5/29 〜 5/31

実践ビジネス英語　　　Wednesday, May 29

1) Nissen expresses his concern about offending colleagues if he criticizes them, and Umemura says even the possibility of being criticized causes him great anxiety. Breakstone assures Umemura that he can change being criticized into a positive experience if he controls his reaction to it and says constructive criticism can help people succeed in their careers. Nissen says he states his criticism in a positive way.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • -

Giving Feedback (4)

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • -

2) insinuate: Breakstone uses this to mean hint, convey something indirectly, and we "insinuate" unpleasant things, bad things, such as "Are you 'insinuating' that I lied?" Or to use the noun form, "I resent the 'insinuation.' I did not lie."

3) get the message: Understand what the other person means, you know, what they are telling you, in other words. You can also say "get the message across," which is to convey what you want to say, make the other person understand. "Pearson 'got his message across,'" for example.

4) minefield: Nissen is speaking metaphorically, he means an area, a subject where there are many potential dangers or problems. Politics and religion, for example, can be conversational minefields. It's very easy to anger or offend someone.

5) take someone to task: This is to criticize, rebuke someone for something they've done. Apparently, a long time ago, this used to mean literally assigning someone or challenging them to a task but not anymore. So now we'd say, "His supervisor 'took him to task for losing the file." Or "She 'took him to task' for miscalculating the data."

6) get a grip on: Breakstone means control your reaction, your emotions as if you got a firm grip or hold on them. Imagine someone who is terrified of public speaking, he might take a speech class to help "get a grip on" his fear.

7) I've also seen this expression used to mean get control of some problem or problematic situation, such as "The company needs to 'get a grip on' its personal expenses." Or "The public is demanding the government 'get a grip on' rising crime."

8) rake someone over the coals: According to my dictionary, this idiom refers to the old torture of dragging a religious heretic over hot coals. Today, it means criticize someone very harshly. Imagine a company is discovered to be polluting the environment or using sweatshops in a poor country. That company would be "raked over the coals" in the media.

9) be up to: In this case, "be up to" means be at a certain level, be as good as a certain level. You might say, "Jenny works hard, but she 'is not up to' this job." So she is not good enough to do it, in other words.

10) words to that effect: We often use this expression to mean words that express a meaning similar to what I just said, words similar to what I just said. Something like, "He said he was quitting, not straight out, but words to that effect."

====================================================

実践ビジネス英語　　　Thursday, May 30

1) Breakstone and Nissen agree that it's important to listen objectively to criticism. And Breakstone adds that she tries to use active listening techniques such as rephrasing the other person's words. Umemura says he endeavors to remain calm, and Nissen recommends suppressing any anger until after work. Breakstone says when criticism makes her angry, she tries to determine whether she is upset at what was said or how it was expressed.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • -

Giving Feedback (5)

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • -

2) on the receiving end: This means something is done to you or you get something. I might be "on the receiving end" of an angry email, or a top executive might be "on the receiving end" of a lucrative pay packet.

3) I did an Internet news search which revealed a few, a very few examples of "on the giving end," but I've never used this expression and I've never heard it. I'd say it's very rare.

4) well-meant: Something "well-meant" is done with good intentions. Another way to say this is well-meaning, advice about child-rearing is often well-meant, for example, but unwanted.

5) jump to conclusions: This is to reach some conclusion, judge a certain situation before we have sufficient facts. Let's say someone doesn't respond to my email right away, I think they are upset with me. But then I tell myself, "Don't jump to conclusions. They could just be busy."

6) paraphrase: This is to reword some statements, spoken or written. We express the same meaning but in different terms.

7) get the better of: In this case, "get the better of" means that some emotion or other factor gets control of us, dictates our behavior. You can also say "get the best of."

8) As in, "Jane's anger 'get the best of' her and she slammed the door to her office." Or "His nerves 'got the best of' him and he didn't speak up at the meeting.

9) get someone's hackles up: This is to make someone angry. I'll admit I didn't know this until I checked for our show today, but "hackles" refers to the hair on the back of an animal's neck. Hair that stands up when the animal's angry or afraid. So, for example, "It always 'gets my hackles up' when people bump into me but don't make any apology."

10) lose it: This refers to losing one's composure in some way. When we "lose it," we can get very angry, very panicked, very upset, that kind of thing, as in "She completely 'lost it' when she realized she didn't have a passport, started swearing, yelling." Or "I always 'lose it' when I watch romantic films, start crying like a baby.

11) lose face, lose one's face = 面子を失う、面目を失う、顔がつぶれる、顔に泥を塗る = lose one's dignity before others
save face, save one's face = 顔がたつ、面子を保つ

12) step back: This is to metaphorically distance ourselves from a situation to think about it calmly to get a better perspective. Breakstone also could have said, "I try to take a 'step back' and decide what's bothering me."

===================================================

実践ビジネス英語　　　Friday, May 31

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • -

Giving Feedback (6)

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • -

1[S]: In our current vignette, Umemura and other members of H&B talk about pet phrases that annoyed them including "to be honest" and "between you and I." Are there any phrases that get under your skin, Heather?

2[H]: I'm not a big fan of "it goes without saying" or "it hardly needs to be said." I can't help thinking, "If something 'goes without saying' or 'hardly needs to be said,' then why say it?" At best, phrases like that feel like filler. At worst, they make the speaker or writer sound arrogant.

I'm also with Umemura in getting annoyed by ungrammatical usage. At the risk of sounding like a prig, I always grit my teeth when native speakers misuse "it's" with an apostrophe and "its" without when they are writing. I see where the mistake comes from. The apostrophe "s" makes people think that word is the possessive form. So they write things like "The dog didn't like 'it's' new collar." using "it's" with an apostrophe.

But it's such an easy thing to get right. All we have to do is ask ourselves, "Can we write the same sentence using 'it is'?" If we can, then the proper word is "it's" with an apostrophe. But we wouldn't say, "The dog didn't like 'it is' new collar," so no apostrophe.

3[S]: And the same trick works for "you're" with an apostrophe and "your" without. If you can write the same sentence using "you are" then it's "you're" with an apostrophe.

4[H]: Yes, another one that frustrates me, oh, and let me not forget "who's" with an apostrophe and "whose" without.

5[S]: The conversation eventually turns to effective ways of giving and receiving feedback. Do you have any guidelines for yourself when being criticized, Heather?

6[H]: I definitely agree that it's important to listen objectively, and to ask ourselves whether it's the criticism that bothers us or the particular way it was expressed. I also try to make sure that I don't let my overall opinion of someone cloud my judgment. Some of the most valid criticism I ever received many years ago was from a colleague I could not stand. I think a large part of that learning experience was being able to overcome my passionate dislike of her, and realized that in that particular instance she was right.

To achieve that objectivity, it often helps to give ourselves time to think about criticism. If we get an email or have a conversation with someone that's critical, we should ask questions, learn exactly what the other person objects to.

And I think it's perfectly fine to write or say, "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'm going to give it some serious thought, so would it be all right if I got back to you later today or tomorrow?" That way, the other person knows we are taking their comments seriously and we can avoid a knee-jerk reaction that might make things worse.

7[S]: Certainly. Anything else?

8[H]: Well, if we feel the criticism was warranted, we should sincerely acknowledge our fault, ascertain specifically how we can do better, and do better. No spin, no attempt to dodge responsibility. I've said it before but it bears repeating, spin makes us look fallible and sneaky.

【原稿チェック： Ina, Hiromi】
【ディクテーション： Sanae】