実践ビジネス英語 Wednesday, June 26
1) Umemura and Lyons describe how employers look up job applicants online and agree that negative comments about a former boss can hurt one's chances of getting a future job. Nissen says there's even a risk of being charged with libel. Lyons recommends waiting a day before handing in one's resignation and double-checking it while Breakstone urges that any critical comments be made in a professional manner.
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Parting is such... (4)
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2) hurt someone's future job prospects: Hurt their chances of getting a job, Umemura means, lower the possibility of their getting a job. So if I say, "The president downplayed prospects for a deal on tax cuts." That means the president indicated the chances of a deal were low. He tried to lower people's expectations that there would be a deal.
3) go public: Make something public, in other words, reveal it to the world. "The former executive decided to 'go public' with his accusations of insider trading," for example.
4) It's also used when a company becomes publicly trading when its shares are put on the stock market for anyone to invest it, as in "The company share price has risen 20% since it went public six months ago.
5) score high marks: This expression uses "marks" in the sense of a rating, assessment. If a college student "scores high marks" on an exam, then they did very well on it. They got a high grade.
6) You can also say things like, "Voters gave the ruling party 'high marks' for its recent tax cuts." Or "Company X has always gotten ’high marks’ for its customer service.
7) in a worst case scenario: In a worst possible situation, in other words, such as "'In a worst case scenario,' the company will have to shut down its computer division.
8) We also have the expressions "if worse comes to worst" and "if worst comes to worst," which means if the worst possible thing happens, in the worst circumstances. Let's say I have a very bad relationship with a supervisor, tension, conflict, every day, I might tell a colleague, "If 'worst comes to worst,' I'll have to quit."
9) be construed as: Be interpreted a certain way, Nissen means. Be taken a certain way, such as "The finance minister's remarks 'were construed as' supporting a stronger yen." Or "Her joke 'was unfortunately construed as' racist."
10) tell off: When we 'tell someone off' we criticize them for unacceptable behavior. We tell them, "I don't like what you've done or what you are doing." "He 'told her off' for being careless with important documents," for example. Or "She 'told him off' for his terrible table manners."
11) better still: We use this to refer to an option that is even better, even more satisfactory than the one just mentioned. Lyons also could have said "even better" in the situation, such as "I really recommend you get a smartphone or 'even better' a tablet computer. You'll get so much done on the train and the big screen is easier on your eyes.
12) take leave of: This is a formal way to say "leave," "go away from something." And there's a weight to this kind of parting, you know, we use it for more final or serious partings than just, you know, saying good-bye at the end of the work day. So you could read a newspaper article that says, "Several of the president's long time staff 'took their leave' this week," meaning they resigned from his administration."
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実践ビジネス英語 Thursday, June 27
1) Lyons recommends giving an employer plenty of notice of one's intention to quit. He and Nissen agree that people also should work diligently through the last day of their time at a certain job as they may encounter former coworkers again later in their career. Breakstone says that ultimately the best way to get back at a bad employer is to leave.
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Parting is such... (5)
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2) don't get personal: Don't make offensive remarks about or refer in an offensive way to someone's character, their actions or private business, Breakstone means. "Getting personal" would be saying things like, "Everyone in this office thinks you are bully."
3) give someone ample notice: Let someone know about something plenty of time in advance, Lyons means. And you've probably heard the opposite expression "short notice." We use this when some information or request comes in soon before it's needed. So someone in your office could announce, "Everybody, this afternoon's meeting has been moved from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. I apologize for the 'short notice.'" And I've had people ask me, "I know this is very 'short notice,' but could you translate this for me by tomorrow?"
4) at short notice とも言います。
5) give someone a license to kick back and relax: In this case, "license" means permission to do something, the freedom to do something, such as "A supervisory position is not a 'license' to be rude to other people in the office."
6) And "kick back' in this case, uses the image of someone pushing back in their chair as if they are kicking back and away from their desk to stretch out their legs, so to do nothing essentially to slack off. That's not necessarily a back thing. You could tell a coworker, "Don't check your email too much while you are on vacation. You should 'kick back and relax.'"
7) mistakenly assume: Wrongly assume, in other words, such as "I 'mistakenly' sent that email to Jane instead of Tyler." Or a newspaper might run a correction saying, "Our Friday edition 'mistakenly' identified the finance minister as the foreign minster."
8) what goes around comes around: The way we behave, the things we do will eventually be reflected in the way others treat us in what happens to us, this means. Imagine someone who's always rude to their colleagues. If they need assistance with a project some day, people will probably refuse to help, right? They'll suddenly be all just too busy. "What goes around comes around."
9) do someone wrong: This is an informal way to say treat someone unfairly, unjustly. Imagine an employee named Mary is fired after ten years of hard work. People at her company might say, "We really think the company 'did her wrong.'"
10) be underappreciated: Be not appreciated sufficiently, in other words, not appreciated as much as one deserves. We use "under" this way with a lot of words. Someone who's underpaid doesn't get as much money as they should. An office that's understaffed doesn't have enough employees.
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実践ビジネス英語 Friday, June 28
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Parting is such… (6)
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1[S]: Now, in our current vignette, members of the H&B staff talk about dramatic ways that some people have quit their jobs including giving their boss a bag of trash and going out of a plane via an emergency slide. Have you ever done anything like this, Heather?
2[H]: Good heavens, no. I'm not nearly that brave or that stupid depending on how you look at it. The closest I've ever come is reading about theatrical exits on the Internet, which is easy to do. There are many, many examples out there. Just search under dramatic quitting stories or words to that effect.
Just the other day, I saw a video in which a man resigned from a hotel that he claimed treated its employees terribly. He presented a letter of resignagtion to his boss, dropped it on the floor when the man wouldn't take it and then walked out followed by members of a brass band that he plays trumpet for!
3[S]: My goodness. That certainly is dramtic.
4[H]: The video went viral as they say. It's gotten millions of hits on a video sharing website.
You can also find examples of unique and well-handled departures. One of my personal favorites is the man who handed in a resignation letter written on a sheet cake. Pardon the pun, but it was truly sweet: The man wrote that he had enjoyed his time there very much but was leaving to spend more time with family and deal with health issues. He ended by wishing the organization all the best and specifying his final day at work.
Apparently, he filed a paper resignation letter as well since in his words it's difficult to file a cake, classy from first to last.
5[S]: The H&B members also discuss why so many people are leaving their jobs in such flashy ways. Some of the factors cited are frustration at excessive workloads and young people accustomed to sharing personal information on social media.
6[H]: Yes. Social media and the Internet in general are truly dangerous in how easily they let us share things with the entire world in seconds. And like Kay Breakstone says once we put something online, it can be out there forever.
We've all seen those videos or comments that people put online and end up being humiliated or pilloried over. Time passes, yes, and people find something new to talk about. These items will no longer be the hot topics of the day, but even years and years later, we can still easily find them on the Internet.
7[S]: The conversationn eventually turns to smart ways of resigning. Suggestions include waiting a day before sending a resignation letter or email and doulecheking its content by rereading it ourselves or asking someone else to taka a look.
8[H]: I think those are excellent ideas that can be applied to any type of communication that may involve confrontation. It's the same basic principle as when our mothers used to tell us, "Count to ten before you say anything in anger," isn't it? We should always sleep on emails or letters like that. Give ourselves time to calm down before we do something that can damage our career or relationship with someone for years, perhaps even permanently.
【原稿チェック： Hiromi, Hiroko, Cecile】
【ディクテーション： Sanae】
