Kenichi Ohmae (born 1943) is the only internationally renowned Japanese
guru who is known for his thinking about strategy rather than about
operations. Indeed, he is often referred to as “Mr Strategy”. Like Akio
Morita (see article) and Ikujiro Nonaka (see article), Ohmae translated
Japanese business culture and strategy into English. His books are full
of Japanese examples, and they helped familiarise western audiences with
Japan’s management breakthroughs―for instance, the introduction of the
just-in-time (JIT―see article) system at Toyota. At the same time, Ohmae
took American and European ideas and interpreted them for a Japanese
audience.
As part of my job, I talk to many Japanese people who are trying to study English. And I always ask “why do you want to learn English”? The answers are generally along the lines of “to improve my job”, “because my company told me to” and “because I want to travel to another country some time”. These are good answers, but when people get busy because of work or family, they stop studying, saying that they “lack time” or “lack opportunity to speak to other people in English”.
In English, we talk about “motivation”, which is “our reason for doing something”. If our motivation is weak, then we’re less likely to keep doing something if a distraction comes along. That is, our motivation for concentrating on the distraction becomes stronger than our motivation for studying English and we then stop studying.
If we watch creative people, like musicians, we may find that they are always playing their guitar even when they are not on stage with the rest of the band. Someone like Eric Clapton can not “not play guitar”. When he’s watching TV, he’s got a guitar in his hands and he’s fingering the strings. When he’s talking to someone on the phone, he’s playing the guitar. When he’s in the bus traveling to another city, he’s playing the guitar. The musician plays guitar even if he is not famous, not on stage and not in front of an audience. His strong motivation for playing the guitar exceeds the motivation of any distractions because he is driven to play.
In my case, I like reading manga. So, I study Japanese in order to understand the story of the manga. I like reading many different manga all the time, so even if I am distracted by something, I’m still studying Japanese. For me, manga is my “inner Eric Clapton” for studying Japanese.
To keep studying English, we need an overwhelming motivation to overcome distractions.
So, why do you want to learn English? What’s your “inner Eric Clapton”?
We’ve all been there. Trapped at a restaurant with co-workers, wishing we could go home to our family, meet our friends, or just go to sleep at a decent hour! But sometimes it’s hard to be the first one to leave a dinner party or a drinking party, especially in a business setting when you feel like everything you do is being judged. Add to that the uncertainty that comes with communicating in a different culture and speaking in a different language, and you might feel obligated to be the last person at the table, no matter how late it is.
Well, there’s good news. In the West, most people tend to be much more understanding about leaving a dinner or drinking party early. Your co-workers and business partners understand that you have other interests and responsibilities outside of your company and they will understand if you have to go home early or say goodnight before everyone else.
Sure, they might make a few jokes:
“You’re leaving pretty early. Is it past your bedtime?”
“What, you don’t like us anymore?”
“I guess your wife/husband is the real boss, huh?”
But these jokes are simply meant to show you that they enjoy your company, not make you feel that you are a bad employee for leaving early. No one is offended and no one thinks that leaving a dinner or drinking party early is a reflection of your commitment to the company or to doing your best during working hours. So don’t worry about leaving early. Just get up and go!
Here are some useful phrases for leaving in a polite, confident way.
To begin, simply tell everyone that you are going and give them the reason:
- It’s getting late. I should be going.
- I hate to be the first one to leave, but I have to get home.
- I wish I didn’t have to go, but I told my family I would be home by 9:00.
- I have to get an early start tomorrow morning so I’m going to head out.
- Please excuse me. I must be getting home. (Formal)
Then be sure to thank them for letting you spend time with them:
- I’ve had a lot of fun tonight, thanks.
- I really enjoyed myself tonight.
- It was great to have a chance to hang out with you.
- Thank you so much for the wonderful evening. (Formal)
Finally, suggest going out another time:
- Why don’t we get together like this again, soon?
- Let me know the next time you are planning to go out.
- I hope we have an opportunity to do this again sometime in the future. (Formal)
With these phrases you will be able to leave a dinner party or a drinking party without worrying that you are being rude or inconsiderate.
Also, remember that….Oh, I didn’t realize how long this blog post had gotten. Please excuse me. I must finish it up soon. I really enjoyed writing it for you and I hope I have a chance to write a blog post for you again in the future. Take care!
例）Perks Trimmed for Expatriate Financiers in Hong Kong
＝ Perks were Trimmed for Expatriate Financiers in Hong Kong
（２）未来＝to不定詞
未来の出来事についてはto不定詞が使われます。
例）N.R.A. to Count Sotomayor Votes
× N.R.A. will Count Sotomayor Votes
３．記号
（１）：（コロン）
小見出しを付ける時によく使われます。
例）Advertising: An Ogre’s Trail Leads to a Bargain
例）China: 4 Die as Landslide Destroys Dam Project
また、誰かの発言を紹介する時にも使われます。
例）Israeli Official: No Option Off Table on Iran
（２）；（セミコロン）
二つのパーツを繋げる時に使われることがあります。
例）Dow Closes Over 9,000; First Time Since January
（３），（コンマ）
追加の情報を加える時に使われます。
例）AT&T Earnings Drop 15%, Partly on iPhone Subsidies
例）Global Views of U.S. Helped by Obama, Survey Says
例）Sidney W. Bijou, Child Psychologist, Is Dead at 100
例）Countering Riots, China Rounds Up Hundreds
━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ボールペン(ball pen)
-------------------------
■A area (cage) when we store balls. Similar to a pig pen on a farm. Maybe
you have seen the kids play area at IKEA; they have a ball pen.
※ボールをしまう場所や籠を想像しています。
英訳：a ball point pen，a ball point
━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ワンパターン(one pattern)
-------------------------
■Burberry is known to sell one pattern.
※布の模様のことです
英訳：manneristic, routine
━━━━━━━━━━━━━ クーラー(cooler)
-------------------------
■The place where we meet to gossip. "Around the water cooler."
※冷水器と勘違いするそうです。
英訳：air conditioner，room air conditioner，cooling system
━━━━━━━━━━━━━ イメージアップ(image up)
-------------------------
■I made a mistake when making copies; I placed it image up!
※紙や冊子のイメージ（絵）を上にして
置いている様子が浮かんだようです。
Over the past few weeks we have seen the untimely passing of several well-known people both here in Japan; Imawano Kiyoshiro and in the US where we have seen arguably the greatest Michael Jackson and fringe celebrities as in the case of informercial pitchman Billy Mayes. In between those extremes we have also lost Farrah Fawcett, Carl Malden, and most recently former American football star Steve McNair. There is never a good time to go but with all of these we would say that they passed on far too early.
As I watched Michael Jackson’s memorial service I was very happy to see that his family and friends highlighted the man he was rather than the entertainer. After being in the spotlight his whole life I think we know, what we wanted to know is the person. In my opinion, this desire to know the “real” Michael was what lead to all the rumours and gossip that surrounded him which in turn lead us to know even less of the truth.
Since his death the rumours and speculation have continued as people try to learn the truth surrounding his death and speculate on what will happen. With a billion people rumoured to have watched his memorial service, it is clear to see just how many people e are curious about the brightest of all the “stars.”
With all of these stories out there I thought it would be a good time to look at some phrases that we use to break news to people.
When we want to start a conversation around the office.
- Have you heard the news? Michael Jackson passed away.
- Did you hear about Michael Jackson? He died last night.
- Hey, big news! We just won a new account.
When you are sharing information in the middle of the conversation;
- I heard that he died in his sleep.
- Rumour is that he was exhausted from all the rehearsals.
- They are saying that a billion people watched his memorial service.
- I read that his upcoming concert sold 750,000 tickets in 5 hours.
When you know the news will have a big impact on the person you need to tell.
- I am sorry to be the one to tell you this, but…
- I am not sure to say this, but I just hear that your department is being downsized.
Reacting to the news or gossip;
- Are you serious?
- No way!
- Oh no! That’s terrible.
- Yeah, I heard that too!
Expressing doubt about the information;
- I find that hard to believe.
- That doesn’t sound right to me.
- I’ll believe it when I see it.
- I want to hear it from the horse’s mouth.
(The horse’s mouth refers to the person who is most involved.)
Example
Co-worker 1: I heard that we are closing the Tokyo office in September and moving to Osaka.
Co-worker 2: What? I can’t believe that; all of our clients are here in the Kanto area.
Co-worker 1: I know, but the boss is from Kansai. Rumour has it that he will only take half of us with him.
Co-worker 2: No way! We could lose our jobs? I am going to see him; I want to hear it from the horse’s mouth!
