you or bothering you, just as if a small insect — a bug — wouldn’t go away.

・ bug <informal>  to annoy or irritate somebody  (OALD)

So I think in the computer world  also, a bug is something that’s causing trouble, a small irritating, problem-making thing.

● self-absorbed 自分のことしか頭にない

To be self-absorbed is to be interested only in yourself. Sometimes people who are self-absorbed are called navel-gazers.

・ self-absorbed = only concerned about or interested in yourself

・ navel-gazing <disapproving> the fact of thinking too much about a single issue and how it could affect you, without thinking about other things that could also affect the situation

● be tuned into ～ ～に気を配る，～を把握する

・ be tuned in    = to realize or understand what is happening or what other people are thinking
tune in to   
Try to tune in to your partner’s needs. /  The company aims to be more tuned in to customer needs.   (LDOCE)

● growing-up aches and pains 成長に伴う心の痛み (同じ意味の語の重複)

You can also say "growing pains" to refer to the sort of psychological, emotional trouble that a lot of teenagers have as they’re getting older.

● culture gap

Kinkaid talks about a "culture gap," which often refers to people from different countries or different communities; In this case, of course, parents and teenagers in the same country. Usually in the same country and the same community, but you could say they are different groups, they have different cultures. Kinkaid’s focusing a little more on what they do  and how they think, rather than on their ages. If she was focusing more on ages, she might have said "generation gap."

● be bowled over ～に驚く，～によろこぶ

・ bowl somebody over

1    to accidentally hit someone and knock them down because you are running in a place that is full of people or things [= knock over]
2    to surprise, please, or excite someone very much [= knock out]:
He was bowled over by her beauty. (LDOCE)

● tell it like it is 率直に話す

To "tell it like it is" is a phrase from the sixties, and it means to speak the truth even if it might be unpleasant to the people hearing it.

・ tell it like it is    <American English>    to say exactly what you think or what is true, without hiding anything that might upset or offend people:  Don always tells it like it is.  (LDOCE)

2008.10.23

2008年10月第4週分 Lesson 2  Social Networking for Seniors (5)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

== Key Phrases to Remember ==

● spring up 生じる，誕生する

● have a nose for ～ ～をかぎつけるのが上手である

→ 実践ビジネス英語 2008.10.15

● keep track of ～ ～を追跡する，把握しておく

● look into ～ ～を調べる

In this case, they’re talking about literally looking into cabinets and boxes to try to find the photo album. You can also use the phrase "look into" figuratively, and in that case it means investigate.

● on the premise that … ･･･という前提で

Premise is from Latin, and in Latin it was a logic term, meaning a proposition on which an argument is based. So you could use a similar phrase, a similar but shorter phrase — given that.

● cling to ～ ～にこだわる，～にしがみつく

あんな時，こんな時

あいさつの文句 （その日はじめてあった時）

● What’s up?  —  Whassup?

These two are basically the same thing just with a more relaxed and so less formal pronunciation in the second example.

● How goes it (with you)?

I think in the past you didn’t have to use do to form questions in English, but now it’s become the main pattern. So I think "How goes it?" is probably an old phrase. If you use the more grammatical form ( = "How does it go?"), at least grammatical from modern ears, people will either laugh or they’ll look at you and say, "How does what go?"

● How’re things going?

● How’re things (with you)?

● How’s business?

● How’s it going?

● How’s the world (been) treating you?

● How’s life (been) treating you?

● What’ happening?

● What’s going on?

● What’s new?

Some people don’t like this phrase — What’s new? — because people don’t always have something new and interesting or exciting to tell you. So they might get a little bit irritated.

● What’s the latest?

● What’s cooking?

久しぶりにあった時

● How’ve you been?

● Where’ve you been hiding?

● Where (have) you been keeping yourself?

Both of these tend to be used when it’s been quite a long time since you’ve seen the other person, almost like they were hiding away from you.

● How’s it been?

● Long time no see.

● It’s been ages.

少し改まった表現

● I trust you’re keeping well.

● I hope all goes[all's going] well with you.

● I expect that you’re in high spirits.

2008.10.24

2008年10月第4週分 Lesson 2  Social Networking for Seniors (6)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

S = 杉田敏      I = Susan Iwamoto

S: In  our most recent vignette, we’ve been looking at the increasing number of social networking sites geared toward seniors.

I: Yes. This is definitely a growing trends among the, shall we say, more mature of the demographic of the Internet users. Baby boomers in particular are leading the way in establishing blogs or networking sites that appeal to the needs and interests of the older generations, whether it’s parenting, dating, travel, or healthcare.

・ gear something to [towards]  <usually passive> to make, change or prepare something so that it is suitable for a particular purpose : The course had been geared towards the specific needs of its members.  (OALD)

S: How about you, Susan? Are you a fan of social networking sites?

I: Well, I’ve been an active member of professional networking sites and web forums for a while, but it wasn’t until recently that I joined social networking site that’s been extremely popular in the U.S. for the past several years. It first became a big hit with college students, and I thought I was a little too old to be using it. But my sisters urged me to sign up for it. Once I did, I was surprised to see how many of my friends, relatives, and acquaintances were actively using it. It’s been a great way to keep in touch with them, whether it’s sharing photos or just sending a quick hello that way.

S: Keeping in touch with friends and family seems to be one of the main draws for many seniors on those sites.

I: Definitely. It’s common in the U.S. for families to live all over the country. Some move because of work and certainly among the senior stats(?), it’s not unusual to move to a warmer climate for retirement. With rising energy costs affecting family travel plans, people with kids and grand kids are looking for new ways to keep in touch. So things like photo-sharing and Internet video calls and of course e-mail are the most popular ways to do this. Well, many seniors have already been Internet-savvy for a long time. For others, things like photo-sharing are a gateway to whole new online pastimes. Now, how about you, Sugita-san? You’re a member of the generation Tony Hughes was describing. Are you interested in these networking sites?

・ draw 人を引きつけるもの，呼び物 (attraction)

S: Uhm. Only from a professional point of view. I’m interested to know how communication flows through those networks. But I feel I have other things to do. Now, Susan, how about your parents? They are in that generation as well.

I: Yes, but though they’re active Internet users, I don’t think they’ve got into social networking sites quite yet. That could certainly change in the near future, though. Three of their children, including me, live far from them, and once grand kids come into the picture, I have a feeling their interest in the Internet as a whole will soar.

・ come into the picture 関与する，かかわってくる

S: Rosa Cortez mentioned that Internet-savvy seniors can’t believe that some of their peers are still reluctant to broaden their online horizons.

I: Yes, in that, something has(?) popped up with a certain old presidential candidate in the U.S. not too long ago. Though he knows how to use e-mail and the Internet, of course, he’s known for not going online and for having staff handle his e-mail. This caused many people, and not just the younger generation, but those his own age, to criticize him for being out of touch. I don’t know how much of an impact this would have on his political success, but it was an interesting comment on just how much the Internet has become a part of our daily lives. E-mail, web searches and online shopping are a second nature to most people, and social networking sites and other web forums are rapidly catching up across generations. One such site, primarily inter-parent, was sold to another site for rumored 10 million dollars recently.

・ out of touch 現実認識が欠けて
a) also   lose touch (with something)    to not have the latest knowledge about a subject, situation, or the way people feel
be out of touch with    I’m out of touch with modern medicine.
b) to not know much about modern life:  Judges are often accused of being out of touch.  (LDOCE)

・ be a comment on ～  ～をよく表している，象徴している  to be a sign of the bad quality of something: The number of adults who cannot read is a sad comment on the quality of our schools.  (LDOCE)

S: You mentioned a growing number of bloggers among the older generation too.

I: That’s right. A few years ago, blogging was often associated with people in their teens, twenties and thirties. But that definitely changed. People in their sixties, seventies, and even older are both maintaining their own blogs and actively following others. Blogging software has become increasingly user-friendly and seniors are finding that blogging can be a fun hobby, a good way to keep in touch with friends and family, and a great way to keep their mind sharp as they age. Now my favorite example of this is a one hundred and six year old who started blogging at the age of 98. But there are many others in their seventies and eighties who are having fun writing blogs and interacting with their readers.

S: Advanced age is definitely no excuse for staying offline.

2008年9月第1週分 Lesson 12  Midlife Crisis (1)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Dan Potter’s colleagues wonder if it’s a midlife crisis that’s keeping him out of the office.

● see someone around ～を見かける

Right. The around means "in this area" very, very vaguely.

・ see somebody around      to notice someone regularly in places you go to, but not talk to them: I don’t know who he is but I’ve seen him around.  (LDOCE)

・ See you around.  この around にはほとんど意味がありません。

● hectic てんてこまいの = very busy, full of activity (OALD)

● I understand that …

Kinkaid said she understand something about Potter. It’s very similar to heard, but instead of saying it’s sort of a rumor, it sounds like she has a little more positive knowledge of what’s happening.

・ that 節・wh 節を伴う understand は hear, know に近い。

● something of ～ ちょっとした～，～のようなもの

She also describes burnout as "something of a burnout." By using "something of," she’s not saying he definitely had sort of very bad experience from overwork or overworry. She’s saying, well, that kind of a thing but maybe not in its worst manifestation.

・ something of a shock/surprise etc    <formal>    used to say that something is a shock, surprise etc, but not completely or not in a strong or severe way: The news came as something of a surprise.   (LDOCE)

● recuperate （健康･損失などを）取り戻す

She also says he took time off "to recuperate."  Recuperate is one of those words you can’t take off what looks like a prefix. *Cuperate is not a word in general English. If you look on the Internet, you can find it related to semiconductors, but it wasn’t in any other dictionaries I checked.

・ recuperate  to get back your health, strength or energy after being ill/sick, tired, injured, etc.   (OALD)

● ditch 捨てる

・ ditch to stop having something because you no longer want it: The government has ditched plans to privatise the prison.

● family station wagon 家族用ステーションワゴン

Cortez mentions the family station wagon. In the U.S., the station wagon is a very dull sort of car. I think they are popular here in Japan for a while, though, and rather fashionable.

● thirtysomething 30代の人

・ thirtysomething      someone between the age of 30 and 39: a new magazine aimed at thirtysomethings    (LDOCE)

● rite of passage 通過儀礼

A rite of passage in anthropology is a specific ritual ceremony that people use to mark transitions in life. So for example, a wedding is a kind of rite of passage — you’re transitioning from being single to being married. Many cultures have some kind of ceremony or rite when kids become adults. But in general English, a rite of passage doesn’t have to be a specific ritual or ceremony. It’s maybe a less relax sort of state of activity that most people do at a certain age or transition.

I think you could say that in Japan Seijinno hi is a Japanese example of how you can use a rite of passage more generally in general English.

・ 成人の日 Coming-of-Age Day

● "as you grow older and hopefully wiser"

Tyson also talks about people growing older and wiser. That’s a fairly set phrase. Supposedly as you should(?) get older, one of the benefits of losing your youth is becoming wiser. And there’s another phrase that people use too: You are not getting older, you are getting better.

● set in 始まる（好ましくないこと）

Something that "sets in" is starting. But it sounds like something that’s being started and going deeper and deeper. You could say start, but it gives a rather different image of how something is starting and where it’s going.

・ If something unpleasant sets in, it begins and seems likely to continue or develop. : Then disappointment sets in as they see the magic is no longer there. /  Winter is setting in and the population is facing food and fuel shortages.   (COBUILD)

● equate A with B AとBを同一視する

Equate is a verb that’s related to equal. Equate is usually used when you want to make two things be equivalent or when you want to equalize them — you want to make them seem to be equal. It’s often used when the idea of seeming to be equal is in your hand.

2008.09.04

2008年9月第1週分 Lesson 12  Midlife Crisis (2)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Tyson goes a little deeper into Potter’s troubles and Cortez and Kinkaid express their sympathy.

● inadvertently 不注意に，うっかりして

Tyson uses the word inadvertently to talk about leaving his keys on the desk. He could have used the word accidentally. It also works here, but the two words are somewhat different. Inadvertently is closer to "without meaning to." Accidentally includes the idea "by chance." I think in this case it’s not so much the chance he’s focusing on. He means it wasn’t what he meant to do.

・ if you inadvertently do something, you do it without realizing you are doing it, because you are not careful enough — use this especially to talk about someone’s behaviour or movements

• In a panic, I inadvertently pushed the accelerator instead of the brake.
• The Finance Minister inadvertently revealed budget secrets to reporters.

(Longman Language Activator)

● deliver 職務を果たす，結果を出す

Deliver is often used to talk about people who either can or can’t get results.

・ deliver       to do or provide the things you are expected to, because you are responsible for them or they are part of your job: the costs of delivering adequate nursing care /  the failure of some services to    deliver the goods (=do what they have promised)  / The company will    deliver on its promises.

● "I knew …  "

Cortez uses the past tense of the word know — she knew it. I think she chose the past tense because now she has more information, and so what she knew before is, I guess you could say, superceded by what she’s recently learned.

● burn the candle at both ends かなり無理をする

Cortez also uses the idiom "burning the candle at both ends." It comes originally from a French phrase that meant wasting your financial resources. It was as if the husband and the wife are both spendthrifts and they’re both just running through money really quickly, so that kind of accounts for both ends.

・ If you burn the candle at both ends, you try to do too many things in too short a period of time so that you have to stay up very late at night and get up very early in the morning to get them done. (COBUILD)

・ spendthrift 浪費家 a person who spends too much money or wh wastes money

・ run through      to use up or spend money carelessly: She ran through the entire amount within two years.   (OALD)

● run late 遅れる

・ run late/early/on time    to arrive, go somewhere, or do something late, early, or at the right time: I’m running late, so I’ll talk to you later.

● "He once chuckled he may be late for his own funeral too.

This is also sort of a humorous way to describe someone who’s always late. You could call this a cliché too, I think.

● "sacrificed all things personal" の語順

Cortez uses the phrase "all things personal." It’s not the usual way to talk about your personal things. Usually, the adjective comes before the noun, right? — all personal things. But the regular phrase is very concrete. It means, for example, your wallet, your handkerchief, your own phone, things like that. But switching it around, it’s closer to everything personal, meaning not just your personal items, but also the personal decisions, all kinds of personal activities that Don has been sacrificing for his career.

● so-called New Economy いわゆるニューエコノミー

By using the phrase so-called to describe New Economy, Cortez is rather ironically referring to a phrase that people had been using a while ago for a very exciting and expanding economic time. People were saying, "Economics are changed! Everything is great!" So by saying so-call New Economy, she means that’s what they were saying, but that’s not really what it was.

● undergo a reality check 現実にぶつかる

She also uses the slang phrase "reality check." In this case, she’s still referring to New Economics as something that really isn’t new and really isn’t different. However the economy was working at that time, (it?) wasn’t different and new. And reality came back and made everybody go back to normal, and it wasn’t very much fun, actually. Usually a reality check disillusions people.

・ reality check <informal> an occasion when you consider the facts of a situation, as opposed to what you would like or what you have imagined: It’s time for a reality check. The Bears aren’t as good a team as you think.  (LDOCE)

● come of age 成人する

To "come of age" is kind of a set phrase that basically means "become old enough." But "become old enough" is what people always do. To come of age means you now qualify to do various kinds of things because of how old you are.

・ coming of age     the point in a young person’s life, usually the age of 18 or 21, at which their society considers them to be an adult   (LDOCE)

● boom and bust 好況と不況の交替（期）

・ boom a quick increase of business activity [≠ slump] : The economy went from boom to bust (=from increasing to decreasing) very quickly.

2008.09.05

2008年9月第1週分 Lesson 12  Midlife Crisis (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The team considers some other things that might lead to a midlife crisis.

●  like 「たとえば」

In casual conversations, English speakers often use the word like to mean "for example."

● down the chute 落ちていく

Chute is a word that comes into English from French. That’s why the soft sound for the ch spelling — [ʃuːt]. Chute is an inclined trough or channel that you can drop things down and they slide all the way down from the top to the bottom. One house I lived in had a laundry chute. From the upstair hallway, you could open a small door and put your dirty laundry or sheets into the little opening and they would slide down into the laundry room. So you didn’t have to carry everything all the way down the stairs. Another thing that some apartment buildings have is a garbage chute or trash chute. You can go into the hallway outside your apartment and drop your trash through a small door in the hallway and it drops down into the trash area of the building.

● Your mortal days are numbered. 生きている日々は限られている

"Your mortal days" might be a phrase that’s a little bit difficult to understand. One meaning of mortal is "will die." So "mortal days" refers to the days that people are on the earth, because everybody dies eventually. The opposite of mortal is immortal, of course, and that, according to many Christian beliefs, your immortal soul continues after you die.

・ His days are numbered.  余命いくばくもない

=  a person or thing will not continue to live, exist or be successful for much longer : His days as leader of the party are numbered.    (OALD)

● mortality 死，死者数

Mortality is, of course, related to mortal. Mortality is the state of being subject to death. So, all living things eventually will die, so you can talk about the mortality of living things. Mortality is also used to talk about death especially when it’s in large numbers. You can talk about the mortality of war, for example.

● live out ～を最後まで生きる，生き抜く

・ If you live out your life in a particular place or in particular circumstances, you stay in that place or in those circumstances until the end of your life or until the end of a particular period of your life. : Gein did not stand trial but lived out his days in a mental asylum. /  I couldn’t live my life out on tour like he does.   (COBUILD)

● sweat 汗水垂らす

Tyson also mentions sweating to achieve. He doesn’t mean literally sweating. To sweat is often used to talk about making great efforts, whether you actually sweat or not.

・ sweat     to work hard: They sweated and saved for ten years to buy a house.
sweat over      He’d sweated over the plans for six months.   (LDOCE)

● mull over あれこれ考える，～を熟考する

・ mull something over    to think about a problem, plan etc for a long time before making a decision:
He’s mulling over the proposals before making any changes. / The company is mulling over a share offer.   (LDOCE)

● chuck it all すべてを投げ捨てる［投げ出す］

The basic meaning of "to chuck" is to throw. But it’s often used also when you are not actually throwing something — when you’re giving something up, when you’re stopping something, when you don’t want to do it anymore.

・ When you chuck something somewhere, you throw it there in a casual or careless way. (INFORMAL) :   I took a great dislike to the clock, so I chucked it in the dustbin. = throw   (COBUILD)

● a supply of ～ ある量の～

A supply of something is an amount of it which someone has or which is available for them to use. : The brain requires a constant supply of oxygen.   (COBUILD)

● turning back the clock

put [set, turn] the clock(s) back   （冬時間用に）時計を贈らせる，時勢に逆行する，昔に戻ってやり直す

2008.09.10

2008年9月第2週分 Lesson 12  Midlife Crisis (4)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Observing that many people feel life begins at forty, the team realizes that many middle-aged people are actually happy.

● get the message （相手の本意などを）理解する

・ get the message   < informal>    to understand what someone means or what they want you to do: OK, I get the message – I’m going!   (LDOCE)

● give in to ～ ～に屈する

・ give in (to sb/sth)   1. to admit that you have been defeated by sb/sth: The rebels were forced to give in.

2. to agree to do sth that you do not want to do: The authorities have shown no signs of giving in to the kidnappers’ demands. (OALD)

● be tied down 縛られている

・ A person or thing that ties you down restricts your freedom in some way. : We’d agreed from the beginning not to tie each other down.   (COBUILD)

● buy into ～ ～を受け入れる，賛成する

If you buy into something, you accept it or you believe it.

・ buy into   < informal>    to accept that an idea is right and allow it to influence you:  I never bought into this idea that you have to be thin to be attractive.  (LDOCE)

● culprit 原因，発端，犯人

・ culprit 1 a person who has done sth wrong or against the law    2 a person or thing responsible for causing a problem

● make a virtue of ～ ～を美徳にする

If you make a virtue of something, you decide it’s a good thing and you persuade everybody else to agree with you.

・ If you make a virtue of something, you pretend that you did it because you chose to, although in fact you did it because you had to. :   The movie makes a virtue out of its economy.  (COBUILD)

ほんとは，しなくちゃいけなかったのでしただけなのに，あたかも自分から積極的にやったかのようなふりをすること

● "Many people think that means perpetual youth."

Tyson mentions "Many people think that means perpetual youth." He’s referring back to the idea that U.S. culture says renewing yourself is a virtue — making yourself new again, reinventing yourself. I think that’s true in the U.S., and I think that many people do think it’s the same thing as perpetual youth. But you could, I suppose, reinvent yourself at whatever age you are, to fit your age, instead of trying to become young again.

● recapture one’s youth 青春時代を取り戻す

I just heard an the advertisement on the radio for some sort of treatment for men who want to regrow hair on their heads, and one of the reasons they think you should try it is so that you can be as self-confident again as you were in the twenties. It’s a really good example of recapturing your youth.

● hot potato

・ If you describe a problem or issue as a hot potato, you mean that it is very difficult and nobody wants to deal with it. (INFORMAL) (COBUILD)

● shed their spouses （shed 脱皮する）

Using the word shed almost  makes it sound like a natural event.

● The clocks keep ticking. 時は（容赦なく）過ぎていく

You could also use the same phrase and say "the clocks is ticking," which means "Hurry up, hurry up. Time is passing."

● lithe 敏捷な，柔軟な

・ lithe moving or bending easily, in a way that is elegant  (OALD)

A lithe person is able to move and bend their body easily and gracefully. :    …a lithe young gymnast…/ His walk was lithe and graceful.  (COBUILD)

● Life goes on. （それでも）人生は続く。

Right. The phrase is usually used as an encouragement.

・ life goes on    <spoken>    used to say that you must continue to live a normal life even when something sad or disappointing has happened: We both miss him, but life goes on.   (LDOCE)

つらいことがあっても，ふつうに生きていかなければならないときに使われる

2008.09.11

2008年9月第2週分 Lesson 12  Midlife Crisis (5)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

== Key Phrases to Remember ==

● trade in ～ ～を下取りに出す

Trade and trade in are very similar, but when you trade something in, you replace something old with something new. To trade nearly means exchange; it doesn’t carry the extra meaning of replace.

・ trade something in to give something such as a car to the person you are buying a new one from, as part of the payment   （← これが下取り）
trade something in for    He traded his old car in for a new model. （← これは「下取りに出して交換する」） (LDOCE)

それ以外に， trade in ～ 「～を商う，売買する」この in は前置詞，上の in は副詞。

● deliver 職務を果たす，期待にそう

Based on the word deliver, recently in business circles you might hear someone talk about deliverables. And what they want to know is what you can bring to the table.

・ → 実践ビジネス英語 2008.09.04

・ deliverables   deliver した結果，提供品

・ bring ～ to the table 議事にかける

● be disillusioned 幻滅を感じる

・ If you are disillusioned with something, you are disappointed, because it is not as good as you had expected or thought. :  I’ve become very disillusioned with politics.   (COBUILD)

● be convinced 確信する

● someone’s [something's] days are numbered 残された日々は限られている

This might sound like sort of a silly phrase; if you look at  a calendar, all the days have a number. But what this really means is that you can count all the remaining days, and that implies that you can see the end.

・ → 実践ビジネス英語 2008.09.05

● mull over ～ ～をあれこれ考える

・ → 実践ビジネス英語 2008.09.05

= あんな時，こんな時 =

● Absolutely

You could also say "Certainly" at the same time that you say "Absolutely."

And that reminds me of a proverb that Ben Franklin made up. I think almost everybody knows this in the U.S. Nothing in this world is certain but death and taxes.

● No question about it.

Sometimes people might say, "No doubt about it."

● non-issue 問題にするまでもないこと

If it’s a non-issue, nobody wants to discuss it. It’s certain.

・ non-issue   a subject of little or no importance (OALD)

● For sure.

Or you can even shorten this to "Sure."

● I bet (you) that the plane’ll be delayed  again.

And you have to be careful, because the other person might say, "You’re on!" and take your bet.

Although usually even with this amount of money mentioned, everyone  understands it’s not actually a bet.

・ You’re on.  <informal>  used when you are accepting a bet (OALD)

● "A hundred dollars says we’ll win the bid."  の主語･動詞の一致

You do have to be a little bit careful with subject-verb agreement in English. And -s doesn’t always indicate that the speaker is thinking of the subject as plural.

● I"’m a hundred (and ten) percent certain of it."

Yeah, you can’t really have a hundred and ten percent certainty.

● "I’m quite [absolutely] sure of our victory."

In this phrase, absolutely is probably a little bit stronger than quite. Quite can be used sometimes to minimize what you’re saying.

2008.09.12

2008年9月第2週分 Lesson 12  Midlife Crisis (6)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

S = 杉田敏      I = Susan Iwamoto

S: Uh, Susan, we’ve been talking about stress, burnout, and midlife crises recently. Any thought?

I: Well, I had to laugh when Rosa Cortez mentioned buying a sports car. That is the classic cliché of a midlife crisis for men. My dad recently bought a new sports car— a convertible, no less!  And he keeps joking that it subtracts ten years from his age when he drives it. I don’t think he’s actually going through a midlife crisis, though. How about you, Sugita san? Any sports cars at home?

S: Well, I’ve already gone through that stage and will be back to pedaling a bike as I used to as a student. But we can say that there are a lot of people who burnout at some point in their career. How about you, Susan? Did you go through a quarter-life crisis?

I: In a way, but that term was coined around the time I was emerging from mine. I viewed this was a natural part of my twenties, though, and it helped that I hadn’t set any strict deadlines to achieve certain life goals.

S: So what do you mean?

I: Well, many people have a clear idea of what they want to achieve by a certain age. For example, they want to have a successful career by 25, get married and buy their first home by 30, and have two or three kids by 35. That’s a nice idea, and though it does work out for some people, others may find that their life doesn’t adhere to such strict deadlines. I’ve often thought that people who choose these milestone birthdays as markers of success in life are just setting themselves up for disappointment.

S: But aren’t these deadlines a good way to motivate to stay on track?

I: Sure, as long as they realize that it might take them a little longer to achieve their goal or perhaps that their goals might change slightly along the way. I had a number of friend who dreaded turning thirty and a few who had a tough time with twenty five. I think people feel pressure to have checked off a number of items on their life to-do list by then. To be honest, I never felt that way. I had, and still have, goals and though I want to achieve them, arbitrarily setting age deadlines has always seemed like a bad idea. I say that now, though, checking with me again about ten years, I may be singing a different tune. "Midlife crisis, here I come." Actually that brings me to an interesting point. I’ve read something recently that suggested that midlife crises may be cultural; and Japan hasn’t had history of them. What do you think?

S: I don’t really think it’s cultural, nor generational. Everybody experiences stressful life events at different stages of life. They were called nervous breakdowns in the old days. Some Japanese new-graduates suffer from what’s known as May disease. There’s also a best-seller many years ago in Japan, titled Resistance at 48. They’re all about personal anxieties and uncertainties associated with major life changes. I understand that there’s no scientific evidence that crises occur more frequently in one age bracket than at any others. I think midlife crisis is largely a myth.

I: That’s a good point. Perhaps it’s just part of life’s ups and downs. I don’t know whether Don Potter is actually going through a midlife crisis or not, but he certainly is under a lot of stress. I think that can be a trigger for many people leading to a crisis of some sort, midlife or not. Jay Tyson made an interesting point about people in Don’s situation, wondering if all the sacrifices they made were worth it. That’s understandable. I think there comes a point in time when people wonder exactly why they are working so hard at the expense of time spent with family, friends or pursuing their own interests. Some people decide to make drastic changes, perhaps a career change, a move to another city, or in some cases, a divorce. Whether this is because of general dissatisfaction, or because they want to return to the carefree days of their youth, people who make these drastic changes may regret them later. Then again, big changes can be a good thing.

S: What do you mean?

I: I think there are a lot of people who get cut up in what they should do, rather than what they really want to do. They may be afraid to take a chance and follow their dreams. That reminds me of a woman I met in the U.S. a few years ago. She was in her mid-twenties at that time, living in her home town and working in a job that was stable and paid a reasonable salary, but that didn’t challenge her. In many ways, she was a typical candidate for a quarter-life crisis. She wanted to move overseas but had a long list of reasons why she shouldn’t go. However, she was eager to hear my experience of living in Japan and I could tell she really wanted to make the move but was afraid to do so. People who don’t take chances are the ones too often to wonder what might have been when they hit their midlife.

S: How about you, Susan? You mentioned you went through something similar to a quarter-life crisis.

I: Yes, there was a period in my mid- to late- twenties, when I found myself wondering what to do with my life. I had a nice steady job, but I found myself losing motivation as time went on. I liked certain parts of my job, but knew that I needed a change. I considered my options, and decided to explore the opportunities while still holding down my full-time job. I bought all sorts of career books, attended career workshops and had lots of long motivating talks with a good friend of mine who’s going to a similar phase.

S: Did that help clarify things for you?

I: It certainly helped me focus on the fundamentals, but those things were just some first steps. I then sought out(?) people with interesting jobs and asked them about career paths. I also found continuing education courses in subjects that interested me, and did a lot of self-study. What really cemented things for me, though, was a week at some institute in the US. I met so many intelligent, dedicated, and enthusiastic individuals working in my field of interest. And everything fell into place. However, I didn’t quit my job right away. Instead, I kept working, studying, keeping my eyes open for opportunities in my new chosen field. When a job opportunity popped up, I was ready.

S: Melinda Kinkaid talked about aging gracefully and Rosa Cortez talked about an increased sense of contentment in middle age. Do you think this is the case? Will midlife crises be a thing of the past?

I: Let’s hope so. There has been a definite shift in perception of what it means to be middle-aged. Jay Tyson mentioned that life begins at forty. But I think even that is changed. I think more and more people are thinking that life begins at fifty or sixty. My parents are in their sixties, and although they may have officially retired, it feels more like they’ve just downshifted a bit.  My dad still works on a project basis, sometimes in the U.S., and sometimes overseas, and my mom is looking for a flexible part-time job so that she can make a little extra money but still have time to travel and visit me and my sisters. This isn’t unusual, and I think the baby-boomer generation in particular is responsible for a big shift in society’s perception of people in their 50s and the 60s. Maybe by the time I get there, sixty will be the new thirty.

時間切れになってしまった。ここまで。

2008.09.17

2008年9月第3週分 Lesson 13  Child Safety Campaign (1)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Great Lakes is working with a consultant to plan a child safety campaign.

● Now let’s get going. では始めましょう

It sounds like they’ve been chatting for a while and now Tyson’s ready to have everybody get down to business.

● "Meet Mike Morrison." ～を紹介します。

Using simply the word "Meet ～." to introduce someone is fairly casual, but you could also describe it as efficient.

● kick off ～をスタートさせる

・ if a meeting, event, or a football game kicks off, it starts. (LDOCE)

● school board, education board 教育委員会

・ school board = a group of people, including some parents, who are elected to govern a school or group of schools in the US  (LDOCE)

● canvass 聞いて回る，詳しく調査する

Canvass is kind of an interesting word. Generally, if you are using it as a verb, you spell it with two s’s on the end. When it’s a noun, it’s usually spelled with one s. As a noun, it’s a kind of fabric — heavy fabric that’s used for tents and things like that. It comes from a Latin word for hemp. It looks like the verb is also related to that. The fabric made from hemp, the canvas used to be used for sifting. And so, if you think about talking to people and finding out their opinions or observations, it’s the kind of sifting through their opinion.

・ canvass  

2  [intransitive and transitive]    to ask people about something in order to get their opinion or to get information:
Police canvassed the neighborhood, but didn’t find any witnesses.
3  [transitive]   to talk about a problem, suggestion etc in detail: A committee was set up to canvass the city’s educational options.  (LDOCE)

● thumbs up 承認，賛成

・ thumbs up / down   used to show that something has been accepted / rejected or that it is / is not a success: Their proposals were given thumbs down.  (OALD)

● full steam ahead 全速力での前進

The phrase "full steam ahead" means "go forward rapidly and strongly." It comes from ships — steam ships — using all the power to go ahead. You’ll also hear the phrase "full speed ahead" used in exactly the same way.

・ full speed / steam ahead  = with as much speed or energy as possible  (OALD)

● deploy 配置につかせる

 Deploy is a verb that is used to talk about sending out your forces in a way that will effectively achieve your goal. It sounds very military. It comes from the military and it’s sometimes used in business. And I suppose here it’s a good verb to use. It sounds like sending out your police and other resources to seriously go find those children who’ve been lost.

・ To deploy troops or military resources means to organize or position them so that they are ready to be used:  The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops. (COBUILD)

= to use effectively : deploy arguments / resources  (OALD)

● abduction 誘拐，拉致

Another word you’ll often hear for abduction is kidnapping. And although kidnapping starts with the word kid, you can use it for people of any age.

● take the initiative to V Vすることに乗り出す

If you take the initiative in a situation, you are the first person to act, and are therefore able to control the situation. :  We must take the initiative in the struggle to end the war.  (COBUILD)

if you have or take the initiative, you are in a position to control a situation and decide what to do next: Why don’t you take the initiative and ask him out?   (LDOCE)

● stakeholder 利害関係者

Kinkaid uses the word stakeholders. A stakeholder is someone who has an interest or maybe a stake in something that’s going on. Stakeholder is also used in companies. It refers to not only the shareholders — the people who actually invested money in the company — but everybody else who has a strong involvement. So stakeholder would include employees and probably customers.

● grade school ［米］小学校

I think in the U.S., grade school might be even more common than saying elementary school. And I think it’s because people say you’re in the first grade, the second grade, the third grade. So it’s called a grade school.

● fend off ～を回避する

・ fend off  to defend or protect yourself from sth/sb that is attacking you.  (OALD)

2008.09.18

2008年9月第3週分 Lesson 13  Child Safety Campaign (2)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Although they decide reaching teachers is a priority, the team will need to find ways to attract media attention to individual abductions.

● "To be sure that … "

Tyson uses the phrase, "To be sure that …" He could have said "To ensure that …" And there are three words that are rather similar but in US English, they’re used differently. Ensure means take action to be sure that something happens. Assure is similar, but assure is using words to make someone else more comfortable that something will happen. And then the third word is insure. Insure is usually used in US English to talk about the business of making sure that thing will happen.

・ ensure to make sure that something happens or is definite ～を確実なものにする

・ assure to tell somebody that something is definitely true or is definitely going to happen, especially when they have doubts about it ～を保証する，請け合う

・ insure to buy insurance so that you will receive money if your property, car, etc. gets damaged or stolen, or if you get ill or die.   保険にかける (OALD)

● drive A home to B AをBに十分理解してもらう

Tyson also talks about driving a message home. If you drive something home, it’s usually a message or a meaning or even a threat perhaps. You’re reinforcing or emphasizing it. You’re very powerfully sending your message.

・ drive home    to make something completely clear to someone: He didn’t have to drive the point home. The videotape had done that.   (LDOCE)

● platform 足がかり，基盤  ←→ track ［米］プラットホーム

(英語で「3番線」はtrack No.3 だが) Although usually in the U.S., you talk about trains by which track it’s on. You could talk about the platform if it’s absolutely necessary to talk about that piece of building or equipment or whatever you want to call it.

・ 最後は，ホームのあのコンクリート製の建造物それ自体をいいたい時はplatformとしかいいようがない，ということ。

● charge （受け持っている）生徒･子ども

Charges, or charge, might seem like sort of a strange way to refer to the students that the teachers are teaching. I think it comes from "be in charge of." Something that is given to your care, you could call a charge. I think in English it tends to be used for children being taken care of by teachers or babysitters or nurses even.

・ charge  [countable]    <formal>    someone that you are responsible for looking after: Sarah bought some chocolate for her three young charges.    (LDOCE)

● turn up one’s nose at ～ ～に目もくれない，鼻であしらう

・ turn your nose up (at something)    <informal>    to refuse to accept something because you do not think it is good enough for you: My children turn their noses up at home cooking.  (LDCOE)

● high profile 高い知名度

・ high-profile   receiving or involving a lot of attention and discussion on television, in newspapers, etc.

● hook    人の関心を引きつけるもの

The word hook here is slang. Tyson uses it to mean something that will grab the attention of mass media.

・ hook = something that is attractive and gets people’s interest and attention [= draw]: You always need a bit of a hook to get people to go to the theatre.  (LDOCE)

● get a good grip on ～ からをしっかりと把握する

・ grip  = an understanding of something
have/get a grip on something     : I’m just trying to get a grip on what’s happening. / She was losing her grip on reality.  (LDOCE)

● perking at peak heat 最高潮に持って行く

・ perk   to gain in vigor or cheerfulness especially after a period of weakness or depression

● the three R’s 読み書き計算

 The three R’s means reading, writing and arithmetic — the three words don’t all actually start with R. But it’s an easy way to talk about education basics. The phrase seems to come from England in the early 195h century. There was a guy making a speech about how important education is. And supposedly he showed his lack of education by talking about the three R’s. Now, whether this is actually a true story or not, nobody really knows, but it is kind of interesting.

● have ～ up one’s sleeve ～をこっそり用意している

If you have something up your sleeve, you have planning in place; you know what you gonna do. Sometimes you have it up your sleeve because you’re hiding it. I don’t think that’s true in this case, although they don’t really need to publicize their tactics and strategies.

・ If you have something up your sleeve, you have an idea or plan which you have not told anyone about. You can also say that someone has an ace, card, or trick up their sleeve. :  He wondered what Shearson had up his sleeve.   (COBUILD)

● "the one where you reach teachers" 関係副詞のwhere

It might seem a little strange to use the word where in this sentence, but English speakers often use where instead of "in which." "In which" sounds quite a bit more formal, I’d say.

2008.09.19

2008年9月第3週分 Lesson 13  Child Safety Campaign (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

It seems that the best way to attract teachers to the campaign is to contribute to the classroom by offering prizes that satisfy their educational hopes and dreams.

● tie in with ～ ～と関連づける

・ tie … in with ～ to link something or to be linked to something

● touch base with ～ ～と連絡を取る

・ touch base (with somebody)    to talk to someone to find out what is happening about something (LDOCE)

● from coast to coast 大西洋岸から太平洋岸まで，全米で

Tyson uses the phrase "from coast to coast" to refer to the whole country. He could have said "the whole country," or he could have said "nationwide." Although "coast to coast" refers only to the continental part of the U.S., technically, it’s used to mean the whole country.

● canvass

→ 実践ビジネス英語 2008.09.17

● wants and needs 要望と要求

"Wants and needs" is almost a set phrase that people use quite often, especially if they don’t really want to distinguish between something that’s needed and something that’s wanted strongly.

● hopes and dreams 希望と夢

And here’s another of those kind of doubled-up phrases — hopes and dreams.

● drum up ～ ～を集める，あの手この手でかき集める

If you drum up something, you try to raise interest in it: you try to get people to pay attention to it. It’ been used since about the mid-19th century in the U.S. And it’s very  similar to using an actual drum to draw people to a specific location.

・ drum something  up     to get support, interest, attention etc from people by making an effort: He travelled throughout Latin America drumming up support for the confederation. (LDOCE)

● be split down the middle 真っ二つに割れる = split in two/ half

・ The board had split in two. / Split the pineapple down the middle.

● "However, we believe …"

Morrison begins with "we believe." Sometimes Japanese and English use we and our a little bit differently. In this case, he’s referring to himself and his company — his colleagues. He’s not referring to the group that he’s talking to right now including himself.

● the powers that be 上層部，首脳陣

Another phrase Morrison uses is "the powers that be." The phrase "the powers that be" is often used to refer to any kind of authority. It’s whoever the authority is. In this case, it doesn’t really matter specifically who the individuals are on the board of director. The important thing is that they have the power, they are the authority in this case.

・ the powers that be (often ironic)  the people who control an organization, a country, etc.

● prototype 試作品

・ prototype = the first form that a new design of a car, machine etc has, or a model of it used to test the design before it is produced

● swing   動かす，変えさせる

・ if emotions or opinions swing, or if something swings them, they change quickly to the opposite of what they were

2008.09.24

2008年9月第4週分 Lesson 13  Child Safety Campaign (4)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

After listening to more details of the plan for the campaign, Morrison expresses his hope for its success.

● position 位置づける

・  positioning （製品・サービスの）差別化

● champion 勇者

・  champion of ～ a person who fight for, or speaks in support of, a group of people or a belief  (OALD)

● scared stiff 怖くて縮み上がる

If you are "scared stiff,"  you’re scared so badly that you can’t move, you can’t take action to help yourself. A similar phrase is "frozen stiff," but that, of course is because it’s so cold.

・  scared stiff / scared to death / scared out of your wits (=extremely frightened)  : I was scared stiff at the thought of making a speech.  (LDOCE)

● on the street 米 ←→ in the street 英

● "by screaming, kicking, and running away"

Morrison talks about three actions that kids should take if they think they’re in danger: screaming, kicking and running away. However, there is a phrase in English: kicking and screaming. And it’s another set phrase. It tends to mean protest. You don’t have to actually kick somebody; you don’t have to actually raise your voice in order to protest.

・ kicking and screaming 抵抗しながら    protesting violently or being very unwilling to do something: The London Stock Exchange    was dragged kicking and screaming    into the 20th century.  (LDOCE)

For example, you could say something like : my professor insisted that we practice presentations and make good ones in class, although we were kicking and screaming the whole way. I found out later that it was an excellent skill for my future.

● get down to brass tacks 核心・本題に入る

"Get down to brass tacks" is an idiom that means "get started", "focus on what we are here for"," let’s do the business we are intending to do here." Why you get down to brass tacks, however, nobody really knows. Some people think it might be because on counters in dry goods stores. There used to be brass tacks for measuring fabric. So, to make something clear, and to focus on it, you would measure the fabric by brass tacks. A lot of people don’t accept the story, though, as the origin of the idiom.

・ get down to brass tacks    <informal>    to start talking about the most important facts or details of something

・ dry goods store 服地屋

● as of ～ ～の時点で

・ If you say that something will happen as of, or in British English as from, a particular date or time, you mean that it will happen from that time on. :  The border, effectively closed since 1981, will be opened as of January the 1st.  /  She is to retire as from 1 October.  (COBUILD)

● cover letter 添え状

・ covering letter   a letter containing extra information that you send with something

● Big Bad Wolf 極悪人

I think in the U.S., when you say Big Bad Wolf, almost everybody including very small children would think about the story about the Three Little Pigs, because the character Big Bad Wolf threatens them.

・ the Big Bad Wolf      a dangerous and frightening enemy.

● off duty の警官・消防士

Fire fighters will also put on their uniforms to volunteer for firefighting-related events, although they don’t have to be quite so clear about whether they’re on duty or off.

● play-acting 芝居・実演

Play-acting is very similar to pretending. It’s one of the major activities kids do.

● role-playing 役割演技

Role-playing and play-acting are basically the same activity. However, role-playing is usually used for educational purposes, while play-acting is usually for theater, or children’s imaginative play.

● have the bases covered 万全の準備をする

"Having the bases covered" is an idiom often used in English to mean you are thoroughly prepared, you are ready for everything.

・ cover (all) the bases    to make sure you can deal with any situation or problem so that nothing bad happens: Parents are already stressed trying to cover the bases at home and at work. (LDOCE)

2008.09.25

2008年9月第4週分 Lesson 13  Child Safety Campaign (5)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

== Key Phrases to Remember ==

● Let’s get going. では始めましょう。

● take the initiative 率先してやる，自ら乗り出す

More slangy way to say "take the initiative" is to describe a person as a "self-starter."

As a verb, initiate basically means "start" or "begin."

・ self-starter = someone who is able to work successfully on their own without needing other people’s help or a lot of instructions – used to show approval   (LDOCE)

・ → 実践ビジネス英語 2008.09.17

● high profile 高い知名度

・ → 実践ビジネス英語 2008.09.18

● gain momentum 弾みがつく，本格化する

● contribute to ～ ～に寄与［貢献］する

So anything that contributes to .. is part of the cause of something.

● be scared stiff 恐怖を感じる，怖くて縮み上がる

・ → 実践ビジネス英語 2008.09.24

= あんな時，こんな時 =

会議を始める時 Let’s get going.

インフォーマルな表現

● Let’s get rolling.

・  Let’s roll.   ≒ Let’s go.

"Let’s roll" includes the idea of "start", but it focuses more on going, even more physically moving.

・  start [get/set/ keep] the ball rolling  to make sth start happening; to make sure that sth continues to happen

● Let’s kick it off.

・ kick off → 実践ビジネス英語 2008.09.17

● Where do we begin? どこから始めようか？

It sounds like they’re getting into the discussion portion of the meeting.

・ Where did we leave it last time? 前回はどこで終わりましたっけ？

● Who’s on [up] first?

With this phrase, you’d have to be very careful with the phrase "Who’s on first?" because if you say "Who’s on fírst?" it sounds like "Who’s standing on the first base?" But if you say "Who’s ón first?", it means "Who’s the first speaker?" It’s like "Who’s on stage first?"

少し改まった表現

● Let’s convene the meeting.

・ convene     to come together for a formal meeting

● May I call the meeting to order?

・ call a meeting to order  会議の開会を宣言する

● I’d like to lay down a few ground rule before we start.

・ ground rule （野球などの）ルール，基本事項，基本的行動規範

・ 会議のground rule

Generally, it might be things like turn off your cell phone, no side-conversations. It could be even something like when you plan to take breaks. However, if you’re having a discussion that’s rather sensitive or discussion where people might become angry with each other, you could set more specific ground rules about how to discuss topics. For example, you might say that before giving your own opinion, you must repeat, in your own words, what the previous speaker said.

● Here’s a housekeeping announcement first.

・ housekeeping announcement 会議とは関係ない日常業務などのお知らせ

This might be something like "be sure to throw away your cans and bottles in the proper receptacle.

2008.09.26

2008年9月第4週分 Lesson 13  Child Safety Campaign (6)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

S = 杉田敏      I = Susan Iwamoto

S: Uh, Susan, in our most recent vignette, Great Lakes was about to kick off a child safety campaign as part of their corporate social responsibility efforts. Do you think American corporations are eager to get involved in such activities?

I: Sure, although the approach Mike Morrison described was very hands-on. Not all corporations are get so involved.

・ hands-on doing something yourself rather than just talking about it or telling other people to do it: a chance to get some hands-on experience    of the job (LDOCE)

S: What do you mean?

I: Well, although many organizations feel it is their duty to get something back to the community, there are a number of levels at which to do so. For example, Great Lakes will be working directly with teachers, schools and community groups. They’re going to write their own lesson plans and construct a web site to support their effort. Other organizations take a different approach and contribute mostly monetarily by donating to local community groups and charitable foundations or perhaps sponsoring events to raise money for good causes.

・ raise money （募金などで）金を集める

・ cause 大義，主義主張

S: Child safety definitely qualifies as a good cause.

I: That’s for sure. This is an area that’s been getting more attention in Japan, too, fortunately or unfortunately. Time has changed a lot since my childhood, when my sisters and I roamed freely about the neighborhood, with our biggest safety concern being whether or not we’d fall off  our roller-skates.

・ qualify = to have all the necessary qualities to be considered to be a particular thing
qualify as    : It doesn’t qualify as a date if you bring your children with you.  (LDOCE) 「～と呼ぶにふさわしい」というくらいか。

S: Did you ever have safety-awareness classes as a child?

I: More, we did get the classic warning from my parents — don’t talk to strangers — and we occasionally had guest speakers at school to talk about crime in general. There was a popular anti-crime campaign at the time, with public service ads, or PSAs, on TV, featuring a crime-fighting dog called McGruff. I remember his catchphrase to this day: Take a Bite out of Crime. I remember having a police officer visit our school to talk about crime awareness. We also had guest speakers to talk about the dangers of drugs, especially while Ronald Reagan was President. His wife Nancy led an anti-drug campaign with a slogan "Just Say No." I also vividly remember a former actor coming to my junior high school to give a special anti-drug talk. He had been a drug addict and told us some horrific and gory stories meant to scare us away from experimenting with drugs. However, I don’t recall corporations getting directly involved in these campaigns.

・ scare ～ away(off) to make an animal or person go away by frightening them:  She moved quietly to avoid scaring the birds away. (LDOCE)

S: Do you think corporations have a responsibility to give something back to society at large?

I: Yes, I think so. A cynic might see their effort as a ploy for good publicity, but I think there are organizations who really do feel the obligation in a good way to contribute to the community. I found many examples in the past at places where I worked.

・ cynic ひねくれたものの見方をする人

S: Such as?

I: Well, I used to work for a regional bank that placed a high value on corporate social responsibility. I headed(?) corporate communications led off with local non-profit organizations to improve the quality of life in the community that our bank did business in. There was also a wonderful program I had never encountered before at any place I’d worked.

・ place a high value on ～ からを重視する

S: What sort of program was it?

I: It was a sabbatical program for the bank’s employees. Up until then, when I heard the word sabbatical, I thought of professors taking a year off from teaching, concentrated on research. I had no idea this was possible in the corporate world.

・ sabbatical    a period of time when sb, especially a teacher at a university, is allowed to stop their normal work in order to study or travel

S: What was the purpose of the program?

I: Well, the bank chairman was very committed to nonprofit work, and he wanted to encourage it among the bank staff. He created a program that would allow employees who’d been working for the bank for at least three years to take a three-month paid sabbatical to work for nonprofit organizations. The last time I checked, this program was still going strong. Usually, the employees worked for local community organizations, but in one case, a bank employee went to Indonesia to help with the tsunami relief efforts for three months.

・ going strong to continue to be healthy, active or successful: My grandmother is 90 and still going strong.  (OALD)

S: Any other examples?

I: One of the companies I worked for in Japan had a similar view toward corporate responsibility, though it had no sabbatical programs that I was aware of. The company often donated a large amount of money for disaster relief and support community projects. And periodically there were smaller events, such as employee book drives to raise money for charities in and out of Japan. In fact, we had a special office devoted to the corporate social responsibility initiatives. That corporation is famous for its cameras among other products, and has many photo-related events, activities, and courses with local schools and community groups. On a very local level, the company headquarters hosted a summer festival each year for the neighborhood to express its gratitude for the community support. It’s nice to see the corporation focus on more than just profits. And how about you, Sugita-san? Have the organization you worked with in the past been involved in these kinds of initiatives?

S: Oh, yes. My company plans and executes a social action program on behalf of our clients. One of the most well-known programs that we’re deeply involved in provides a home-away-from-home for families of serious ill children receiving treatment at near-by hospitals. We’re also engaged in cultural, educational, and sports activities in Japan and in China.

・ home from home    <British English> =  home away from home <American English>    a place that you think is as pleasant and comfortable as your own house

今週もここで終わってしまった。次回こそ Word Watching まで行きたいものだ。

2008年8月第1週分 Lesson 10  No Laughing Matter (1)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Shiga and his colleagues discuss the role humor plays in US workshops.

● "the lawyers really knew what they were talking about."  「自分が言っていることがわかっている」

This sentence might be a little bit confusing, if you think of it literally. It’s difficult to talk about something you don’t know about. But it’s usually used to say that the person speaking is a very good  expert on the matter that he is talking about. The opposite is "talking through one’s hat." You could say, "He’s talking as if he’s an expert, but he has no idea what he’s talking about. He’s just talking through his hat."

・ know what you’re talking about <informal>  正確な知識を持っている，専門家である to have knowledge about sth from your own experience  (OALD)

・ be talking through your hat    <British English>    <informal>    おおぼらを吹く，知ったかぶりをする if someone is talking through their hat, they say stupid things about something that they do not understand (LDOCE)

・ He likes to hear himself speak.

And that phrase also includes the idea that he’s talking too long and far too much detail. Nobody else cares about what he’s saying.

● アメリカ人にとっての lawyer

I think you could say that Americans have sort of love-hate relationship with lawyers. On the one hand, it is a very prestigious profession. There are many excellent lawyers, honest, help a lot of people. But also there’re lawyers with reputations for just barely staying on the right side of the law. They know all the details of the law and they use it as much as possible for gain. There are many people would consider going a bit too far, even if it is technically legal.

・ be on the right side of the law  適法である ←→ be on the wrong side of the law 違法である

● "Do you know how many lawyer jokes there are?"

This is very interesting. If you put lawyer jokes into Google and find out how many hits you get, it’s around half a million. And those are only web sites with lawyer jokes on them. That’s not including the number of actual jokes that exit.

● Gotcha! ひっかかりましたね

"Gotcha!" is short for "I got you" or "I’ve got you." The phrase "Gotcha" — if you write it, it spells G-O-T-C-H-A, but it’s very informal. It’s used maybe only in comics, or maybe private letters with friends or family. But in spoken English, it’s used quite a bit. It means "I tricked you," "I fooled you." You can also use it to mean "I understand you." You can also use it to mean, "I’ll help you," "I’ll support you."

・ gotcha 

1. a word meaning ‘I’ve got you’ used when you catch someone or trick them in some way
2    a word meaning ‘I understand’: ‘Yeah, 5 o’clock, gotcha.’

● Jokes are out of place in a (Japanese) workplace.

Hmm, that might be sort of a difference between the U.S. and Japan. I think in the U.S., in most situations, if they’re tasteful, it’s okay to tell a joke or even more than tell a joke, it’s acceptable to say something humorously rather than just straight and seriously. But it does depend on the situation, somewhat. And it is my impression that in Japan there are fewer situations where humor is acceptable.

● wisecrack  冗談

Wisecracks are kind of humor, though, that you have to be a little careful with, because they tend to be a bit flippant or ironic. They’re usually very witty, so people can enjoy the wit. But you do have to be a little careful with wisecracking type of humor, because if the people around you don’t agree with them, you could offend them.

・ wisecrack  = a clever and funny remark or reply [= joke]

● lift someone’s spirits 気分を高揚させる，元気づける

・ raise/lift somebody’s spirits =make someone happier

● tickle someone’s funny bone 笑わせる

・ funny bone ユーモアを解する心

● no laughing matter 笑い事ではない

Usually the phrase "no laughing matter" is used when people aren’t taking something seriously enough, so you tell them, "Wait a minute. Pay attention. This is no laughing matter. This is serious."

・ no laughing matter    <informal >   something serious that should not be joked about: It’s no laughing matter having to walk by a group of rowdy drunks every night just to get home.  (LDOCE)

● perk up 元気づける

・ perk up to become more cheerful, active, and interested in what is happening around you, or to make someone feel this way: She seemed kind of tired, but she perked up when Helen came over. (LDOCE)

2008.07.31

2008年8月第1週分 Lesson 10  No Laughing Matter (2)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The team talks about the difficulty of translating humor cross-culturally and Shiga tells an old Japanese joke.

● I guess so

"I guess so" is a kind of vague or weak agreement. Or more than weak agreement, it’s a lack of disagreement.

・ 消極的な同意

・ guess     If you guess something, you give an answer or provide an opinion which may not be true because you do not have definite knowledge about the matter concerned. : The suit was faultless: Wood guessed that he was a very successful publisher or a banker.   (COBUILD)

● fall flat （冗談が）受けない

There’s another idiom that also means "fall flat" or "fail." And that’s "go over like a lead balloon." If you imagine a balloon made of lead, it’s not gonna be very successful.

・ fall flat    <informal>    if a joke, story etc falls flat, it does not achieve the effect that is intended: Unfortunately, what could have been a powerful drama fell flat.  (LDOCE)

・ go down like a lead balloon <informal> 不評を買う if a suggestion or joke goes down like a lead balloon, people do not like it at all (LDOCE)

アメリカ英語系辞書では，go over, イギリス英語系では go down として出ています。

● pantomime humor

Pantomime humor can also be called slapstick, especially if it’s very physical and silly.

・ slapstick ドタバタ喜劇

● hilarious 笑いを誘う，とてもおもしろい

・ hilarious = extremely funny

● "What may be hilarious in Chinese may not be so in Japanese."

I can remember watching a US movie in a Japanese movie theater many years ago. It was a comedy and I went there with a friend of mine. We often laughed at times other than the rest of the audience, so I think either the jokes or the humor hadn’t been translated or the Japanese audience didn’t find it as funny as we did.

● settle one’s account 勘定を清算する

・ settle = to pay money that is owed
settle a bill/account/claim    : I always settle my account in full each month. / These insurance companies take forever to settle a claim.  (LDOCE)

● sake 酒

One point about the Japanese word "sake." In the U.S., people usually pronounce it either [sɑːki] or [sæki].

● harakiri

That’s another Japanese word that’s pronounced in various ways in the U.S. I think most people don’t say [harakiri]. They probably say [hærəkiri] or [hɑrəkiri] or something more like that.

● groan at a joke

The kinds of joke that make most people groan are groaners.

● crack jokes ジョークを飛ばす

・ If you crack a joke, you tell it. :  He cracked jokes and talked about beer and girls.  (COBUILD)

● tricky きわどい，用心しなければならないような

1    something that is difficult to deal with or do because it is complicated and full of problems: I can get you tickets for the show but it’ll be tricky.
2    a tricky person is clever and likely to deceive you [= crafty] (LDOCE)

● stay on safe ground 無難にしている，安全圏にとどまる

・ on safe [ dangerous ] ground 安全な［危険な］立場に

・ I thought I was on the safe ground (= talking about a suitable subject) discussing music with her.

2008.08.01

2008年8月第1週分 Lesson 10  No Laughing Matter (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

This time, Potter tells one of his favorite jokes, and Kinkaid describes some of the benefits of good laughs.

● blurt out 思わず［うっかり］口に出す

blurt something out to say something suddenly and without thinking, usually because you are nervous or excited: Peter blurted the news out before we could stop him.   (LDOCE)

● sloshed 酔っぱらって

"Get sloshed" is one of the many, many slang phrases for "get drunk."

You could say, for example, get tipsy, be five sheets to the wind, although there’s many different numbers that people use in that phrase. You could be a little high. You could be under the table. There’re hundreds of slang terms for having too much to drink.

・ sloshed = drunk

・ tipsy = slightly drunk

・ have[be] both[three] sheets to[in] the wind ひどく酔っている

・ under the table 酔いつぶれて

● It’s jungle out there. 仕事や生活のつらさを嘆く決まり文句

"It’s jungle out there" is a phrase that’s usually used to mean there’s a lot of competition, it’s very difficult to survive in the environment that I go out and walk in. Or outside the house, outside the home is a very difficult place to be.

（Tarzan がこの台詞を言うところがこの joke の要点）

Right. He’s using the phrase with two meanings — literally and with the meaning that it’s very difficult outside. It’s very similar to the question, "How are you?" It’s usually meant as a greeting, and so the correct answer is "Fine." But you could take that greeting phrase and answer it as a real question for information, then whatever you say besides "I’m fine," "I’m well" makes that funny.

● Peoria ピオリア （イリノイ州の都市）

Peoria is a small city in Illinois in the U.S., and it’s often used as the paragon of the model or the epitome of a middle-class, small-town, conservative way of thinking.

・ Peoria  = a small city in the US state of Illinois. The opinions of the people who live there are considered to be typical of opinions in the whole of the US : Ask yourself what the folks in Peoria will think of it.  (OALD)

● bomb まるで受けないもの

・ bomb  <American English> < informal >   a play, film, event etc that is not successful: This is just another one of Hollywood’s bland and boring bombs.   (OALD)

● lighten up 気分が晴れる，状況が和らぐ

"Lighten up" is a phrase that’s often used when somebody you’re with is being too serious. They’re taking everything too seriously. You can tell them, "Lighten up. Relax. It’s not the end of the world."

You wouldn’t tell someone to darken up or heavy up, if they were being too flippant or if they weren’t being serious enough. You might tell them it’s no laughing matter.

・ lighten up   <spoken>    used to tell someone not to be so serious about something:  You need to lighten up a bit.

● "Don’t be a laughingstock."

People say similar things to each other in the U.S. of course. You are making a laughingstock of yourself. You should stop that. What you’re doing is very foolish.

Another phrase people use in the U.S. is that it’s okay to laugh with people, but it’s not right to laugh at people.

・ If you say that a person or an organization has become a laughing stock, you mean that they are supposed to be important or serious but have been made to seem ridiculous. :  The truth must never get out. If it did she would be a laughing-stock.   (COBUILD)

● Point well taken. よくわかります

・ Point taken   了解しました。その通りです。 used to say that you accept that sb else is right when they have disagreed with you or criticized you: Point taken. Let’s drop the subject.  (OALD)

2008.08.06

2008年8月第2週分 Lesson 10  No Laughing Matter (4)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Shiga says the best laughter is natural, while Cortez says that it’s difficult to study humor because of its fragility.

● "It (=humor) soothes your aches and pains."

There’s a phrase that everybody knows about humor and health. It’s "Laughter is the best medicine. "

● "Instead of beating my fists on my desk …"

Sometimes in the situation like this where you have a big problem and it’s making you angry or upset, people will say, "Why are you laughing?" And the answer is often, "I have to laugh, or I’ll cry."

・ 「笑ってないと泣いちゃいそう」ってこと。

● beat one’s fists on one’s desk / stamp one’s feet 自己主張のジェスチャー

● tap into ～ ～を利用する

・ tap into [transitive]    to use or take what is needed from something such as an energy supply or an amount of money: People are tapping into the power supply illegally. / We hope that additional sources of funding can be tapped.

● joke を説明すること

I’m sure everybody has the experience of trying to explain a joke to another person and finding out they don’t think it’s very funny even when they understand how it’s supposed to be working.

● reflex 条件反射

Yeah, reflex in English is a kind of response and it’s usually used for the kind of response that doesn’t any thinking. It’s rather automatic response. So if you think about it, it used to be that doctors check your reflexes with a little hammer and they’d hit that spot on your knee that would make your leg jump up.

● brain waves はふつう複数

I think it’s because brain seems to have various kinds of waves and they can pick them up now with special instruments. The phrase brain wave is often used also in slang. You could say, "Oh, I just had a brainwave."

・ brainwave  <British English>    a sudden clever idea [= brainstorm <American English>]    : I’ve had a brainwave! Let’s go this weekend instead.

・ "I had a brain storm." という表現

Both of those are usually used in singular.

● goof off   サボる，怠ける

To goof off is to fool around, is to hang out, is to do nothing serious but enjoy yourself with some friends. So it can be a positive thing if the term is right, but "goofing off his work" is considered pretty bad because you’re wasting time, you’re stealing time, you’re being paid for not working.

・ goof off     to waste time or avoid doing any work: He’s been goofing off at school.

● "laughter’s purpose is to connect us together."

Sometimes you’ll hear people say that they felt like they really began to get to know a person, or they began to feel comfortable with the other person when they shared the laugh together.

● be left out in the cold のけ者［仲間はずれ］にされる

・ leave somebody out in the cold    <informal>    to not include someone in an activity:  He chose to favour us one at a time and the others were left out in the cold.

2008.08.07

2008年8月第2週分 Lesson 10  No Laughing Matter (5)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

== Key Phrases to Remember ==

● think highly of ～ ～を高く評価する

think highly of / think well of

Both phrases mean you approve of or admire that person.

think poorly of

Yeah, I think you could say you think poorly of another person. You could also say you think badly of another person.

・ 評価（敬意･軽蔑）を表すものとしての think + X + of のX は，

the world, highly, a lot, a great deal, well — not much, lightly, little, meanly などがあり，think (all) the better of も「～をいっそう評価する」で同系列ですが，think better of は「～を考え直してやめる」， think nothing of は「～を何とも思わない」です。 

● job performance 業務遂行能力，仕事ぶり

● fall flat （冗談が）受けない，まったくうまくいかない

Sales were flat. They didn’t rise as much as they do in summer.

・ fall flat    fail completely to produce the intended or expected effect

● make an excuse for ～ ～の言い訳をする

・  = try to think of reasons for one’s behavior

● sneer at ～ ～をあざ笑う，～に冷笑を浴びせる

In English, sometimes two people talk about a cold smile, but it’s not really a set phrase like it seems to be in Japanese.

これは日本語の冷笑のはなし。

・ sneer      to smile or speak in a very unkind way that shows you have no respect for someone or something:  ‘Is that your best outfit?’ he sneered.
sneer at      She sneered at Tom’s musical tastes.

● lighten up 気分が晴れる，状況が和らぐ

Sometimes people say, "Lighten up, Lois. Nobody died," meaning it isn’t all that serious.

Lighten up. につづくことば

It’s not the end of the world. / Nobody died.

= あんな時，こんな時 =

● natural parent 生みの親 = biological parent

And it’s often shortened just to a "bio." So people would say "bio parents," "bio Mom," "bio Dad."

"Natural" in the past when applied to child often meant illegitimate. It was a rather polite way to say that the parents weren’t married. That might be why nowadays people say "bio parents."

2008.08.08

2008年8月第2週分 Lesson 10  No Laughing Matter (6)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

    S = 杉田敏      I = Susan Iwamoto

S: So we’ve come to an enjoyable topic — humor. Shiga Hiroshi and his colleagues traded several jokes in our latest vignette.

I:  Yes, they did. And you know a little levity in the workplace goes a long way, especially in a fast-paced, stressful working environment. They say that laughter is the best medicine, and I think that’s true. Laughter really helps relieve stress, and makes work more fun.

・ levity 軽率さ

S: Don Potter mentioned the challenges of humor across cultures. Have you found a big difference in the sense of humor in Japan and the U.S.?

I:  Well, Don said physical humor can translate much more easily than the word play — puns and the like. I found that deadpan humor or sarcasm can be incredibly difficult to translate,sometimes even from one English-speaking country to another. There have been many times when I said something ridiculous in Japanese but with a straight face, intending from my comment to be taken as a joke. However, my comment was sometimes taken at face value and I had to quickly say I was just joking or who knows, maybe it was just that my joke wasn’t very funny.

・ deadpan humor まじめな顔して言う冗談

・ straight face まじめな顔   if you have a straight face, you are not laughing or smiling even though you would like to: I found it very difficult to keep a straight face. (LDOCE)

・ at face value 額面どおりに

take something at face value    to accept a situation or accept what someone says, without thinking there may be a hidden meaning: You shouldn’t always take his remarks at face value.

S: Hmm, so are you a fan of puns and wordplay?

I:  Yes, very much so. And because I enjoy that kind of humor so much in English, I’m always excited if I can understand it in Japanese too. And this reminds me of a former colleague of mine from my days working for a major Japanese corporation. She was hilarious, but I could only understand about half of her jokes because she was a master of wordplay. She would have the entire office in stitches and though I could always understand from the context that she was making a pun, I couldn’t always quite catch the meaning. So I enjoyed her humor and the effects she had on the office, even though my Japanese wasn’t sophisticated enough to appreciate her wordplay. I occasionally pulled one of my colleagues aside to ask about the meaning of the pun. Not too often, though, because explaining jokes can really drain all the humor out of them.

・ in stitches    おなかがよじれるほど笑って  laughing a lot in a uncontrollable way
have/keep somebody in stitches (=make someone laugh)    Her jokes had us all in stitches.

S: I’ve often noticed that translators have to change jokes that don’t translate well or tie to culture in some way.

I:  True. I do have great admiration for interpreters and for the translators who write subtitles for movies, though. Trying to translate Japanese to English or English to Japanese can be a huge challenge. Many times, when I have gone to see movies in Tokyo, I can immediately tell where other native English speakers are sitting because they are the only ones laughing at a particular scene or joke on the screen. I also find it amusing when Japanese audience laugh right before an actor says something, because the joke has appeared in subtitles a split second beforehand.

・ subtitle 字幕

・ a split second ほんの一瞬

S: Have you found a big difference in the sense of humor in Japan and the U.S.?

I:  Yes, and I’m always fascinated by cross-cultural differences in humor. There’re countless comedians on Japanese television programs every night. And I find many of them to be clever and hilarious. However, I can’t grasp the appeal of some of the comedians — often those whose routines include silly catch phrases, hitting people on the head. I don’t know if I ever get it. Well, one big difference that many international business people often point out is the use of humor when making presentation. Though I’ve seen some Japanese business presentations include a joke or two, they are for the most part very formal in style. American presenters often include jokes as ice-breakers from the beginning of the presentation. To create a relaxed atmosphere and to establish a rapport with the audience, using humor is a way to grab the audience’s attention from the start so that they’re more likely to keep listening to your presentation.

・ icebreaker 緊張をほぐすもの something that you say or do to make people less nervous when they first meet: This game is an effective icebreaker at the beginning of a semester.

・ rapport 信頼関係 friendly agreement and understanding between people

S: So, is this something you do in your own presentations?

I:  Yes, definitely. Building a personal connection with colleagues and clients is very important to me. And I find that humor, especially self-deprecating humor, is a good way to get off on the right foot. I often conduct intercultural communication seminars. And my colleagues and I make it a point to use humor to illustrate the concept we present. We sometimes do humorous role plays to give the example of challenges of global business communication. Of course, we love it if the seminar participants laugh, but more important, if I can ???  a bit, help them grasp and retain our message, then we’ve really succeeded. However, sometimes our jokes do fall flat and that’s really painful.

・ get off on the right foot うまく始める ←→ get of the wrong foot 出だしでつまずく

get off on the wrong foot to start a job, relationship etc badly by making a mistake that annoys people

S: Well, maybe those participants are followers of the samurai tradition Hiroshi described in the vignette — laughing only once every three years.

I:  Hmm, that may be. Either that or my colleagues and I need to work on comic timing of delivery.

うーん，時間がなかったのでここまで。

しかし，速いし，長いし，むずかしい。

2008.08.20

2008年8月第4週分 Lesson 11  Videoconferencing vs. Traveling (1)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

Tyson talks about something he thought he’d never do — hiring a new employee based on an interview by videoconference.

● videoconferencing テレビ会議

Videoconferencing has really only recently become very effective and useful, I think. But it’s been around since the late 70s, and I actually read somewhere that the first time videoconferencing was attempted and actually worked was in the late 60s. But I’m sure it was far too slow for any practical purposes.

● Well, you know something, Melinda? 話を聞いてもらいたいときのフレーズ

Yeah, this isn’t really a question, although if you wanted to turn it into a joke, you could probably say something like, "Well, Jay? Yes, I know many things." But actually he’s just introducing a topic.

・ You know something? ( You know what? ) ねえ，いいかい，聞いてもらいたいことがあるんだ。 used to introduce an interesting or surprising opinion, piece of news, etc. : You know something? I’ve never really enjoyed Christmas. (OALD)

● whiz kid 神童，若手の専門家

・ （英）では whizzkid a young person who is very skilled or successful at something: financial whizzkids in the City

● in person じかに，直接に

Tyson uses the phrase in person to mean face to face — an actual meeting physically together in the same room. It’s very common in English to say in person when you mean face to face. I think face to face is a bit more intensive. You probably use it more when you’re having an important discussion. In person just means you’re in the same space. It’s probably used a lot these days because of the growth of things like Internet dating or meeting friends online. A lot of people don’t meet face to face or in person for quite a while.

・ in person    if you do something in person, you go somewhere and do it yourself, instead of doing something by letter, asking someone else to do it etc:
You have to sign for it in person. (LDOCE)

● across the table from me テーブルをはさんでわたしの向かいに

・ across (something) from somebody/something   

Across the street from where we’re standing, you can see the old churchyard.
the woman sitting across from me (=opposite me) on the train  (LDOCE)

● life-sized 等身大の

Life-sized is an adjective that’s used usually when you’re describing something that is often not the same-sized as the actual original. So you could say a life-sized poster, or you could describe a painting or maybe a sculpture as being life-sized. So if it’s a six-foot model, you have a six-foot poster or sculpture or painting.

・ a picture or model of something or someone that is life-size is the same size as they really are

● … and all that ・・・など

In conversation, it’s a very useful phrase — and all that. You don’t have to explain everything that you’re including. But in a more formal situation, you should probably be very careful of using phrases like and all that or et cetera or and so on, for two main reasons: one is, your listeners might not know what other items you’re referring to, and the second thing is, it could be a sign of sloppy thinking. If you can’t list the things that your et cetera stands for, maybe you should think again before including it in your presentation or formal writing.

・ and all that (jazz, rubbish, etc.)  = and other similar things: I’m bored by history — dates and battles and all that stuff.  (OALD)

● full-size 等身大の

You notice in this case Tyson uses the phrase full-size as an adjective instead of life-sized. I think life-sized is usually used to describe things that are representing life, whereas full-sized has a wider application. You could use it for anything that is its full size.

● look someone right in the eye 人の目を真っすぐに見る

Tyson says that the people in the videoconference "can look you right in the eye as they speak." That’s rather important. It’s one of the main points of a face-to-face interview and in-person conversation, because honesty and integrity are often gauged by eye-contact. If you can look someone in the eye, you’re probably telling the truth.

・ 他動詞 + 人 + 前置詞 + the + 体  型 「人の体を～する」

hit him on the head / catch her by the arm などと同類。

look が，他動詞であることに注意。（ look at とはちがう形）

● "read their facial expressions and body language" 表情･ボディランゲージを読む

In English, I think, it’s fairly common to say you read someone’s facial expression or their body language. I guess it’s because it’s information you take in through your eyes like reading a book instead of something you just feel or something that you hear.

● telepresence テレプレゼンス（臨場感を高めたテレビ会議システム）

Various companies are offering this kind of service now. I think they are all pretty expensive. But it seems that telepresence is becoming a general word for that new technology for videoconferencing.

2008.08.21

2008年8月第4週分 Lesson 11  Videoconferencing vs. Traveling (2)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The team talks about how, because videoconferencing hasn’t lived up to expectations, people keep flying.

・ live up to ～ （期待などに）添う

● as with ～ ～の場合と同じように

・ With breast cancer, as with many common diseases, there is no obvious breakthrough on the horizon.

● dub 追加録音する

The verb dub in English basically means to add sound or soundtrack, or more broadly, to transfer recorded material onto a new medium. Dub seems to be a shortened form of the word double.

・ dub  to replace the original speech in a film/movie or television programmes with words in another language (OALD)

● via ～経由で (= through, by means of)

You might have noticed we’re(?) using two pronunciations for the word via — [vaɪə] or [vɪːə]. People pronounce it both ways. I think I’m more familiar with [vɪːə], although in the dictionary, [vaɪə] is listed first, which usually means it’s the more common pronunciation.

● time benefits 時間的利益

You notice that Shiga says time benefits, but he doesn’t say which way people are benefiting from time. I guess you’ll have to pick that up from the context. You could use this in one context to mean it took less time. You could probably use it in some other context to mean it took more time.

● thumbs-down 拒絶，不賛成

The phrase thumbs-down nowadays means disapproval or something you don’t like or something that’s bad. Thumbs-up means it’s good or you approve it or you’re saying OK.

・ the thumbs up/down   < informal>    when an idea or plan is officially accepted or not accepted: The project was finally given the thumbs up. /  Her performance got the thumbs down from the critics. (LDOCE)

● hassle 煩わしい手続き

・ hassle    something that is annoying, because it causes problems or is difficult to do

● shuck off your shoes 靴を脱ぐ

Usually people say take off your shoes. In this case, Cortez uses the verb shuck. Usually shuck means to take off a husk or shell from fruits or vegetables or the shells of oysters, for example. But it can also be used to take off almost anything. It means remove something or cast it off. There’s another word shucks, which people use to express mild disappointment.

・ shuck 

2 If you shuck something such as corn or shellfish, you remove it from its outer covering. (AM):   On a good day, each employee will shuck 3,500 oysters.

3   If you shuck something that you are wearing, you take it off. (AM INFORMAL) :   He shucked his coat and set to work.

4  Shucks is an exclamation that is used to express embarrassment, disappointment, or annoyance. (AM INFORMAL) : Terry actually says ‘Oh, shucks!’ when complimented on her singing.    (COBUILD) 「ちぇっ，くそっ」

● 人前で靴を脱ぐこと

It’s considered impolite to be taking your shoes off in public unless there’s a specific reason for it. So you wouldn’t sit on a train and take your shoes off, and you wouldn’t take your shoes off probably in the office, unless there was a specific reason for doing so.

● submit to ～ ～を甘受する

・ submit  <formal>    to agree to obey a person, group, set of rules, especially when you have no choice [= give in] :  Derek has agreed to submit to questioning.  (LDOCE)

● shakedown 身体検査，徹底的な検査 ゆすり

Shakedown is really very casual or even slang for a careful search. It’s used not only for people, you can also shake down someone’s apartment. And it’s also used to mean bribery demanding that someone pay you money so that you leave them alone.

・ shakedown

1    (American English)   < informal >   when someone gets money from another person by using threats:   a Mafia shakedown
2    (American English)    <informal>    a thorough search of a place or a person:  No weapons were found during the shakedown.  (LDOCE)

● at a moment’s notice 急に，即刻，ただちに

・ notice は「（解雇･解約などの）予告期間」のこと。 at a moment’s notice は「一瞬しか予告期間を与えないで」→「急に」， at a month’s notice 「一ヶ月前に予告した上で」

notice   information or a warning about something that is going to happen [ → warning]
without notice    These rules are subject to change without notice.
sufficient/reasonable notice    They didn’t give me sufficient notice.
advance/prior notice    When you’re on the mailing list, you’ll receive advance notice of upcoming events.
ten days’/three months’ etc notice (=a warning ten days etc before)   
They closed the factory, giving the workers only a week’s notice.
Firefighters were prepared to rush out at a moment’s notice.

(LDOCE)

2008.08.22

2008年8月第4週分 Lesson 11  Videoconferencing vs. Traveling (3)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

The gang comments on how the personal touch remains an important aspect of doing business and so many people prefer face-to-face meetings.

● march of technology テクノロジーの進歩

Cortez talks about the "march of technology". March in this case means progress or forward movement. It’s related to the verb "to march," which is to walk forward. March is also used in marching band. It’s a band that doesn’t sit on chairs to play; they walk around.

・ the march of something the steady development or forward movement of something : the march of progress / technology / time  (OALD)

● press the flesh 握手する

Cortez also talks about "pressing the flesh." It might sound sort of strange, unless you know what it really means is "shake hands." It tends to be used for politicians going out and meeting constituents; they shake hands, maybe exchange a couple of phrases, and that’s about it. A similar phrase is "meet-and-greet." I’ve been hearing that recently. A "meet-and-greet" could be with politicians, sometimes it’s celebrities or the writers of books might have a meet-and-greet, where they talk to fans and shake hands and, you know, exchange greetings.

・ press the flesh    to shake hands with a lot of people – used humorously: The President reached into the crowd to press the flesh. (LDOCE)

・ meet-and-greet 1は「サイン会・握手会」，2がこの後でMatsushitaさんが語源として挙げているもの，3は親の学校参観みたいなもの(?)

1    an event that is organized for famous musicians, writers, artists etc to meet and talk to their fans: There will be a meet-and-greet after the show.
2    a service that sends people to greet and help a person or group when they arrive at an airport
3    an event in which parents go to their child’s school and meet the teachers and other people who work there   (LDOCE)

"Meet-and-greet" seems to come originally from the travel industry to talk about going to the airport to meet travelers.

● personal touch 人と人のふれあい

The phrase "the personal touch" is usually used when you want to talk about something that’s customized, unique or personal — something that you can only do in person or face to face.

・ personal touch    something you do to make something special, or that makes someone feel special: It’s those extra personal touches that make our service better.  (LDCOE)  機械的な冷たい感じを避けるための人間味

● come into play ものを言う，作用し始める

・ When something comes into play or is brought into play, it begins to be used or to have an effect. :  The real existence of a military option will come into play.   (COBUILD)

● for real [形] 本物の，本気の [副] 本当に，実際に，本気で

・ for real  genuine or serious : This is not a fire drill — it’s for real. (OALD)

● fill ～ to capacity ～を満たす，いっぱいにする

・ The hall was filled to capacity.  = was completely full

● old-fashioned 昔ながらの，古風な

Although the phrase old-fashioned makes it sound like it’s not in fashion any more. That’s not the meaning of the phrase. Old-fashioned means it’s an older style. But I think old-fashioned tends to be used when an older style is still popular, even if it’s not actually fashionable.

・ Something such as a style, method, or device that is old-fashioned is no longer used, done, or admired by most people, because it has been replaced by something that is more modern. : The house was dull, old-fashioned and in bad condition.  /  There are some traditional farmers left who still make cheese the old-fashioned way.  (COBUILD)

● sit back ゆったりすわる，くつろぐ

・ sit back  to sit on sth, usually a chair, in a relaxed position

● doze まどろむ，うたた寝する

To doze is to sleep. But it’s a specific kind of sleeping. It’s usually, for example, if you’re sitting up in a chair and you sleep lightly for a short time, that would be dozing. You could say "you doze off," or "nod off." And that focuses a bit more on the point where you fall asleep.

・ doze off    to go to sleep, especially when you did not intend to [= drop off, nod off]: I must have dozed off.  (LDOCE)

● take a turn for the worse 悪化する

・ If a situation takes a turn for the worse, it suddenly becomes worse. If a situation takes a turn for the better, it suddenly becomes better. : Her condition took a sharp turn for the worse.  (COBUILD)

● on open market 市場に出回って

The open market is a phrase that refers to markets that are open and competitive and have few or no restrictions. A similar phrase is a free market. But free market tends to be used when you are talking specifically about economics and politics. Open market tends to be connected more with business and commerce.

・ open market   Goods that are bought and sold on the open market are advertised and sold to anyone who wants to buy them. (BUSINESS) : The Central Bank is authorized to sell government bonds on the open market.  (COBUILD)

2008.08.27

2008年8月第5週分 Lesson 11  Videoconferencing vs. Traveling (4)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

● 今日のテーマ

As the cost of the newest video conferencing equipment comes down, the team says they expect to be using it more often to save time.

● That is emphatically why .. = That is exactly why …

Tyson starts the sentence with the word that, which refers back to the difficult situation for flying these days.

・ emphatically まさしく

● at this point in time 今になって，現時点で

・ It is impossible to give a definite answer at this point in time.

● video conferencing vs. Web conferencing

I think that the difference between video conferencing and Web conferencing is that Web conferencing is definitely based on Web sites that you can use to pass video images, and sound of course. I use one quite a bit with my family in the U.S. and Mexico.

● shake hands on closing business deal 商談が成立したときに握手をする

It’s traditional to shake hands when you close a business deal in the U.S. anyway. It’s a sign of your honesty and integrity. You can even say, "Let’s shake on it," to mean "Let’s close the deal."

・ Let’s shake on it 同意･和解･仲直りして，握手する

If we have a deal, let’s shake on it. (=show that we have made an agreement by shaking hands).   (LDOCE)

● cut corners timewise 時間を節約する

To cut corners is to find the quickest, easiest, or cheapest way to do something. In this case, Tyson is using it in a rather neutral form. It’s often used negatively when you really shouldn’t have used the quickest, cheapest or easiest way.

・ cut corners    to save time, money, or energy by doing things quickly and not as carefully as you should: Don’t try to cut corners when you’re decorating.

● as the clock ticks 時がたつにつれて

● meantime その間，その一方

● out of this world この世のものとは思えない，最高にすばらしい

The phrase "out of this world" describes things that are surprisingly new or wonderful or extraordinary.

・ If you say that something is out of this world, you are emphasizing that it is extremely good or impressive. (INFORMAL) :  These new trains are out of this world.   (COBUILD)

● hurdle 障害（物）

Hurdle as a verb can mean a rush forward. I guess in the same way that you rush forward to jump over hurdles. To hurdle means to go rapidly, head forward, quickly, without paying attention to obstacles. In this sentence, hurdle is a noun, however. There are similar words you can use with the same meaning. You could say that the cost is an impediment to growth. You could say it’s a barrier to growth, or even an obstacle to growth.

・ hurdle (v)   to jump over something while you are running: He hurdled the fence and ran off down the street.  (LDCOE)

● heat up 激化する

・ When a situation heats up, things start to happen much more quickly and with increased interest and excitement among the people involved. :  Then in the last couple of years, the movement for democracy began to heat up.  (COBUILD)

2008.08.28

2008年8月第5週分 Lesson 11  Videoconferencing vs. Traveling (5)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

== Key Phrases to Remember ==

● meet in person じかに会う → 実践ビジネス英語 2008.08.20

● be aware of ～を知っている，～について承知している

● impact 影響

Impact is one of those nouns that is somewhat recently in use as a verb. A lot of people don’t like it when nouns are first turned into verbs, but after they are used for a few decades or even centuries, they tend to become acceptable.

● submit to ～ ～に応じる → 実践ビジネス英語 2008.08.21

● be dismayed by ～ ～に失望［落胆･狼狽］する

If you’re dismayed by something, it’s very similar to being disappointed by something. But I think you’d probably use disappointed more generally. And I think disappointed is more of an unfocused dissatisfaction. Dismayed is probably when you are more deeply or more strongly unhappy about the situation.

● out of fashion 時代遅れで

→ 実践ビジネス英語 2008.08.21

= あんな時，こんな時 =

● ふつうの think は進行形にできないが， be thinking of ～ing 「～するつもりだ」では進行形にする理由

It’s because in this case think is a kind of action, it’s a kind of work — mental work. The other think, when you can’t use -ing, is something that either is true or not true, either you have that opinion or you don’t. In the case of "I think you’re wrong," you could use -ing, but it gives it a really different kind of flavor. "I’m thinking you’re wrong" also includes the ideas that I might change my opinion soon.

● reckon 思う

Reckon tends to be used more in country areas or in the South. And  for people who don’t use it all the time. It tends to bring a feeling of the good warm things from the country. So in this case it was a nice choice, because the person is talking about having hurt someone’s feelings and it sounds like he really didn’t mean to.

・ reckon    <especially British English>    to think or suppose something (LDOCE)

reckon  <chiefly dialect>   : THINK, SUPPOSE  (Merriam-Webster’s 11th)

reckon ≒ think となるのは，イギリス英語とアメリカ方言（南部）ということですね。

2008.08.29

2008年8月第5週分 Lesson 11  Videoconferencing vs. Traveling (6)

《ディクテーション・ノート》

S = 杉田敏      I = Susan Iwam