5/28 (Wed.) 〜 5/30 (Fri.)

実践ビジネス英語　　　Wednesday, May 28

1) Pearson says more and more businesses are showing kindness to various people, and some encourage their customers to do likewise. Breakstone says drawing attention to good deeds doesn't negate such good deeds, and Pearson believes people can tell when a company is sincere. He describes a restaurant chain that sends vouchers to random customers and delivers free meals to senior homes, actions that have resulted in excellent word of mouth.

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Kindness and Corporations (4)

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2) grandstand: This is acting in a showy or ostentatious way to impress people. The noun form would be "grandstanding." I've seen articles about political "grandstanding," for example. They might say, "The opposition party said cutting taxes was just political 'grandstanding' to win over voters."

grandstand = スタンドプレイをする （スタンドプレイは和製英語）

3) supposedly selfless contribution: Pearson uses "supposedly" to mean something is not true despite what people say or think. But it's also used just to mean allegedly that this is what people say or think, such as "He was fired for 'supposedly' falsifying his resume."

4) prod: "Prod" can mean poke someone, jab them with a pointed object like your finger or a stick. But Pearson uses it to mean incite someone to do something, urge them to do it. "Her mother 'prodded' her to go into medicine," for example. Or "She's been 'prodding' him to save more money."

5) invalidate: This is to make something invalid, to nullify it. For example, "Failure to pay by June 1st will 'invalidate' the contract."

6) pose as: This is to pretend to be something, to present ourselves as that thing
when we are actually not. In those ore-ore scams, con artists sometimes "pose as" a victim's grandchild or a friend of that grandchild.

7) do-gooder: Pearson means a humanitarian, a reformer who wants to benefit people or the world in some way. We've all heard about the anonymous "do-gooders" who donated backpacks and other items to orphanages, right? Now Pearson means just people, companies, who do good things. But "do-gooder" can also refer to a naive, idealistic reformer, someone whose efforts are ineffective or undesirable.

8) as oppose to: This means in contrast to or rather than. Things like, "Company X's profits rose 10 percent last year 'as oppose to' 20 percent the year before." Or "Karen is a little shy 'as oppose to' Jennifer who's much bolder."

9) blow one's own horn あるいは toot one's own horn = 自画自賛する、
大風呂敷を広げる、自己宣伝をする、自慢話をする
horn の代わりに trumpet を使うこともある

10) chosen at random: Selected without a particular connection to anything, without a pattern or a plan. Companies often give away prizes as part of their promotional efforts. They might say, "Winners will be 'chosen at random.'" Or "Winners will be 'chosen in a random' drawing."

11) word-of-mouth effect: "Word-of-mouth" is passing information from person to person through ordinary interactions, such as spoken conversations or emails. As oppose to say an advertising campaign or activities like that. For example, "This restaurant has built up its clientele mostly through 'word of mouth.' It can't afford a lot of advertising."

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実践ビジネス英語　　　Thursday, May 29

1) Breakstone says many businesses are encouraging employees to perform acts of kindness. Garcia says kindness makes staffers happier and the corporate kindness should be based on an overall strategy of customer service. Pearson stresses the role of CEOs and describes the restaurateur who opened give-back-to-the-community stores at which people pay only what they can. The profits are primarily used to job-train at-risk kids.

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Kindness and Corporations (5)

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2) go out one's way: Making extra effort to do something, do more than what's normally expected. The image is not traveling the straightest as quickest road to your destination but making detours to get something done. A similar expression is "go the extra mile."

3) reflect well on: Make someone look good, in other words, improve their reputation. Think of something reflecting nicely in a mirror. It's also common to say "not reflect well on" or "reflect badly on" to mean make someone look bad. For example, "All these recalls 'reflect very badly on' our quality control."

4) staff morale: Morale refers to someone's emotional or mental state as in how cheerful ate they, how confident, how enthusiastic. You could say, "Company X's new hit product has really boosted 'morale' among its staff." Or "'Morale' has been very low since they laid off 10% of the staff."

5) a happy workforce is a good workforce: We often say "a happy something is a something, something ...," to stress the importance of happiness, good morale and such. For example, "A happy person is a healthy person," meaning a positive mental attitude benefits the body.

6) restaurateur: This is someone who owns or manages a restaurant. There are many similar words ending in "eur," which means it's a French loan word and indicates a person involved in some action: entrepreneur, chauffeur, connoisseur.

7) give-back-to- the-community store: When you are giving back to the community, you are repaying the community that supported your business or bought your products and services. It's also very common to hear the shorter expression "give something back" now this can mean repaying a specific benefit or just making a contribution to society at large. In the latter case, even then, there's a feeling of repaying one's good fortune, in being able to make a contribution. For example, a wealthy business man might fund a hospital or public park in order to "give something back."

8) at-risk: "At-risk kids" are in danger of something bad happening to them. It can cover wide range of things from getting sick to dropping out of school. You could say, for example, "He volunteers to counsel 'at-risk kids' trying to keep them in school."

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実践ビジネス英語　　　Friday, May 30

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Healthy Aging (6)

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1[S]: Our latest vignette begins with Carmen Garcia telling Paul Pearson that some people think he is the ultimate Mr. Nice Guy. Pearson says he wants people to think of him that way and that being nice makes good business sense in their people-oriented field. Would you agree, Heather?

2[H]: Certainly, and I'd say that applies to almost any field. Almost every kind of work involves interacting with people to some extent. And people are far more likely to be helpful and do their best work themselves when they are operating in a positive environment.

Now, some might say that if you're too nice, people will take advantage of you or slack off, and I suppose that's true in some cases. But I think most people, myself included, would feel guilty acting that way toward a genuinely nice colleague or boss. We'd be much more inclined to go the extra mile for someone like that than we would for someone with an attitude of "Hey, I'm not here to make friends."

I had to work with a not-here-to-make-friends type many years ago. She was an editor and extremely good at it. But she was frankly mean. She would just tear into people over their mistakes. I think she enjoyed it. So even though she was almost always right when she criticized other people's work, no one wanted to listen because she was so caustic about it.

3[S]: I don't imagine you had that kind of reputation, Heather?

4[H]: I don't think so. If anything, I might be overly concerned about being nice. I often apologize for what I though was an insensitive remark or an inpatient tone, only to have the other person ask, "What are you talking about?"

But I do try to be an understanding, supportive person. If nothing else, it serves a mercenary function. If I'm nice to people in general, they're far more likely to help me out when I need it or think of me when some opportunity arises. But seriously, being nice creates a much healthier, more productive workplace. It's just that simple.

5[S]: The conversation eventually turns to acts of corporate kindness. Are any of your acquaintances involved with such activities?

6[H]: Yes, a firend of mine works at the Tokyo branch of an international financial services company. And she was telling me just the other day about the extensive system they have to encourage charitable giving and volunteer work among their employees.

It would take far too long to describe the entire thing, but apparently they have an in-house volunteer committee that is made up of employees and that chooses certain charities for the company to support. Their efforts include an annual online fundraiser among the staff. The company matches whatever amount employees pledge, and the money goes to support specific projects at the charities.

The company also has a global volunteer month to encourage employees to give back to the community. They can do whatever they like. But the company also offers certain programs to make volunteering as easy as possible. My friend described employees doing things like helping an orphanage source playground equipment and a tech staffer fixing a broken computer at a women's shelter.

7[S]: Did she feel this contributed to employee morale as Garcia says in the vignette?

8[H]: Most certainly. She described it as helping employees maintain a good work-life balance. According to my friend, it's become part of their corporate culture. About 40% of the employees are involved in volunteer work. Not a bad percentage at all.

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