08/12/16 (火) 「入門 ビジネス英語」

08/12/16 (火) 「入門 ビジネス英語」

J:Welcome back to the program,Toru.It's good to see you.
O:Thank you very much for your invitation.

J:How did you decide to join the company?
O:Because I went to business school.I had always wanted to be close to the top management of the company.So in order for me to do so,I thought I should get into the corporate finance field.That's why I joined the Microsoft.Well,at the time,Microsoft was looking for a controller of a division.
J:Okay.

J:Did you find anything unique about the company in your opinion?
O:Yes.Steve Ballmer is a CEO of Microsoft.He values the stories of the business.And the numbers,which support the stories,so he always asks "what is your story?""what is your story to make this reveunue?"And strategies to realize the revenue.
J:So.it's a very logical,not just a random story,but it's gotta be something very logical and process oriented.
O:Yeah.
J:They gets you to that goal?
O:Yes.
J:I see.

O:Tell your story.

J:Now how about specifically between the U.S. and Japanese Microsoft,you see any difference there?
O:Ah,huh,in Japan,the center of business is sales.
J:Sure.
O:Sales is always their superstar.Right? In U.S.,there's no center of business.Sales,finance,marketing and service are well mixed, and balanced.
J:I see.Okay.
O:And logical analysis is very important for U.S. executives still.Well, logical analysis is also important for Japanese exectives,but they tend to believe in their gut feeling also.
J:So,not just the analysis,but their instinct.
O:Right.
J:I was right?I see.Okay.

J:Well,I see a lot of Japanese tend to make decisions, not based on the person's skill.But based on more of an instinct.Why do you think that is?
O:Well,I guess,Japanese are not accustoned to be asked,to explian the dicisions logically,that's the problem.I think Japanese companies need to learn how to explain the dicisions logically when they compete globally.
J:I think that will also help to get investors,because then they'll understand the reasons for management desisions,and hopefully can make them more profitable in the end.
O:I agree.

J:I see.Great.

O:You upset them with your opinion.

J:Thanks for coming today,Toru.
O:Thank you very much.
J:And everybody,we'll give it whirl next week,talk to you then.Bye-bye.

08/12/15(月) 「入門ビジネス英語」

08/12/15(月) 「入門ビジネス英語」

J:Thanks for coming again,Toru.
O:Thank you very much for having me.

J:Yeah,Toru.Can you tell us a little bit about your time at GS,Goldman Sachs?
O:Okay.I belonged to the Equities Development.
J:Ah,huh.
O:Equities Devision deal with any product,related to stock shares,such as stock,options ,and futures and so on.When I joined Goldman Sachs,CEO was John
Corzine ,who is now Govenor of New Jersey,the successor of Mr.Corzine was Hank Paulson,who is now the secretary of treasurery of the United States.
J:Wow.

J:What kind of lesson did they teach you at Goldman?
O:Well,they kept telling us that the Goldman doesn't need a homerun hitter.But they need a single hitter,with high hitting average.That means Goldman doesn't need a superstar,and there are a couple of things that Goldman told me regarding the attitude of toward business,one is,under promise,over deliver,the other one is,if you don't know,say "I don't know."
J:Oh,that's a good point,you should never pretend that you know something if you don't,right?

J:Now I heard from another people from the market that the training at Goldman isn't exactly easy,right?
O:No way.Very tough.Well,I had …… what they call "open meeting".
J:What's that?
O:"Open meeting" means you can talk about anything,so an instructor comes,and cold calls someone,and ask questions.
J:Okay.
O:Until the person cannot answer,
J:Ouch.
O:Then if the person cannot answer,he goes,"go find out".Very stressful.
J:In front of everybody?
O:Yes.
J:Oh,man,
O:This kind of training last about 4 months.
A:4 months.
O:Then,we learned teamwork,we helped each other,because nobody can't answer those questions,completely through the end.
J:I see.

J:Did you go find out?
O:Yes,I did.
J:Okay.
O:Of course,otherwise, I can't go home.

J:Now these days I'm sure everybody's seeing Hank Pauson in the news.Right? Right? Now you've met him,right?
O:yes,just once though.
J:What was the experience like?
O:Well, you know,I just said hello to him.Of course,I worked with my colleages,you know ,Americans,they are so desperate for Paulson to remember them.
J:Ah, how come?Is that gonna help their career,do you think?
O:I think so.
J:Really?

O:Any clue?
J:I have no idea.No clue.

J:And Toru,I'll clue you in on a little secret
O:What?
J:It's time to go.Bye-bye.

08/12/12 (金) 「実践ビジネス英語」

08/12/12 (金) 「実践ビジネス英語」

S:Recently,we've been discussing the downside of air travel,namely delays,lost luggage,and ohter frustrations.Any horror stories of your own,Suzan?
I:Well,I've had my share of hassles,but I've heard a lot worse from other harden travelers.of course it's important to be prepared for delays,you know,and also so far,security and checking procedures which may vary from airport to airport.It's helpful to have some sort of contingency plan.And by this,I don't mean that you have to have everything planed out to the last detatil.But you need to have some idea of what you might do if a problemize arises.
S:Right.Be prepared,right?
I:Exactly.Well,for examle,like I always allow extra time for delays,and I bring work,or magazines,books,other reading material,just in case I end up with too much time on my hands.I wear clothes, accessories,that aren't likely to set off the medal detectors.and shields that can be easily slept on and off.Now Rosa Cortez in the vignettte,mentioned the lack of clear signage in many airports,and I think this is definitely another important point.If I have a connection,especially in an airport that I'm not familiar with,I check the airport web-site in advance,to get the rough idea of the layout.That way,I can have a clear idea how to get where you need to go once I arrive.Often connection times are really tight,and I have to dash through airports on numerous occasions,to make my connection,I once ran at full speed through several concourses at Chicago's O'Hare Airport to make a connection,only to find out that my connecting flight was delayed for two hours,but I definitely got my work out for the day.
S:That happens sometimes.
I:Definitely.
S:Have you ever had any problems with lost or delayed baggage?
I:Sure.My bag's been delayed or rerouted, in the past.Now the first time it happened.It was really stressful.I was flying in for friend's wedding.and I had packed my birdemid's dress,which is this really formal dress that have been selected by the bride for me to wear.I put that into my suitcase,into my check luggage,and it was lost,delayed.But I was really stressed out,really worried.Now,luckily the suitcase showed up in time for the wedding,but from that moment on,I've always made shore that if I have anything that's crucial or not easily replaced,I put it into my carry-on bag.I'd really hate to be faced with Jay Tyson's situation.Having to show up to a meeting in a aloha shirt and shorts.
S:Right.Shiga Hiroshi mentioned shipping luggage by express delivery service as one way to deal with that?And certainly,many business travelers prefer not check luggage at all,prefering to pack everything in a carry-on bag.
I:Yeah,definitely,that seems to be the most popular rule.And especially I think too recently.A lot of airlines have introduced fees to check-bags.And so,I think more people are going to try to pack as much as possible into their carry-ons.Now of course,I understand the reasoning.But I'm little worried that this is going to cause more problems,on borad their plane itself.Even now,passsangers argue a lot about space the overhead bin .And I can't imagime that the flight attendants and other members of the carrier are going to be too happy about having to settle even more arguments about that.Now for me,I do try to take carry-ons for trips of about two or three days.But anything longer,I tend to check bags.I haven't really mastered the art of packing lightly.
S:Have you ever been stranded at an airport?
I:Yes,yes.This is going back a few years.But I,I was stacking in Atlanta over night once.And I was delayed getting out of Boston,due to heavy snow storm,and even when I got on a plane in Boston,I knew that I was going to miss my conection in Atlanta.So,I had already prepared myself for that mentally,I think.And I arrived too late,for my connection.And the airline didn't give any vouchers for hotels,so I thought about it,and thought well,should I spend extra money or time for a hotel when really I could probably just stick it out for a few hours in the airport and catch the early flight?I tend not to get too stressed out about misconnections.Because I'm always convinced that something that the airlines stuff can do,I mean,but of course,that depends on patience and very smart approach with the airline stuff.
S:Both Roza and Melinda mentioned the importance of keep-me-cool when dealing with airline personnel,in the event of delays or other problem.I've seen plenty of passangers though ,who take the opposite approach and end up shouting at the airline's stuff.
I:I know.It's terrible.As I've seen that many times myself. But you know,there's an old saying." You'll catch more flies with honeys and vinegar,and I think this is really true.I had a lot of sympathy for airline stuff.Because they have to deal with these,you know, really angry,irate passangers every day.And sometimes all at once,if there is some major problem with a flight.
And you know this …… the lack of common courtesy of these passangers really bothers me.and I found that the gate agents or ticket agents or other members of airline stuff,they are much more receptive to a very calm,friendly apporoah,and to be honest,I've had a lot of success over the years with it.And have had some unexpected benefits as a result,such as being bumped up to the first class in a few occasions.
S:Well.lucky you.
I:Indeed,a few kind words can go a long way.

☆ be grounded
This can also be used in a positive way.If you hear that someone's argument is well-grounded,it means that is very convincing.

☆ flight to nowhere
So if you hear about a project going nowhere or career going nowhere,it means that it's not succeeding.But if you hear someone saying that they have to fly to the middle of nowhere,it means that they're going to a place that is far from a big city.

☆ So,pitch,you can use it as a verb,too, "you can pitch ideas"or "pitch proposals for something."

☆ "In the a.m." is used kind of casually,as a replacement for "in the morning",so you might hear someone say,"let's get together first thing in the a.m."However,you don't hear "in the p.m."used as much,you might hear someone say that from time to time ,but"in the a.m."is much definitely more common.

☆ "in one piece" is a very useful expression and it's very common.You can use it to describe people arriving in one piece,and you can also use it to describe something like a package arriving in one piece as well.

08/12/11 (木) 「実践ビジネス英語」

08/12/11 (木) 「実践ビジネス英語」

☆ "Get staranded"is kind of an interesting phrase."Starand"as a noun,is another word for "beach",so if you get staranded,it's similar to a boat being left on the beach,away from the water.A similar phrase is be left high and dry.

☆ This is a good way to use the word "claim".It's never used in English to mean "complaint".It's a formal statement of something that you say is true.I think the mixed-up occurs because often you file a claim,you formally say,that something was not correct.It's a formal complaint.I gusess you can think of it that way.

☆ I think it's only as a noun, it's only used in this phrase.As a verb,it's also used quite a bit to mean "you're coming too close to something you shouldn't do.So,for example, you could warn someone who's written a strong letter that what they're written verges on libel.Maybe you're not quite sure,it tips into be legal description of libel or not,it's very very close.

☆ "Downturn" is used a lot,and has many synonyms,such as "fall","decline","downtrend",and even "downswing".The opposite,"upturn"is the same."Upturn","increase","upswing","uptrend".

☆ There is a similar pharse ,"I'm worried to death about tax audits".So mayve that worry is pretty accurate.

☆ There is a also similar phrase"Something is gnawing at me".

☆ There are many ways to express this worry,here's a nice example.

08/12/10 (水) 「実践ビジネス英語」

08/12/10 (水) 「実践ビジネス英語」

☆ Kinkaid observes that no matter what you are up against when flying,you will do better if you stay calm and treat airline workers politely.

☆ Almost anything,larger than a letter that you send somewhere, you can say you're shipping it.

☆ "Walk off" is a kind of a nice verb to use here,because it sounds like "walk off the plane".You don't have to go near baggage claim,you just take your time and stroll away.You could also use the verb "walk off" though to show that you're not paying attention to someone. Instead of talking or interacting,you just walk off.

☆ I was unlucky enough to be flying the day after this happened.When everything was still pretty chaotic,but luckily I got to the airport really early,I almost 4 hours early,and of course that point I went right through all of security and everything and end up waiting for hours untill I could get on my plane.

☆ It's always best to check every time you fly.

☆ Kinkaid uses the phrase "take it on the chin".This phrase is often used when you just have to put up with something.You could say "you have to be stoic","you have to be brave"and not complain.A similar phrase is "take it like a man".

☆ The idiom comes from boxing,if you can take a punch on your chin and continue fighting,you're considered a very good boxer.

☆ I've even read lots of advice that says,if you can be extra kind and helpful to the counter people ,at times like this,if there is a chance of giving something away,you'll be considered long before many other people.

☆ Tyson makes a nice almost pun,using the word,"piece".If you are in one piece,it means you came through okay,you are safe, you're not damaged,everything is fine.But he also uses the word "piece"to talk about luggage.When you count luggage,you count pieces of luggage,so if you get through the airport in one piece,meaning you're safe,with all your pieces,with all your luggage,you've had a pretty good trip.

☆ Counter is sort of an interesting prefix.It can be used to mean "contrary" or "opposite" which is the meaning in this sentence.But it can also be ued to mean "corresponding" or "complementary".A good example is "counterweight" or "counterpart".

08/12/09 (火) 「入門 ビジネス英語」

08/12/09 (火) 「入門 ビジネス英語」

J:How are you doing today,Toru?
O:Very good.Thank you.
J:Great.

J:All right.Toru.Let's talk about,you getting MBA,Masters of Business Administration,why did you wanna get it?
O:Well,there are two reasons for that.One,my under grad major was English.So I had never studied economics,marketing,accounting,finance,allthose the stuff for,you need for business,so I thought I should study those before I get into the management.
J:Sure.
O:The other one is ,young expat from U.S.,with,you know, holding MBA,come to Japan as high level mangagement,you know,without knowing anything about job,or industry.
J:Right.
O:Because they have MBA,they can become a high level management.
J:I see .Yeah.
O:So,I just couldn't stand it.I thought I should have one for myself.
J:Well,whatever motivation works for you,gladly you have one now.

J:so,when getting an MBA,what exactly do you learn and can you tell us how hard it is?
O:Yeah,you will learn everything you need for business management,just like I said.As you guys may know MBA students have very very tough time.I used to study until 7 am,every day.
J;Especially in agood school that you went to school,right?
O:Yeah.
J:It's a good school.Common,school is great.
O:But you don't have time to sleep or break.
J:Oh,man.
O:There were many things that professors ask us.
J:Ah,uh.
O:But I guess it's a message from professors,that we should prioritize the things,you know.They know we cannot do.So we should know what to do,or what not to do.
J:I see.
O:If you don't have to finish today,you shouldn't do that.
J:And you can't do that in school,you'll never figure out that your business career either,right?
O:Right,right.
J:I see.

J:What is change for you now after getting an MBA?
O:Well.drawers of the ideas got increased very much.
J:Okay.
O:you know,there was so many ideas that I learned from business school.But there were so many things,therefore it took me a couple of years to digest it all.
J:Sure.
O:You know.But,because of MBA,I could be hired by Goldman Sachs,Microsoft and DELL.So,I'd really appreciate that.And also I had some network.Some of my classmates are former government officials.
J:Uh,uh
O:All those famous corporations,Japanese corporations.Ten years have passed,since I got MBA,but I still have network.
J:I see.Good.The networks is very important for business.

J:So do you have any message for the people listening to this show regarding getting an MBA?
O:Of course,I strongly recommend everybody get MBA.Because my life has changed.So that means your life will change.It's never too late.
J:All right.

J:Thank you.

J:Okajima-san,dou you use this kind of pharse,"what we don't want is just to"any time?
O:What we don't want is to just calculate the numbers.We should understand their affect on our business.

J:Yep,thanks again for coming,bye-bye.

朝

やることがたくさんあるのに、ほけほけと寝ていました。
起きたら、猫は畳の上にもどしていました。……寒いので、皆胃腸の調子がわるくなっているのかもしれません。
「椿三十郎」はみずに、「犬神家」をちょっとみて、ゆうべは寝ました。

こちらの地方では、3日連続で「Back To The Future」をやっていて、それを録画しています。たくさん買いだめていたビデオテープも残り少なくなってきました。
4年ぐらい前までは、SMAPのテープが多かったですが、熱もさめてきたので、少し消していこうかと思います。
年賀状もかいたし、後はそうじだけです。……て、ラジオ講座が大量にのこっているのですが。

08/12/08 (月) 「入門ビジネス英語」

08/12/08 (月) 「入門ビジネス英語」

J:Hi,again,Toru.
O:Hi.Thank you very much for having me this week,too.
J:Our pleasure.

J:Yeah.Can you tell us a little bit about the start of your career and some of the things you got to do there?
O:Okay.At that time,everyone who was hired by North West had to start his/her career at the airport.I was in the Narita Airport.There are many many stuff I did during my airport business.Well,I did the customer services,of course,weight and balance,
J:Weight and balance.
O:Yeah.It's making an loading plan for seven-forty sevens.
J:Okay,yeah.
O:Sometimes I had to feed Tigris.
J:Tigers? You're caring tigers?
O:Yes.Yeah.Tigers travel.Sometimes I had to explain to the captain what kind of dangerous goods are loaded on the aircraft.
J:For example,what?
O:Like a flammable liquids,or those types of a very dangerous goods.
J:Uh,uh,okay.

J:Now you also worked overseas,at the JFK Airport,right?Any interesting experience is there?
O:Of course,well,there is very tough to work in the airport in the U.S.Especially in the JFK,you know,people talk so fast,and people talk very strong,you know ,like sometimes I had a very very famous jewelry brand,cargo freights .
J:Ah,huh.
O:Going to Tokyo
J:Uh,uh.
O:Two very strong big guys were wait the jewelries.
J:Did they have any guns?
O:Yes,they I did.
J:Oh,men.

J:I fly quite a bit too with my work, and you know ,I love airline language,it's always fun for me to hear, because it's kind of different world even in regular English,right? Can you tell us, you know,a bit about airline languages?How these things work,you know?
O:Okay,how about the airport?JFK?
J:Okay.
O:It's a Kennedy airport?LGA,that's ,LaGuardia.
J:LaGuardia.Former governor.
O:Is that right?
J:Yeah.That's it is former governor of NY.
O:I didn't know that.
J:Ah,huh,that's right.
O:And North West ,it's NW.
J:Okay,
O:We don't say NW.We say Nancy Willy.
J:Nancy Willy!
O:We'd like to prevent misunderstanding.
J:Are there any other ones that you use at?
O:No.
J:Another abbreviations?
O:Air Way bill.A-W-B.
J:AWB.
O:Yeah,it's a ticket for freights.
J:Okay,so a person has regular airline ticket,and air way bill is the ticket for the freight itself?
O:Yes.
J:I didn't you know that.AWB..

J:Now I am glad to have an expert every day.

O:It sounds too to be true.Any drawbacks?

J:Okajima-san,thanks again for coming today.And next time,we'd like to hear a little bit about your experience getting an MBA in the States,Okay?
O:Of course.I'd love to.
J:Sounds great.Sounds good.Bye-bye.

08/12/05 (金) 「実践ビジネス英語」

08/12/05 (金) 「実践ビジネス英語」

☆ The group discusses how luggage gets lost and what you can do about it.

☆ A "carousel" is a circular convyor,especially the kind you see in airports.But you can also use the word to mean merry-go-round,which is sometimes a circular convyor for kids to play on.

☆ A hub is a central point of a circle,so also on cars the centers of the wheels are called hubs ,and so cars have hubcaps.

☆

☆ Coterz used the word "connecting" at the begining of her sentence,but she is not talking about "connecting flights".She's using it ,also in the meaning of put-together.But in this case,she means keeping bags and the people who own them on the same flight.

☆ Although many people like antiques,if you use this "antiquated",it's always used negatively,to mean something that's really too old and needs to be updated.

☆ "Pitch" in English has many meanings.In this case,a business pitch is usually some kind of a proposal,some kind of a plan that you want the other people to go along with.

☆ Tyson starts off by saying,"I didn't think".He could've said "It didn't occur to me".That phrase might be a little difficult for non-English speakers to use.It doesn't seem like it sort of logically would come into your head to use the word "occur" to talk about something you're thinking about.

☆ Kinkaid talks about "transatlantic travel".Trans is a prefix you can use with many words to mean across or on the other side or even through.So,you also hear transpacific ,The Trans -Siberian Railway is very famous,and transcontinental is used quite a bit in the U.S.,because people do go all the way across the continent fairly often.

☆ "Vacation" and "holiday" ,nowadays in English are often used to completely interchangably.North America tends to use "vacation" and in the U.K.tends to use the word "holiday" to talk about the same thing.
Originally though,"holiday" comes from holy day.It comes from celebrations,originally religous celebrations,and then towards modern times,often for historical or political reasons."Vacation" has been used in English since about 14th century,and originally it was closer to the meaning of freedom or release,or been free from duty.

見るべきテレビがない

ひさしぶりに民放のテレビを見ようと思ったら、「面白い番組がない。」ので、ぐらぐらしました。^^;
こんなにテレビってつまらなかったかなあ??もともと映画(洋画)しか普段見ないのですが。年末は特番ばかりで、余計つまらなかったです。
テレビ離れが声高にさけばれてるわけがよくわかる。

年末に「椿三十郎」があるそうで、それを見るくらいかなあ。NHKハイビジョンはけっこういい番組をやってますが、うち、契約してないし。NHKにもうちょっとがんばってほしいです。