ビジネスマンに捧ぐ～　英語学習に役立つ！PEGL事務局ブログ -5ページ目

In the News#41 - Rush

I wish you a Happy New Year！
本年も宜しくお願い致します。

2011年の新年の抱負、"New Year's Resolution(s)"は何にしましたか？

英語力やグローバルマインドの向上を掲げた方にピッタリの
年末年始特集「In the News」シリーズを本日もご紹介いたします。

第41回の本日は"Rush"です。

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In the News#41 - Rush

On Nov. 9, 2010, the Daily Yomiuri ran the following story:
Smokers’ rush to quit overwhelms clinics

The word “rush” can have several meanings depending on the context. The two meanings that we care about today are “to move quickly” and “to want to do something quickly”. “I was in a rush to get out of the house this morning, so I forgot my security pass at home” is an example of “wanting to do something quickly (wanting to leave the house to go to work)”. “I will rush home after work to play my favorite video game” is an example of “moving quickly (quickly returning home)”.

We have several phrases that use “rush” in this fashion:
Rush hour (everyone trying to go to work or return home at the same time)
Christmas rush (everyone going to the stores to buy presents in the days just before Christmas Day)
Rush traffic (the cars on the roads during rush hour)
Rush hour traffic jam
Be in a rush (wanting to do something quickly in a careless way)
Rushing home, rushing to work, rushing to school
Rush out the door (quickly leave the house)

Often, “rush” is used to together with a deadline. In the case of “Christmas rush”, shoppers are all quickly going to the stores to buy presents prior to Christmas day. “I rushed to buy a cake for my sister’s birthday party tonight”. The idea is that we must do something at the last minute prior to the deadline, and that we must move quickly because the deadline is very near.

From the above headline, “smokers’ rush to quit”, it is easy to get the impression that smokers want to quickly quit smoking. Why? What is the deadline? What need is there for people that smoke tobacco to quit smoking now, rather than later? Obviously, the increase in cigarette prices has resulted in more people wanting to quit, but this is not directly time-related. In the article, hospitals and clinics are running out of nicotine suppression medicines, so we could think that maybe more smokers are “rushing to get the anti-nicotine medicines before the supplies run out”, but this is not actually the case either. The supplies are running out because more people want to quit, but the increase in ex-smokers buying the drugs is not because of the decreasing supply.

So, again, “what is the rush to quit?” What is the deadline? The answer is that there is no deadline. The Daily Yomiuri editors are apparently misusing the word “rush” in their quest to make the headline attract more readers.

When we have many people doing something all at the same time, we get “a crowd”, or “a crush of people”. Imagine the rush hour trains in Tokyo, with many people cramming into one train car. Those people are crushing each other. This is “a crush of people”. So, a better headline may have been “Crush of Smokers trying to quit overwhelms clinics”. In this version, there are just too many people trying to quit at one time, and they are using up all of the nicotine-suppression medicine as a result.

As you read the newspapers this week, try to find more examples of “rush” and “be in a rush”.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T101108005078.htm

- Curtis Hoffmann

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In the News#40 - Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down

オンライン英会話講師のCurtis講師が提供する
ニュースの英語を解説する" In the News"シリーズ
第40回の本日は"Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down"です。

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In the News#40 - Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down

The idioms “give a thumbs up” and “give a thumbs down” appear in the newspapers quite often.

While it is commonly believed in the U.S. that the “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” hand signs originated with the Roman emperors in the ancient coliseums, there has been some research to indicate that they came later during the Middle Ages in Europe. One suggestion is that a person’s thumb print was used as kind of signature on documents, and that extending the thumb then evolved to mean “everything is ok”.

Currently, Americans hold their hands out, fingers curled in a fist and the thumb sticking up, as a way to say “good going”, “you did well” or “congratulations”. Extending the hand with the thumb down is less common, but does have the meaning of “strong disapproval”.

The English phrases “giving a thumbs up” and “giving a thumbs down” have the same meanings as the physical hand gestures. Primarily meaning “to approve or disapprove” of something.

Examples:
“The recent defeat of Democrats in the U.S. elections was a “thumbs-down” for President Obama’s policies.”
“After tasting the vanilla ice cream, we had to give a strong thumbs-up to Hagen-Daaz’s “classic flavors” product line.”

Most western English-speaking countries have similar versions of these phrases, and most also use the hand gestures in the same way. We have to be extremely careful of cultural differences, though, because in Italy and Greece, the thumbs-up gesture is a very strong insult with negative connotations. So, using a thumbs-up sign in Italy is a “big thumbs-down”.

As you read the newspapers this week, try to find more examples of “thumbs up” and “thumbs down”.

- Curtis Hoffmann

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In the News#39 - Kingpin

オンライン英会話講師のCurtis講師が提供する
ニュースの英語を解説する" In the News"シリーズ
第39回の本日は"Kingpin"です。

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In the News#39 - Kingpin

On Nov. 5, 2010, the Japan Times ran the following story:
Diet takes up stimulus package; kingpin stays mum

The key word today is ”kingpin”. As with some of the newspaper articles I’ve written about, “kingpin” only appears in the headline and not in the body of the article. And, as with many articles, there is no clear reason for why the editors picked a specific headline since there’s nothing in the article that ties back to the word “kingpin” as a form of word play. So, we have to ask, why did the Japan Times editors choose to use the word “kingpin”, and what does it mean?

Initially, the “king pin”, or “king bolt” was the one piece of metal holding the body of a wooden wagon to the front axle. Also called the “swivel bolt”, this metal allowed the front wheels of the wagon to change directions so that the wagon could be steered to the left or the right. Without the king bolt, the wagon would be unsteerable. (A second meaning of “king pin” comes from bowling, where the king pin is the pin in the center of the formation of bowling pins.)

From “the pin that allows a wagon to be steered”, “king pin” eventually took on the figurative meaning of “the most important person” in a company or organization. We can think of the king pin as the person that steers or controls the organization.

Starting about October, 2009, the Japan Times began referring to Mr. Ichiro Ozawa as the “kingpin of the DPJ”. While this phrase does not appear frequently, it has been in the Japan Times about once or twice a week over the past year. Occasionally, as with the above headline, “kingpin” has been a “code word” meaning “Mr. Ozawa”.

Now that we know the origin and current meaning of “kingpin”, we can ask why it was used in the above headline without being used in the body of the article itself. The answer is that the Japan Times editors have chosen to give Mr. Ozawa a nickname, and it’s this nickname that they used in the headline, while the reporter refers to Mr. Ozawa by name in the main article. There’s no real word play this time.

As you read the newspapers this week, try to find more examples of “kingpin”.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20101105a4.html

- Curtis Hoffmann

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In the News#38 - Raising Hackles

オンライン英会話講師のCurtis講師が提供する
ニュースの英語を解説する" In the News"シリーズ
第38回の本日は"Raising Hackles"です。

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In the News#38 - Raising Hackles

On Nov. 2, 2010, the Daily Yomiuri ran the following story:
Medvedev visit raises pols’ hackles

First, today’s story regards the reactions of various Japanese politicians to the news that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had visited Kunashiri Island. In the headline, “pol” is just an abbreviation of “politician”. The reaction to Medvedev’s visit by the Japanese politicians was uniformly negative. That is, regardless of whether the politicians belonged to the LDP or the DPJ, they were angry across the board.

The key phrase for today is “raising one’s hackles”. There are two kinds of “hackles” - the long, slender feathers on the neck of certain types of birds; and, the special hairs on the back of the neck of most dogs. I write “special hairs”, because these are the hairs that stand up away from the neck when the dog is angry. For both birds and dogs, when the animal is angry and preparing to attack, the “hackles” on their neck lift up away from the skin, said to be “standing up”.

From this behavior, we get the phrases, “to get one’s hackles up”, “raising one’s hackles” and “to make someone’s hackles rise”. “To get one’s hackles up” means that that person has become angry. “To raise someone’s hackles” means that we are making someone else angry.

Examples:
“He spilled his beer on me, and that got my hackles up.”
“John enjoys bullying other people and making their hackles rise”.
“The one sure way to get my hackles up is to insult my family.”

So, if we look at the above headline, we can see that some politicians were made angry by Medvedev visiting some place. To understand the full meaning of the headline, we have to read the story. The first sentence is “Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Kunashiri Island on Monday prompted criticism from both sides of the aisle”. This tells us who Medvedev is, and that his visit was to Kunashiri Island. What is still missing is who the “pols” are. We need to assume that because the Daily Yomiuri is a Japanese newspaper, and that the intended readers are those that live in Japan, that “pols” are politicians living in Japan. That is, “pols” are Japanese politicians, primarily members of the LDP and the DPJ. This is verified later in the article.

In summary, the headline “Medvedev visit raises pols’ hackles” can be rewritten as “Japanese politicians are angry that Russian President Medvedev visited Kunashiri Island”. Obviously, this rewrite is too long, which is why the Yomiuri editors chose the shorter version using the “hackles” idiom. There is no other mention of “hackles” or dogs in the article though, so we have to guess why “raises hackles” was used instead of the shorter phrase “angers pols”. It may be because “raising hackles” also has the nuance of “fighting mad”. Maybe the Yomiuri editors want to imply that the Japanese politicians are so angry that they will fight back against Russia. This might just be “wishful thinking” on the part of the Yomiuri editors.

As you read the newspapers this week, try to find more examples of “raised hackles”.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T101101004392.htm

- Curtis Hoffmann

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In the News#37 - Buried Under

オンライン英会話講師のCurtis講師が提供する
ニュースの英語を解説する" In the News"シリーズ

年末年始スペシャルとして、28日～4日まで連載でお届けします
年末の学習にお役立てください。

第37回の本日は"Buried Under"です。

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In the News#37 - Buried Under

On Oct. 30, 2010, the Daily Yomiuri ran the following story:
Govts buried under trash scheme

The idiom “to get buried” is probably one of the easier idioms to understand. Most obviously, when someone dies and is placed in a hole in the ground in a cemetery (called a “burial plot”), the earth removed from the hole is placed back inside, hence “burying the person”. In fact, the verb “bury”, means “to put someone in a hole and cover them with dirt”.

We use “bury” in a figurative sense to describe the situation where we have too much work and not enough time. That is, when we are overwhelmed by a situation. Examples include:

“I’ve been buried in paperwork the last three nights this week.”
“I know where the report is, but it’s buried under all these other files.”
“I’m buried in work now, but I hope to dig myself back out by the end of the month” (i.e. - “I hope to finish all of this work by the end of the month.”)

In today’s headline article, the reporter writes about a government-sponsored program designed to convert garbage into fuel (called “refuse-derived fuel (RDF)”). The problem is that most of the garbage generated by the people of Japan is not very flammable. The fuel created from this garbage does not burn well and does not release much energy. Of the 50 local government-run facilities in Japan, more than half have needed to pay steel and paper companies to use the RDF.

The intent of the RDF facilities was to create a profit for the local government agencies by recycling trash. But, if the facilities must pay customers to use the RDF, then obviously they are losing money instead. In other words, the RDF program is causing problems for the local governments.

The Daily Yomiuri editors decided to use “buried under” as a word play to create an image of the local government facilities being overwhelmed by the expenses of running a money-losing program. In a more literal sense, the local governments would be buried under mountains of garbage, if they could not find ways of disposing of that garbage. But, we can use this idiom to talk about “being buried under bills”, or “not having enough money to pay for all of our expenses”. In this last sense, the local governments losing money on a failed RDF program will be unable to pay their expenses, and thus would be “buried under their bills”.

An example of this last usage includes:
“Since the latest salary cuts, I’m constantly buried under bills at the end of the month.”

As you read the newspapers this week, try to find more examples of “getting buried under”.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T101029004779.htm

- Curtis Hoffmann

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12月30日（木）メールマガジンは休刊します

現在月に２回の無料講義映像プレゼントを行っている

実践ビジネス英語講座のメールマガジン

『グローバルリーダーへの道』ですが

12月30日（木）は休刊させていただきます。

次回発行は1月6日予定です。

無料講義映像は1月13日、20日にプレゼント予定です。

実践ビジネス英語講座の初級・中級・上級コースより

選りすぐりの講義映像を無料で視聴できるこの機会を

是非ご利用ください！

▼まだメールマガジンに登録されていない方はこちらから▼

無料メールマガジン「グローバルリーダーの道」

事務局山口

In the News#36 - Bad Eggs

オンライン英会話講師のCurtis講師が提供する
ニュースの英語を解説する" In the News"シリーズ
第36回の本日は"Bad Eggs"です。

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In the News#36 - Bad Eggs

On Oct. 26, 2010, the Daily Yomiuri ran the following story:
Canada, EU bad eggs in 'Dodo Awards'

The dodo was a bird that lived on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. In the 1600’s, explorers to this island brought with them various animals like rats, cats and dogs, which eventually caused all of the dodos to die off, and since then the dodo has been a symbol of mankind’s harmful impact on the planet (along with the American Passenger Pigeon, which Americans ate into extinction in the early 1900’s).

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to preventing the further extinction of other animal species. In order to highlight their organization and to punish governments that have acted in ways that hurt the environment, the CDB gave “Dodo Awards” to the Canadian government, and to the European Union. Canada was chosen “for being the only country to block reference to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples within the ABS regime".

In English, there is an idiom – “a bad egg”. If we look at a chicken egg, from the outside we can not tell if it is fresh or not. If the egg is not fresh, if it ages and starts to rot, when we crack it open we will be surprised by the bad smell. Figuratively, a person that commits crimes or hurts other people is sometimes called “a bad egg”. This is no longer a common phrase in the U.S., but it was used originally as in the example: “Don’t get involved with Tony Danza, he’s a bad egg.”

The Daily Yomiuri editors chose to use “bad egg” in the headline to create a word play on “dodo” (a bird that lays eggs) and “bad egg” (a villain). The headline could be reworded as “Canada and the EU given ‘Dodo Awards’ because of their anti-environmental decisions”. An alternative, which is closer in meaning to the original headline, would be “Canada, EU are bad guys, get ‘Dodo Awards’”.

As you read the newspapers this week, try to find more examples of “bad eggs”.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T101025004183.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_Pigeon
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/

- Curtis Hoffmann

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In the News#35 - Cop-out

オンライン英会話講師のCurtis講師が提供する
ニュースの英語を解説する" In the News"シリーズ
第35回の本日は"Cop-out"です。

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In the News#35 - Cop-out

On Oct. 26, 2010, the Daily Yomiuri ran the following story:
Rift, stalled negotiations see COP10 nations in potential cop-out

According to dictionary.com, the phrase “cop-out” dates back to some time between 1940 and 1945. The exact origin is unclear, but it may be related to the fact that in the first half of the 1900’s police officers (also called “cops”) in New York and Chicago had a reputation for being corrupt. Many cops were on the payroll of mafia gangs, and when a mafia gang wanted the police to prevent an investigation into a crime, a corrupt officer would receive money to “keep out of the way”. Even if this is not the true origin of the phrase, we can think of “cop-out” to mean “cops staying out of the way”. The true meaning of “cop-out” is “to avoid taking responsibility for one’s actions”, or “to avoid making a difficult decision”.

COP10 is an abbreviation for the “10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity”. This conference ran from October 18 to the 29th in Nagoya. While there were many countries present at the conference, creating the basis for a variety of discussions, the problem is that in order to get all of the involved countries to agree to realistic contracts for licensing genetic resources will require sacrifices by all of them. That is, for COP10 to be successful they must make difficult decisions.

Therefore, because the newspaper reporter was commenting on the “rift and stalled negotiations” between the COP10 members, the conference could possibly fail to come to agreement on the difficult decisions. In other words, they would “cop-out”.

The Daily Yomiuri editor obviously selected “cop-out” as a word play on “COP10”. An alternative headline could have been “Rifts stall COP10 negotiations”. However, this re-worded headline would have been too short for the available space in the newspaper. The longer headline was chosen for its ability to fill up the available space.

Other examples for using cop-out are:

We invited some friends to the party, but they copped out (decided to not come to the party).
The competitors threatened to cut their prices by 30%, but they copped out and only cut by 5%.
If you’re going to talk big, don’t cop out when the time comes for action (that is, take actions that match the boasts you make).

As you read the newspapers this week, try to find more examples of “cop-out” and “giving in”.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T101025004181.htm
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cop-out

- Curtis Hoffmann

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consider joining us/consider to join usの違いとは？

本日は、PEGLの受講生からAirCampusに寄せられる質問と
その回答をご紹介させていただきます。

今回は”Please consider joining usとPlease consider to join usの違いとは？！”です。

■受講生からの質問

現在、動名詞と不定詞の勉強をしており、
下記の文章と和訳に遭遇しました。

Please consider joining us.
（一緒にやることをどうか考えてください）

これを、”これから一緒にやることを考えてもらえないだろうか”と捉えて、
Please consider to join us. としたら意味が変わってくるのでしょうか？

■オンライン英会話レッスンのCurtis講師からの回答

"Please consider to join us" is not common usage in the U.S. It is acceptable, grammar-wise, but it is too passive. The nuance is "you have never considered joining us before. So, we would like you to consider joining us now. Even if you decide not to join us, please at least think about it". "Please consider to join us" allows the listener to say "no, I won't join you".

"Please consider joining us" is more active, and the nuance is "we really want you to join us, and the answer we want from you is 'ok'". This is the common usage in the U.S. We could use "Join us now!", but this is too direct and possibly rude. So we make it more polite by adding "please". But, "please join us now!" may be too direct for some listeners, so it is further softened with "Please consider". In this usage, "please consider joining us" still allows the listener to say "no", but there is more pressure from the speaker to get the listener to say "ok".

to joinは文法的には正しくても、
アメリカではあまり使われていないようです。
また、ニュアンスもtoo passive（受け身）な意味合いになるようですね。

Curtis講師、ありがとうございました。

PEGLではこのような質問もAirCampus上で受け付けています。
分からないことがあっても、あきらめてしまわず学習を継続頂けます。

今後もQ＆Aをブログでもご紹介させていただきます。
学習にお役立てください！

事務局・山口

The Language of Movies #2- Modern Fairy tales

本日は、オンライン英会話講師のJennifer講師が提供するシリーズ
「The Language of Movies」の第２回
"Modern Fairy tales"です。

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The Language of Movies #2 – Modern Fairy tales

A few notable films fall into the category of “modern fairy tales”:

Pretty Woman
Edward Scissorhands
The Princess Diaries
Pan’s Labyrinth (“El laberinto del fauno”)
Enchanted

[*note: Many romantic comedies can also be included in this genre.]

Modern fairy tales are, as the term suggests, fairy tales told within a modern setting. Seeing as there are several different archetypes and sub-genres of fairy tales, there is not always a romantic story about a “prince” meeting his “princess” or a “knight” rescuing a “damsel in distress”. Of the modern fairy tales listed above, only a few (such as Pretty Woman) neatly fit into this type of story. The nature of a fairy tale is that it usually includes events out of the ordinary and/or magical elements – it is by nature a fantasy. Of course, all movies outside of straight-forward, non-satirical documentaries are fantasies; however, fairy tales tend to include some supernatural aspect or extraordinary situations. For the modern fairy tale, the inclusion of supernatural events is not always necessary, and in the case of such movies as Pretty Woman – in which a young woman meets her “white knight” – it is more about fulfilling the “knight in shining armor” archetype.

Some common (although generic) phrases associated with fairy tales:

Dreams do come true.
And they lived happily ever after.
Once upon a time…
The moral of the story is…

Common motifs you may see in modern and classic fairy tales:

Hero/heroine – the main character of the story, usually innocent and of good moral character; in modern fairy tales the hero/heroine is often less-than-perfect but with flaws that are not too unattractive.

royalty – whether the main character is already royalty or becomes so during the course of the story; in modern fairy tales becoming wealthy is a substitute for becoming royalty.

knights – noble male characters who charm and save the heroine of the story; in classic fairy tales these were usually soldiers, but in modern fairy tales it could be a regular man.

fairies or a “fairy godmother” – a kind-hearted person or persons who assists the hero/heroine in achieving their wishes and dreams.

magic – this does not always have to be a supernatural occurrence in modern fairy tales, but rather something outside of ordinary, everyday life.

villains – generally an ugly, or emotionally unattractive enemy of the hero/heroine that is the primary source of the main character’s unhappiness. In most Hollywood movies, the villain is always defeated and humiliated by the main character at the end of the story.

One motif in modern fairy tales is the talk of dreams: when characters talk of meeting “the man (or woman) of their dreams” or how some aspect of their life or the world they are in is “like a dream”. Another motif is wishes – with the usual motivation towards fulfillment of whatever wish the main character has. Often in such tales the main plot is the hero/heroine’s desire to fulfill some kind of wish.

As stated above, not all modern fairy tales are about romances. A very good example of a modern fairy tale that is not a romance is El laberinto del fauno (Spanish for “Labyrinth of the Faun”), or “Pan’s Labyrinth”, as it is called in the U.S. release. The main character is a princess who is shouldered with the task of proving her goodness so that she can be reunited with her family in her kingdom. El laberinto del fauno differs from many modern fairy tales because it does not have the typical American-style happy ending for the heroine, though the ending is happy in its own way.

Older folktales, like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Little Red Riding Hood, are traditional fairy tales which have gotten many modern re-tellings – Cinderella perhaps more than any other. Cinderella is what we now call a “rags-to-riches” story, which means that the hero goes from being poor to being wealthy, either due to their own actions or the influence of others. One modern incarnation of the Little Red Riding Hood story is Jin-Roh, an anime adaptation from a manga by Mamoru Oshii.

Sometimes these stories are told with narration, as though they are being read from a book. At the conclusion of the story there is often an epilogue and the audience is left with the moral of the story (a message that tells us what the story ultimately means). Fairy tales with happy endings often leave the audience with a positive feeling and a message to be interpreted by the audience; such as, “hard work will be rewarded in time”; or, “honest people will triumph over evil people after suffering various difficulties”.

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Everyone has a dream or a wish that they want to be fulfilled. Everyone would like their lives to have a happy ending. People want to be the attractive hero or heroine in their personal stories (i.e. lives) and they want to meet kind people who help them along the way. Given the hardships that the hero or heroine must overcome during the course of the movie, and the rewards they reap when reaching their goals, the audience is left with a simple message of motivation: if you work hard to achieve your goals, it is possible!

- Jennifer O’Quinn

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