実践ビジネス英語 Friday, November 23
1) Lyons says he limits his conversation at holiday parties to safe subjects like hobbies and always defers to his superiors. Collins says there can even be legal ramifications to giving such parties, and she and Lyons recommend Umemura take steps to promote responsible drinking. Options include having a bartender and making people pay for drinks. Collins also suggests clarifying that minors cannot drink alcohol.
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Office Holiday Party (3)
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2) defer to: Lyons uses this expression to mean respectfully submit, acquiesce to the opinion or decision of someone else. For example, there are two veteran editors at my paper, and we disagree on a style point, I usually "defer to" their greater experience.
3) steer something toward: Lyons tries to direct the conversation, in other words maneuver it toward safe territory. Another common expression using "steer" is "steer clear of," which means avoid, keep away from as if we are maneuvering a car or some other vehicle away from something. So, Lyons tries to "steer clear of" dangerous topics like religion or politics.
4) behind the cheerful facade: Collins is using "facade" to mean the outer apperance. Not always, but this usage often appears when the outer appearance is false or deceiving, as in, "His confidence is a 'facade.' He is actually very insecure." Or "The company was concealing massive debts behind the 'facade' of success."
5) legal ramifications: "Ramifications" refers to the consequences, the developments that result from some action or occurrence. A news article might predict certain ramifications from a tax increase, say, lower spending and investment. Or it might talk about the "ramifications" of a court decision, such as, stricter penalties for certain crimes in the future.
6) help oneself: Collins is using "help oneself" to mean serve oneself. You'll often see signs saying "Please help yourself" in front of things like a stack of brochures that lets people know it's OK to take one. And again not always but sometimes with this there's a nuance of serving oneself or taking something without permission. For example, "He didn't ask if he could borrow my pen. He just 'helped himself.'"
7) donate the proceeds to a charity: In this case, "proceeds" is a plural noun used to mean the revenue from a particular sale or activity. So someone could write a book and donate 20 percent of the proceeds to an animal rights group. In other words, 20 percent of the money form selling the book. Or a company's public offering of stock might result in proceeds of five million dollars.
8) minor: Collins is using "minor" to mean someone who is not old enough to be a legal adult. So in Japan, a minor is someone under 20 years of age. Oh, be careful with the spelling, it's m-i-n-o-r in this case. Even native speakers often get it wrong and write m-i-n-e-r, which is somebody who gets ore or minerals from the earth.
