来年の目標

今年もあと数時間で終わりです。

来年の目標は

1 CNN English Express の山を片付ける
CNN(テレビ)を見る
2 Time を読む。
3 ABC News Shower を視聴する
4 TOEIC 850をこえる
5 きれいな字を書けるようになる

ぐらいでしょうか。

しかし、今日は寒かったですね～。

今年もいろいろな方の御世話になりました。ありがとうございました。

よいお年を。

09/11/20（金) 「実践ビジネス英語」

09/11/20（金) 「実践ビジネス英語」

☆ Hughes notes that the strain of starting a new business can lead even to devorce.Shiga says enreprenuers have to be good at many things beside the core business activity.
Wakimoto thinks Ernest has an advantage because he alredy has a track record of setting and achieving goals.

☆ In English,a venture is any rahter large attempt to do something.So you use the word business to modify venture,so you know what kind of a venture the people are engaged in.

☆ If you put something to the test,you're putting pressure on it,or you're straining it to see how far it can go.Will it be able to withstand this pressures you're putting on it.You probably woudn't use this phrase to talk about students taking tests.It has a more specialized meaning.

☆ Shiga uses the word "wannabe",which has become quite popular these days to talk about someone who's ambitious or aspiring.A similar but other phrases is would-be ,it's written with a hyphen and it's only used as an adjective,wannabe is often used as a noun or an adjective.

☆ In North American English,the noun all-arounder refering to a person who's good at many things.A person who has a wide variety of skills,it's not so common,but I think in the U.S. people might say a jack-of-all-trades,which you can use both positively and negatively.

☆ If you're not cut out for something,you're not suited to it,you're not fitted for it.It's a way to say that you just don't do that very naturally.

☆ There is a similar phrase "have your work cut out for you".And that just means you have a lot of work waiting for you.

☆ With "if you do something by the seat of your pants",you do it by instinct or experience.It's often used in contrast with doing things by the book or by instrument,using instruments,for example,to land a plane or doing things by the rules.

☆ The phrase comes from the early days of flying planes where the pilots would get some idea of how well the plane was functioning by the way it vibrated,the way they could feel the plane flying.

☆ In the U.S,in the sports,especially in football,the team usually has a playbook.It's a some sort of notebook with all the regular place,the regular strategies that the team uses.

☆ If you have a solid track record,you've shown or proven that you can actually perform and accomplish various tasks.


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09/11/19（木) 「実践ビジネス英語」

09/11/19（木) 「実践ビジネス英語」

☆ Wakimoto says his brother has done some accounting for the family business,and recently discovered that many people are looking for a support and advice on money matters.Shiga admires pepople who are starting new businesses,but adds that new businesses demand a lot of time to assure growth.

☆ A shingle is a smallish flat object usually used for covering the top of a house for making a roof.and they come in all kind of different materials.But in the idiom,hanging out of a shingle,they are using shingle to mean a small plaque or small signboard.And the phrase means starting your own business and it's usually used for some sort of a professional office,a lawyer's accountants,maybe doctors.

☆ "Guts" is often used in English to mean courage,and when you mean courage,it's in the plural "guts",you can use the word "guts"usually in the singular to talk about "intuition",something that you know but you can't really say why you know it.

☆ "Intestinal fortitude",it refers to "guts".The two words are fairly interchangeable,so if you have intestinal fortitude,"fortitude" means courage in times of trouble.It comes from the Latin word for "strong",so it means you're good at standing up to trouble or you have courage.

☆ There are two ways to spell forgo.And they both have different meanings.Shiga uses the word,f-o-r-g-o,it means give up something,do without something.But f-o-r-e-g-o,means "go before".Most of the time though you'll hear that word used in the form,"forgone",meaning something that's already happened and it's settled.

☆ The verb "plow back into"is used in business and finance to talk about a company taking all its profits and reinvesting it back into itself.Usually,it's for growth,this phrase has been used since about the 1930s,and it comes from farming actually,because in farming,there is a practice turning the soil from top to bottom.That's plowing the top soil back into the ground.

☆I think Hughes says relationship because nowadays you can't always asume that two people living together,and married to each other.

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09/11/18（水) 「実践ビジネス英語」

09/11/18（水) 「実践ビジネス英語」

☆ Wakimoto's brother Ernest,a grad student in chemistry,has decided to start his own business.Kinkaid says the current downturn doesn't seem a good time to establish a company,but Wakimoto's references the adage that says,every crisis is an opportunity in disguise.

☆ In English,of course,Wakimoto mentions only his brother,but I guess we can asuume it's his younger brother since he is still in school,and Wakimoto is out working in a regular company.

☆ If you keep tabs on someone,you watch them attentively or you keep a record about what they're doing.In a bar,you can also talk about running a tab,that means the bartender keeps the record of what you've been drinking,so you can pay everthing all at once.It could be a daily or weekly or even monthly,depending on the arrangement you make.

☆ "Line of work" is a kind of a set phrase to say "what kind of work do you do?"People also use this in a negative,saying, "That's not in my line."meaning I'm not competent there,it's not my part of my range of activities.There was even a quiz show in the U.S.,called "What's my line?"and they would have people who weren't famous but who did intresting work answer questions while a panel of celebrities would try to guess what their actual work was.

☆ "Corportate cog"is a phrase people use to talk about being a part of a company,but a very minor member of that company,a very subordinate member of an organization.It being a corporate cog,also means you're being interchangeble.A cog actually is a tooth on a gear,or some other kind of mechanism,like that,very small,very similar to many other very small cog.

☆ I've read that major test recently is almost the same across all the states,but each states does add its own requirements.

☆ "Old saw"is very interesting phrase.Nowadays,it's usually used to talk about some proverb or maxim that's been overused.It's kind of an old standy that everybody mentioned and nobody pays much attention to anymore.Originally though,old meant wise when this phrase was made and "saw" isn't related to "see",it's related to an old version of "say".

☆ Other ways you can say,"get-up-and-go spirit",are "drive" or "will to achieve" or even "ambition".

☆ "Having a good head for something" means you are good at doing that.Figures means "numbers" and "arithmetic",thing like that,so having a good head of figures probably makes you pretty good accountant.Another phrase you might hear is a good head for alcohol,which means the person can drink without becoming terribly drunk.

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09/11/11(水)～09/11/13(金)「実践ビジネス英語」

09/11/11(水)～09/11/13(金) 「実践ビジネス英語」

この週も録音に失敗しました。^^;すみません。

09/11/06（金) 「実践ビジネス英語」

09/11/06（金) 「実践ビジネス英語」

☆ Pearson and Kinkaid acknowledge that studying journalism can be a real asset to many careers.Wakimoto woories about how society will be affected by the loss of so many papers.
Pearson shares his concern because papers are important for a healthy democracy.

☆ Pearson uses the word "entree".often you hear this word or see it on menus in restaurants in the U.S.,because it's the word used in the U.S. to mean the main dish usually.How that came to be,I don't know.But "entree" is what you call the main dish in the U.S.,
In this case Pearson is using it to mean entrance,or freedom of access or entry.It's a way to help yourself get into some place.

☆ To see eye to eye is to agree.But this phrase is often used in negative,we just don't see eye-to-eye.Maybe it's more common in the negative because you don't have to say "We disagree." so clearly,even though that's exactly what it means.It's easy to say "We agree".

☆ "Gone are the day"is a phrase people might use,it's almost a set phrase.But you can use the phrase "Gone are the days when" to talk about something that doesn't happen anymore.

☆ And Kinkaid also talks about "tough shoe leather".She's talking about the past when reporters would go around interviewing people and getting their opinions and chasing down facts.They have to move around the lot,walk a lot to get the information they needed.

☆ A watchdog would be a guarddog,but when it's not the actual dog,the word "watchdog" is usually used.Wakimoto is talking about the press being a kind of watchdog.You also hear the phrase "consumer watchdog",which usually refers to a group.It could be government group.It could be outside of the governemnt that tries to protect comsumer rights.


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師走……

土曜日に中国語の教室に行って、その後年賀状書き。日曜日は部屋の掃除と窓ふき。今日は電器店に行っていました～。
はあー、疲れた～。

ビジ英がすすみません。^^;

昨日は「武士の一分」を録画していたら、テープ(!)の残量がたりなくて、後半が録画できませんでした。「坂の上の雲」を見ないで、録画したのに。残念です。

今の計算だと、1/3ごろまでで、やっと11月分の「ビジ英」がおわるぐらいでしょうか。12月分の「ビジ英」は1月にもちこすかもしれません。来年の4月ごろにもう一回TOEICを受けようかと思っているのですが、2月ごろからCNNに取りくむペースでは、スコアはのびないかも。
今のスコアだと、中途半端なので、せめて850ぐらいは来年欲しいです。

家計簿

今年は「生協の家計簿」を使っていましたが、なかなかすぐれものでした。
まじめに使うと、人生変わるんじゃないかというようなすぐれものです。^^
週ごとの累計計算もできるし。
来年は同じ生協の「わが家の家計簿」になります。……これは書くとこが少なくて、使いがってがいまいちそうです。^^;
あー、仕方ないか。累計計算とかは、自分でルーズリーフにでも書こう。

あさってからうちの地方は寒くなるとのことで、窓掃除をはやめにすましておこうか検討中です。……年賀状まだ書いてないんだけど。

師が走る月ですから、忙しいのは、しかたないですね。

09/11/05 (木)「実践ビジネス英語」

09/11/05 (木)「実践ビジネス英語」

この回は録音に失敗しました～。すみません。^^;

09/11/04（水) 「実践ビジネス英語」

09/11/04（水) 「実践ビジネス英語」

☆ The team is enjoying a welcome dinner for the new members,Pearson says his son Jim has decided to major in journalism when he starts college.The chice suprised his father since the printing media industry seems to be in decline.

☆ If you hang out with someone,you spend time with them,but you are not doing any specific activity,you're just enjoying each other's company."Hangout" is also a noun,and it means a place where you hang out with friends,just talking or you know,visiting,not do anything special.

☆ "Relocate" is sort of the formal word for moving from one resident to a new resident.Most of the time in general conversation,people just say "move".

☆ In the U.S.,many high schools have four years.junior high would be two years,or elementary school would be eight years.It's the same 12 years of school.Almost kids in the U.S.,like it is here.
If your kids go to a four your high school,the first year is called the freshman year,then sophomore,junior,and finally senior year.
Many colleges use this same words to describe each year of school.

☆ Pearson says that "You can say that again,Hiroshi."He's agreeing with what Hiroshi said.in fact,he agrees so strongly that it's even worthwhile repeating what he said.

☆ When I was a kid,and we'd ask parents"Can we do something?",instead of directly saying "no".They'd often say "Well,we'll see ",which usually meant "no",although occasionally we did get to do what they were saying "we'll see about."
In both phrases,"Let's see."and "We'll see.""see" is used to mean pretty much "Let's find out."or "We will find out."

☆ "Arcane" can also mean secret,it comes from the Latin word for mysterious or obscure and sometimes used to describe religions.

☆ Pearson use the relative pronun "whose" to refer to field."Whose" is used of course for people,especially,but it's correct to use it for things also,it just doesn't come up with often with things as it does with people.

☆ In fact,I think peole would find it very strange,if you said "of which".

☆ Journalism school is often called J-school,and business school is often called B-school,but other graduate school are usually not referred to by one letter,you'd say Med-School for medical school,and Law school for law school,of course.
Graduate school is generally for studies beyond four years of college,and that can be shortend to Grad School.

☆ Peason says this correctly,he said "To my wife and me.".English speakers sometimes overcorrect and get this wrong.They might say, "My wife and I"instead of "My wife and me".


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