実践ビジネス英語 Wednesday, July 24
1) Nissen says changing jobs later in life can be beneficial and that it's important to be open to such adjustments as moving, changing one's lifestyle and trying other kinds of work. Breakstone says many people over 60 are enjoying good health and active lives after years of work, and Nissen adds that baby boomers have a better chance of enjoying retirement than later generations.
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Second Acts (4)
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2) it helps if: Some action, some state is beneficial to you. It will help you achieve what you want, Nissen means. I remember getting advice about dressing for job interviews. I was told "it helps if" you dress like you already have the job. And it encourages the interviewer to think of you in that position, in other words, and see you as appropriate.
3) line of work: This refers to the type of work someone does, their occupation. Mr. Sugita's "line of work" is public relations. Mine is journalism.
4) What's your line? = あなたのお仕事は何ですか？
5) key to survival: Japanese uses key exactly the same way, meaning the vital, crucial element to something. Things like, "The 'key to successful investing' is lots of research." Or "The 'key to good translating' is not being too literal."
6) look at it this way: Consider something from this angle, Breakstone means. View it in this light. Imagine someone is upset about the long walk from their apartment to the station. You could say, "'Look at it this way.' You get some exercise every day."
7) no lack of: This means there's plenty of something. "There's 'no lack of' smartphone applications to help organize our time," for example. And Breakstone also could have said "no shortage of," as in "There was 'no shortage of' suggestions at the meeting."
8) live one's golden years: "Golden years" is a nice way to say someone's elderly years. Also a golden anniversary is a fiftieth anniversary.
9) to the fullest: Breakstone also could have said, "Many elderly people are living life to the full." Both mean someone is enjoying their life as much as possible, to the greatest extent possible. We also say things like "The government pledged to prosecute tax evaders 'to the fullest' extent of the law." Or "Her mentor encouraged her to use her talent 'to the fullest.'"
10) stand a better chance of: Have a better chance, in other words. Things like, "We 'stand a better chance of' getting there on time if we take a taxi."
11) enjoy the fruits: Enjoy the results of some work, investment, situation and the image is enjoying a crop of fruit that results from someone's labor in an orchard to grow them, such as "Company X is 'enjoying the fruits' of the tablet computer boom."
12) We also use the harvest image in the phrase "reap the benefits." So, "Investors are 'reaping the benefits' of the IT stock boom," something like that.
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実践ビジネス英語 Thursday, July 25
1) Nissen says one of his father's friends uses his flexible schedule to go on long cruises when the prices are good. Breakstone has heard about retirees building very small houses that are cheap to buy and maintain. Nissen says another of his father's friends drives around the country in a camper, staying in pleasant places and working to make a little extra cash.
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Second Acts (5)
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2) noteworthy: Worthy of note, worthy of attention, Umemura means. Many words have worthy on the end this way. If something is "praiseworthy," it deserves praise. A "trustworthy" person can be trusted, and if a person or a business is "creditworthy," then they merit being given credit.
3) pal: This is a casual word for friend. Here it's a noun. We also use it as a verb, usually with around, pal around, associate with someone as a friend.
4) take advantage of: Nissen uses this to mean avail oneself of some opportunity or resource. There's no negative connotation in this situation. But "take advantage of" can mean exploit something in an unethical way, in a mercenary way, such as "She 'takes advantage of' his generous personality to borrow lots of money."
5) kitchenette: In this case, the suffix "ette" means a small version of something. Here a small kitchen. A "maisonette" is a small house or an apartment with two floors and combines "ette" with the French word for house.
6) low-maintenance: Something that's "low-maintenance" doesn't require a lot of maintenance, a lot of attention or care. We also say certain people and things are "high-maintenance," meaning they do need a lot of attention. Imagine a company employee who's always asking what to do. They never think for themselves, they constantly need lots of praise. A person like that is "high-maintenance."
7) crony: "Crony" means a close friend. It doesn't have a bad nuance here. But it's often used to indicate friends, comrades who help each other unfairly at the expense of others, such as "The minister was accused of distributing government contracts to his 'cronies.'"
8) workamper: This kind of word is called a portmanteau from the French. And it means a word that gets its form and its meaning by combining independent words. The word "brunch" for example, combines "breakfast" and "lunch." There's also "stagflation," which blends "stagnation" and "inflation" to mean stagnant economic growth combined with high inflation and unemployment.
9) luck out: This is when something good happens or you get something you want through luck, such as "We 'lucked out' and managed to reserve the conference room at short notice."
10) We also have the expression "luck into," after which we state the thing that we got through luck, as in "We 'lucked into' a great deal on our hotel reservations."
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実践ビジネス英語 Friday, July 26
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Second Acts (6)
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1[S]: In out current vignette, Bill Nissen talks about a recent visit to see his parents in Chicago. He tells the H&B staff that he was surprised to hear that his father has decided to delay his retirement until he reaches 65. Your father is retired, isn't he, Heather? When did he stop working?
2[H]: He was extremely lucky, actually. He was able to retire when he was just 49 years old. He worked for the Alaskan state government, teaching in remote native villages in western Alaska. And after 23 years, he felt he needed a more urban environment. Happily, he had gone to Alaska just before the oil pipeline was built in the 1970s, and in a few years the state was very wealthy. As a result, Alaska gave its teachers extremely generous retirement packages. My father could have retired after 20 years of service at any age.
3[S]: Hmm... That's remarkable. Forty-nine! He is a lucky man.
4[H]: He certainly is. Unfortunately, this system no longer exists for the teachers who do this job today. My father seems to be one of those people who "dodged the bullet" as one demographer in the United States recently put it. This demographer predicted that the era of widespread prosperity for American senior citizens will end with the first wave of baby boomers like my dad. People around his age stopped working before employers got rid of pension plans, for example, and before social security and Medicare fell into a financial crisis.
ここで取り上げられているアメリカの人口統計学者の話はひょっとするとこの記事の関係かも。（Cecile さんより）
http://web.hbr.org/email/archive/dailystat.php?date=030613
5[S]: And how has your father been spending his retirement?
6[H]: He's done a bit of work. Until recently he traveled to villages in Western Alaska once a year to measure students for ski equipment so they had the right size boots, poles, etc. for the winter months. Mostly, however, he's enjoyed spending time with friends and pursuing the outdoor activities he loves so much including skiing, bicycling and hiking.
He slowed down a bit since he developed some trouble with his heart but not much. My ※pleas for him to take it easy largely fall on deaf ears. He also travels a lot, both overseas and within the United States. In the last few years, he's had a particular hankering to see more of Asia, and we've traveled together to places like South Korea and Cambodia. Now that he has a granddaughter, however, he'll probably be coming mostly to Japan for at least the next few years.
※ pleas → 嘆願 plea の複数形 （Cecile さんより）
7[S]: It's wonderful that he's had the time and financial resources to enjoy his retirement so much.
8[H]: He's been very smart about retirement over the years, planning ahead and saving diligently ever since he was a young man. He told me once that his personal philosophy about retirement was "no one regrets having saved too much money," and that "while money doesn't guarantee happiness, it certainly gives us more potions." So many times he said, "Plan ahead before it's too late."
【原稿チェック： Cecile, Hiroko】
【ディクテーション： Sanae】
