ビジネス英語ディクテーション

ただ聞こえてきたままにタイプしてアップしてるだけの地味なブログです。

2006年02月

小1のレイナの勉強をみてないせいか、算数がいまいちわかっていないようです。

というのも、ここ8ヶ月くらい、忙しくて十分にこどもにかまってやれませんでした。

4月からはきちんとしたいと思います。

また、自分の子供が英語を話せない、というのも考えてみれば大きな問題です。とりあえず、1人30分~

2時間、時間をさいて、せめて本が読めるくらいまでにはレッスンしたいと思います。

もちろん、会話は最低限みにつけられるよう、がんばります。

毎日、こどもたちの勉強をひとりあたり5分くらいみています。

小3の娘が小1の妹に、日記を口述筆記させてたので、つい最近まで、私は小1のレイナは自分では

日記を書いてないとばかり思ってました。

たまたま担任の先生が学級通信にレイナの書いた日記を載せてくれたのですが、それも小3の息吹が

書いたものとばかり思ってました。

ところが、よくよく奥さんに聞いてみると、ここ最近はレイナが自分ひとりの力で書いていた、

ということでした。

それもノートびっしり書いていたのです。

ほんとうにこどもの成長の速さには驚くことしきりです。

An enclave is a very clearly different small community inside of a different larger community.
It's usually foreigners that are in a smaller community, foreign to the surrounding community.
Also the word has two pronunciations. The most common one is [encleiv] English style. But many
people also pronounce it with a little more French kind of a style [ancleiv].

Sometimes if you visit North Americans, they'll say "Oh come on in, make yourself at home" and
that means please feel comfortable as you would at your own home.
make yourself comfortableともいいますねー。

Something that costs an arm and a leg is too expensive. It's as if you have to give away an
arm or a leg to get what you want.

A similar phrase is "give one's right arm for something, which means you really really want
it", And even if you had to cut off your right arm, it's worth paying for it that way.

In the past, people who were household helpers were called servants. But I think nowadays that
implies too much of a uncomfortable relationship between the people and the people providing
the services.

Fore in this phrase is the same fore that golfers use. Core meaning of the word fore spelled
with "e" means front part or up in front. Other phrases include fore-and-aft, which mean
front part and back part, forehead and forearm.

インターネットのお陰というか、いろんな人との交流ができるようになりましねー。

素晴らしき人たち の中で紹介している ある人(名前はふせておきます)

の知り合いが ペネロペ・クルス なのです。

A:
actually just the other day I talked to a celebrity
TJ:
but i still believe you are great even if you don't have any money
A:
but you are greater than any celebrity
TJ:
celebrity?
TJ:
wow
A:
I really think a lot of you
TJ:
who is he/she?
A:
oh.. Penelope Cruz
TJ:
wow
TJ:
you met her in person?
A:
hmm.. sort of complex
A:
she knows what I look like
TJ:
tom cruise was dating her
TJ:
she knows what you look like? what does it mean?
A:
I talked to her many times on the computer like I talk to you now
TJ:
really?
TJ:
in person?
A:
yes
TJ:
wow wow wow
A:
just like you
A:
not as great as you would think
TJ:
video chat?
A:
rich and famous people are only human just like us
TJ:
yeah i know
A:
not video but exactly how we are talking now
TJ:
wow
A:
I prefer talking to you though

「インディ・ジョーンズ魔宮の伝説」にでてた、ケイト・キャップショーも出てた「ブラック・レイン」

Black Rain http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096933/

実は何を隠そう、小6のとき松田優作のファンでした。

ハリウッド映画に出られてこれから活躍できるっていうときに、癌で亡くなったのはとっても残念です。

今朝、ひさしぶりにKatieとコンタクトしました。元気にやっているようで嬉しかったです。
短いログなので載っけますねー。

katie : hey wot you doing awake?

TJ : oh katie

TJ : great to have you

katie : sleeeeep!

katie : hehe

TJ : oh...i am an early bird

katie : bloody hell!

katie : Oh yeah I forgot that

katie : I am a night owl??

TJ : maybe

katie : I'm just about to sleep hehe

TJ : oh

TJ : really

katie : yeah

TJ : that explains why i have not been able to contact you

katie : hehe well actually I haven't logged onto yahoo recently

katie : But I just downloaded a new chat client

TJ : great

TJ : you know my blog site address?

katie : No, what is it?

TJ : please wait a second

katieboy : k

TJ : http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/tjqfd020

katie : wow, you know more about English than me

TJ : don't think so

TJ : http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/tjqfd020/12847293.html?p=2&pm=l

katie : Yeah, your dictation pages are very interesting

TJ : オックスフォード出身の女の子で現在は日本の大学に留学中の、Kaitie


katie : hehe

katie : Scotty is so cute

TJ : yeah

katie : Has he got a girlfriend yet?

TJ : http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/tjqfd020/GALLERY/gallery.html

TJ : i don't know

TJ : he is interested in japanese girls..i think

katie : ehehe, probably

katie : Anyway, I'd better go to bed

katie : お休み~

TJ : yeah it's a good idea

TJ : pleasure talking with you

TJ : and visit our home if you have time

katieboy : Yeah, speak to you later!

A similar phrase you might hear sometimes is a cockeyed optimist. Cockeyed means hopeless or
without good sense or a little crooked. So somebody who's optimistic, even when there seem to
be no reason for optimism, is either a cockeyed optimist or an eternal optimist.

a dyed-in-the-wool optimist も紹介されてましたね。ボクも筋金入りの楽天家です。

If you buy into something you accept it. You think it's true. It's correct. You're persuaded
and convinced.

Modest is a word that's often used in a positive way. Although you can use it somewhat
negatively. The meaning is not large but enough. It also means simple or humble. So generally
people, I think value these things. Probably when it's not large but sufficient, when the
meaning is not large but sufficient and you want a lot. Then modest could be slightly
negative.

Old folks' home sounds friendlier and warmer and more comfortable. Senior citizens' home
sounds a little more official, I'd say. Nursing home sounds worse, because it implies that
you're sick and need nursing type, medical type care.

Alvarez uses a phrase foreign shores to talk about foreign countries. It's a pretty typical
phrase to talk about foreign countries. Although from the US, you can go to Canada and
Mexico without crossing any shores. I guess, in Japan, you could always say foreign
shores meaning foreign countries.

on these shores(国内)っていう言い方もされてましたねー。
ボクは海外に行ったことがないので、こうやって想像を巡らしているだけです。
Netのおかげで海外の人とは、事実上、ただでしかもon-timeにやりとりできるようになったのは、とっても嬉しいです。

Also in the US, people sometimes talk about from shore to shore, meaning the whole country.
And it does include Alaska and Hawaii, even though technically they're not between the east
coast and the west coast.

It's possible to expand it to other members of your family. But most of the time, it tends to
be an adults talking about their parents.

Go on the blink means stop functioning properly. You could also say out of order or even
on the fritz.
go on the blink や out of order はよく聞きますが、 on the fritz ってのは初めて知りました。
辞書を引くとさらにいっぱい出てくるので、語学というのは実に奥が深いです。

Fine talks about the good things and bad things that can happen when you start your own
business by talking about the bright side and the dark side. Another way people often talk
about these kinds of things is to say the upside and the downside. Or sometimes people talk
about costs and benefits.
アナキン・スカイウォーカーはダークサイドに落ちてしまいました。

In this case, Alvarez is using horizon to talk about scope of opportunity. A wide horizon has
many many possibilities. You could talk about a narrow horizon or a small view which would be
not very many possibilities.
scope=range 範囲、って意味があるようです。
その問題は彼らの研究の範囲を超えていた、っていうのは、
The problem was outside the scope of their research.っていえるようです。

"Sit back and relax" is a phrase you might hear fairly often when people are talking about not having stress or escaping from stress. Or just to describe leisure time. I read in a book
about a woman who wouldn't sort of relax. And the phrase to describe her was "She never let
her back touch the chair."
椅子に絶対座らないようだったら、ほんとうにせかせかしているのでしょうねー。

A lot of people complain about having to work nine to five. But I think many of them would be
lost without having that kind of a structure already set up.
話は全然かわりますが、シーナ・イーストンの Nine to Five って曲、大好きです。

"Sofa senility" is kind of an interesting phrase. I've never heard it before exactly in this
way. But lots of people seem to fall into it. You've probably heard many stories about people
retiring and then they do nothing. They just sit on the couch and watch television. So, sofa
senility, I think, is a really nice phrase to describe what happens to a lot of people after
they retire.
もうろくする、って日本語訳にぴったりですねー。もうろくはしたくないものですが、ボクは60歳を過ぎたら、映画館通い三昧になりそうです。

I think she's not talking about a medical condition. She's talking more about a lifestyle.
そういえば、最近、lifestyles of health and sustainabilityって言葉をよく聞きます。ロハスっていってたから、てっきり和製英語とばかり思ってました。

Spry is kind of an interesting adjective. It means you can move quickly and lightly. You're
nimble. You're active. Your body is working well. But it's only used for old people. It's only
used to describe older people who have stayed physically in very good shape. It would be
really funny to describe a kid or even a young adult as spry.
adjective 形容詞 verb動詞 noun名詞 adverb副詞 といった文法用語も案外と知ってれば便利なことが多いですねー。
nimbleといえば、ハリー・ポッターが乗ってた魔法の箒がNimbus(Nimble?) 2000とかいってました。

Diabetes has been in the news a lot a last couple of years, because more and more are
developing it out of lifestyle choices. But I've started hearing on the radio. The other
pronunciation of the word [daiabitas]. I don't know why that secondary pronunciation has
become more popular. But it really is much more often used on the radio than in the past.
おいしい食べ物も摂取しすぎると、病気になるってのは いつ考えても皮肉なものです。
粗食が良いですねー。

Tempting is a word often used to mean pleasantly inviting or very attractive or something that
gives you a hope or desire.

今日は、勇(ゆう)の誕生日です。http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/tjqfd020/9580556.html

思えばもう11年が過ぎたのですねー。

前の年の2月10日、最初のこどもを亡くして…ほどなく授かった命にどれだけ癒されたかしれません。

ほんとうにありがとうね。

Today is U's birthday. He was born on today of 1995, when the big earthquake hit Kobe area.

Eleven years have passed...yeah...time flies.

To tell you the truth, our first son died just after 8 hours of his delivery.

However this wonderful boy has been making us pleasant in many ways.

Many many thanks.

If you phase something out you stop it, but you do it gently, gradually, you end it overtime
in small steps or small stages.

Phase out is also used in slang though to mean not pay attention. So, for example, if you're
in a meeting and your mind starts to wonder and it goes further and further and further away.
That's also called "phasing out."

It sounds a lot slangy. これは、Are we talking full retirement? のtalkingのあとにaboutがないことをいっています。talk turkey=率直に話し合う というイディオムもありますねー。

A recruit is someone who's recently been lured in or brought in as a new worker, a new member,
a new employer. It comes form the military originally. And it meant new soldiers. People that
you manage to entice into the militaries so that they could become soldiers. You can also use
recruit as a verb to mean replenish or refill.

"Fill the bill" is a phrase that means exactly what's needed or just what we're looking for.
You can also find the phrase with "fit" instead of "fill." So "fit the bill" is the same
thing.

"Tuck away" is a verb that means put something away or save something thing. And it sounds
like in little bits, you put a little bit away you save a little bit, you tuck it away for the future. In this case, you're talking
about tucking money away. Tuck alone has various meanings. It can be used as a noun or a verb.
But it almost always refers to little bits, little bits. You can also say "tuck in" and that
means neatly put your shirt inside your pants or your skirt. And you can also tuck kids in
when they go to bed. And that means they get into bed and you tuck in the blankets.
You straighten up the blankets and make it nice and neat and comfortable.

Horizon is used in various ways in English to talk about things that are coming soon or
things that you can just see from the future.

A phrase I've been hearing in business circles recently is even horizon. It actually comes
from physics. In physics, an event horizon is the sort of board around a blackhole. It's
where things that come near a blackhole are affected.
事象の地平線ですねー。ブラックホールに宇宙船が近づくと、素粒子レベルにまでこなごなになるんだけど、それを観測する人には、宇宙船があたかも凍り付いたかのように、永遠に止まって見える、っていうやつだって以前、何かで読んだ記憶があります。
But in business, it tends to be used to mean a major turning point or a point of no return.
So the meaning is slightly broadened.

This phrase is for someone who's away from that area but wants to go back and is thinking,
very nostalgically about the area and the people and the life that he or she had in the
area. so...

Also probably the speaker is much closer to Pete, or knows Pete much better.

There are all kinds of ways to say hello to somebody. This one would work in almost any
situation. But the speaker might also add something like, I hope we'll have a chance to play
golf again one of these days.

上司の立場を利用して、嫌がる部下を飲みにさそうのはほんとうに最低な行為ですねー

部活の監督の地位を利用して、生徒に性的関係を強要してのうのうとしているやつらが依然としてはびこってる事実にもウンザリです。

When I got my first job in America, in the early 70s, the rule was, "don't date your
secretary". and office romance or office marriage were considered undesirable. One or both of
the couple had to leave.

I think it's relax somewhat. But you still can't date your secretary. That's still sort of a
power difference kind of a relationship. And those are the ones that are easily abused or even
if they're not abused, it might look like the person with more power is taking advantage of
the other.

But I guess we've come a long way from those days.

Oh, I think so. I think companies, not just in romance, but I think generally companies are a
bit less paternalistic than they used to be, as long as you're not harming the business or
the relationships of your co-workers. I think companies are much more likely to overlook what
you do than they used to be in the past.

Companies are becoming permissive. They don't really care whether you're married or not,
whether you're cohabiting or not.

Yeah, sounds like it. But that, I think that reflex society as a whole also. It's much more
accepted these days, too, live together without being married or to, you know, decide you
wanna stay single, and never marry. Different lifestyles are somewhat more tolerated, I think,
than they had been in the past.

As long as you don't harm business.

Oh, of course, well that makes sense.

Companies, of course, shouldn't be in your personal life, unless you let your personal life
interrupt what you're supposed to be doing at work. I think that sounds reasonable to me. And
there have been numerous lawsuits regarding discrimination based on marital status.

Yeah, in the US, you can't ask people in interviews whether they're married or not. That's
supposed to be private personal information which has no bearing on, you know, whether you
can work or not or whether you have the skills and abilities the company is looking for.

And it has become difficult to know who's married to whom, because you know, people keep
separate family names.

Yeah and sometimes I'm not quite sure how to send mail to some of my friends, because I don't
know which name to put on the envelope sometimes.

But I guess still the golden rules are "married couples must not work with or for each other."

Yeah that seems to be holding. And I can understand that. I think that the marriage
relationship is, of course, much closer and more intimate and more private than any work
relationships. So it's easy to see how a company, well the companies can't get into the
marriage relationships. So they can't tell us there's some kind of trouble for the company
coming out of it.

But in the old days, when one or both of the couple had to leave in the 70s, It was sometimes
the males that left the companies, especially they have lower paying job.

So it was pretty much and economic decision more than a gender base kind of a decision.

I would say so.

Ah huh. Well that's good as logical anyway. And of course, aside from marital status, we
have the complication of a sexual harassment, power harassment, and all these relatively new
problems.

Yeah, sometimes I think people are a little too sensitive. But on the other hand, there are
problems like that are hard to talk about because people get embarrassed or they're with the
power differences, they're threatened, if they try to complain. So from that point of view,
it's good people are talking more and handling sexual harassment problems. But on the other
hand, I think a lot of behavior, it kind of depends on the two people involved. And then
sometimes I think people are a little bit too sensitive. And where they should just say,
"look, stop it." instead they skip that step or feel too angry too soon and take it public,
I think, maybe before it needs to go that way.

Right.

I think another problem that's come up recently, because there's a lot more flexibility in a
kind of personal relationships you want to from is getting benefits either from your company
or from the government that legally married people enjoy. I can understand the company in a
government's point of view, if it's not clear that the couple is dedicated to each other for
good as long as they can keep the relationship good. I can understand the company or the
government, not wanting to pay benefits to the other person, whatever the relationship.
But on the other hand some people can't get married legally even though their relationship,
in their minds, is permanent and forever and should be respected in that way.

The world seems to be getting more and more complicated every day.

Yeah, really. I think complications come up in one place, while other places are simplified.

salutations

This phrase is for someone who's away from that area but wants to go back and is thinking,
very nostalgically about the area and the people and the life that he or she had in the
area. so...

Other ways you can talk about telling secrets are "let the cat out of the bag". Somebody let
the cat out of the bag, for example, or somebody lets something slip.

Also another phrase is rather interesting. It refers to the actual secret itself. You can talk
about "skeletons in the closet."

And then related to that, recently people say they come out of the closet, meaning they say
what's true about them. It's often used when homosexuals admit publicly that they're homo-
sexual. But you can use it for other things too. I've heard people about their political
beliefs. They might keep them mostly secret at work, but decide one day for some reason to say
what their political meanings are. And that's also coming out of the closet.

Another phrase that means get married is "get hitched." (=get spliced)

And kind of related to that you can talk about living in wedded bliss.

Another similar phrase is sadder but wiser.

And in a little bit more sort of regular English that people use a lot, you could say, "You
learned a lesson."

Often stories that have a happy ending finish with the phrase, "And they lived happily ever
after."

A similar phrase is having someone to lean on. Although it's a bit broader than a shoulder to
cry on.

And then maybe one more step, a little further away, is having a hand to hold.

But if you use the two words, hand and hold in a different phrase, it tends to mean extra
care that you must give to someone like a customer or a client to keep them happy. And that
phrase is handholding.

Other ways you can say "pick up the bill" include "I'll get it" or "It's my treat" "It's on
me." or even "I'll take care of that."

個人的には、a shoulder to cry on...っていう表現大好きです。世知辛い今の世の中には特に必要な気がします。

Sweet nothings refers to the kind of, sort of, affectionate phrases and small talk lovers
might do with each other.

Like sweet nothings, chitchat is another kind of talk. It's usually pleasant and not terribly
important. It's also similar to yakking. But chitchat is more pleasant and people enjoy it.
Yakking is usually the way you describe someone else's chitchat if it's irritating you.

Wearing earrings in grade school kind of depends on your cultural background in the US.
Some people living in the US have a custom of piercing the ears of children, babies,
little girls when they're quite young. Others don't. My family didn't, and my mother said we
could get our ears pierced when we turned 18, because we're responsible for our own medical
bills.

Beau is a word that means boyfriend. It also sounds a little different. So if you want to
make a, kind of a, different impression on your friends. You could use the word beau instead
of boyfriend.

"Let's say" is a way to set up a situation that you're thinking about but maybe isn't
actually true. A couple of other ways you could say that are "for example if I paid" or you
could say "Given that I paid". But "given" sounds much more formal or even mathematical.
Sometimes people even shorten it down to just "say". "Say I paid for the weekend's airfare".

Billing and cooing is more bird imagery related to romance and love. It's a phrase that means
exchange small kisses or caress. Maybe talk a little nit very softly together, kind of
obviously showing that you are in love.

"A long row to hoe" is an idiom that means we have a lot of work to do. "We have a long way
to go", "We have many things to take care before something else happens."

A long row is talking about, like on a farm, a row of some kind of plants and a hoe is a farm
implement or gardening implement that you use to dig up weeds or prepare the ground to
receive plants.

"Dirt" is used in a couple of other phrases in English always referring to one of the
qualities of dirt. In this case, dirt's everywhere. It's freely available, so dirt cheap
means very very cheap. You can also strike pay dirt, but that's a little bit different.
Pay dirt would be some kind of ore or something that you dig out of the ground and is useful
and valuable. You can also use dirt in the phrase "as old as dirt", meaning very very old.
There's always been dirt.

おとといの金曜日、「たまには子どもたちと出かけなきゃ」って奥さんが言ってたので、

「それなら、君たち学校休む?」 って3人の小学生たちに呼びかけたところ、

予想通り、小5の息子がのってきました。

ボクは欠席の報告はもっぱらファックスしているのですが、

そのときに書いた文を紹介しますねー

…○○先生

 おはようございます。

 息子のことですが、家事手伝い(?)のために...in fact he wants to go out with his mom and
his siblings to enjoy the day eating junk food...

 今日は学校を休ませます。

 いつもお世話になっています。
 
 今後ともよろしくお願いします。…

Takahashi-san talks about what he knows so far about customer relations. He's showing he knows
some things. But he's still new to the company. So of course his opinion could change.

Also he talks about Jerry Miller as being kind of a sharpshooter. If you look in a dictionary,
sharpshooter is a person who's very skilled with a gun or a rifle and can hit the target with
the very high degree of precision. But it's also used in other contexts to refer to someone
who's highly proficient, someone who's very good at what he/she does.

sharpのくっついた単語は他にもいろいろありましたよー
 嗅覚の鋭い…sharp-nosed
  汚い手口…sharp practice
ひどく飢えた…sharp-set
   鋭敏な…sharp-sighted
   辛辣な…sharp-tongued
 頭の切れる…sharp-witted

Although I often hear people talking on the radio...the kind of people who give advice to
people who call in and ask for it...that long distance dating is kind of dangerous, even if
you keep in touch with each other through e-mail and instant message, it's still not the same
thing as being in the some place at the same time.

Wedlock is another word for marriage. Sometimes people talk about wedded bliss talking about
being married.

ちなみに「嫡出の(正妻から生まれた)」は、born in wedlock
その反対の「庶出の」は、born out of wedlock っていうそうです。

Chuck often means throw. It's a specific kind of throwing. It's short and hard and sharp.
Other kinds of throwing include toss, which is usually a sort of soft, underhand kind of a
throw, like you might toss a ball to a kid who's learning to catch, you can also lob a ball,
which is also sort of soft and might be underhand, but it's much longer distance.

lob は HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN の page 281に出てきてました。

Harry dodged around him, picked up a stick, and lobbed it at Crabbe's back.

Something that goes over like a lead balloon is a total failure. If you think about balloons,
they should be able to float in the air. But if it's made out of lead, it's not gonna float.

Cora Heinrichs talks about a ban or bans that lead to lawsuits. In this phrase, "ban" refers
to a prohibition. But there's another word "banns" usually used in a plural that is a kind of
wedding announcement, if you look in a newspaper sometimes you might see wedding banns listed
in a paper. It used to be that you had to announce an upcoming wedding, I think, it was at
least two weeks in advance. Nowadays I think it's more custom than a requirement.
But depending on your religion. It is the required.

It sounds like Japanese and English are pretty close in the idea of putting water on
something to dampen it or stop it or discourage it. In English the phrase includes the word
"cold". There's a similar phrase, "wet blanket" but that describes the person who has the
same kind of effect. So when everybody else is kind of happy and maybe having a party or
something. The person who's the wet blanket makes everybody feel less happy and kind of dull.

I don't know why but often in English, love or lovers or that kind of romantic situation
uses bird imagery. There's love birds like here, the two people who are in love. You can
describe them as being lovey-dovey, or you can describe where they live or where they stay
as their love nest.

Something that goes out the window goes badly or fails or in some way disappoints you really
badly. =go down the drain

"In principle" is a phrase that's used often to introduce an exception. So if you say "in
principle" first, what follows often begins with "but". This time is an exception. or We're
not following the principle this time. or We're going to disregard it.

A mill is a machine that processes materials usually by grinding them or crushing them. But
mill is also used in a few other phrases, such as rumor mill. So it sounds like somebody is
taking people's information and grinding it and crushing it and producing rumors for everybody
else. A couple of similar phrases are diploma mill, happy mill and of course, steel mill where
steel is made.

"Going steady" sounds a little bit old-fashioned these days. It makes me think of maybe the
50s, when I think parents control their kids a little bit more when they started sating.
These days, people might use the phrase, especially if they feel like they have a more old-
fashioned kind of a relationship. But going steady just means dating regularly and dating
only one person not dating various people to see who you like better or which type you like
better.

A kernel of truth means one small starting point is true but the rest of the story might be
sort of built up or exaggerated or even untrue.

Yeah, I'd say if you're not sure about the person you're talking to, if you don't know them
very well, then, maybe, don't say "Congratulations". But most people are fine with it.

This is very interesting sentence, because Takahashi Shuzo manages to use "common" and
"popular" to describe the same situation. So not only is there a lot of it but also people
seem to like it.

In US English, people pronounce haRAssment with the stress on the second syllable. British
English speakers usually put the stress on the first syllable like Davie Wu did, HArassment.

Sanction is kind of an interesting word. It has opposite meanings depending on how you use it.
In this case, it means "allow" or "encourage" "condone" "say something's okay". But you can
also use it to mean "punish" when you're trying to stop somebody from doing something.

This is a phrase people often use when they're saying something that they heard from somewhere
else. Similar phrases are "they say" or "I heard" or "A little bird" or if you're speaking
more formally perhaps unnamed sources.

And you have to make sure that your taxi meter's running smoothly.

Oh, yeah. Or some places, you can prepay your trip.

Right.

Yeah. We've done that a couple of times and that helps a lot. We've paid in a little window
in a hotel and then give you a... like a ticket, tells how much you paid where you're going.
Give that to the driver, so the driver doesn't handle any money at all.

Right. Malaysia would like that.

Yeah. It was in India where we did that. Another thing we often do is take the shuttle buses.
And those are often quite a bit cheaper than taxis, probably safer because they're public
business that depends on tourists, like one taxi driver cheating you, you don't know, was it
just that guy or what...?
But if it's a shuttle company, I would think the whole company would more easily get a bad
reputation if they cheated their customers very often, we use those quite a bit. And then
in your hotel, you can do the same thing, like ask the hotel to call a taxi for you and then
it's a little bit of the hotel's reputation also behind the service you get from the taxi,
cause the hotel won't continue calling a taxi company that isn't honest.

After checking in, I always make sure where the exits are.

Ah. That's a good idea.

Emergency exits.

That's a good idea. Yeah. We always look to. And we always ask about safes. If we're gonna be
there more than like one night. Or if we're only gonna be there one night, we always put
things in either room safe or at the front desk. And always make sure we can get it before we
have to leave the next morning. Occasionally they're not open early, so you can't get your
stuff. And one more thing, in hotel rooms, I mean people aren't supposed to be going
in and out of, in and out of your room, but there will be a maid. And they might decide to do
some kind of repairs or something when you're out of your room. So we always put the most
valuable things in a safe or we're carrying it. And then the next level things, like CDs,
CD player, cameras and you know, calendars, schedule books, something like that.
We usually lock up in a suit case. and put it in a closet when we're not in the room.
If someone wants to steal something from a hotel room, there's not much you can do about it.
But if it's just an opportunity kind of a crime.
You know we try not to leave opportunities around. It's pretty easy to pick up a camera or
a watch or something from the dresser. But walking out with a suit case,
especially, if you are the maid, might be kind of noticeable. So we've been pretty lucky.
It seems to work so far. Once my husband lost a wallet he just bought. And we're getting off
the plane, and somebody bumped up behind him in the aisle, and later he found the wallet was
gone. But he knows better than that. He shouldn't have done that. But I think we've either
been lucky or our measures are good enough, because that's the time that we lost something.

この opportunity kind of a crime ってのは、つい魔が差した とか 出来心 とかいうふうに訳せるかもしれないですねー

Thank you for the invite...It sounds much more casual and slangy than invitation does.

With the same sentence, you could say "including me" instead of "thinking of me."
Thank you for including me.

Sometimes if it's a person you know really well, you can just say "I'll bring the dessert."

Hospitality is kind of a big word for a party. It would probably be more for an invitation,
for example, if you were staying in a hotel, and a colleague invited you to their house for
a day or maybe over the weekend even.

There are all kinds of ways to say thanks for that invitation and here in one example.

Chris, do you do anything to ensure safe travel?
Oh, yeah.
Of course. Many of the things that they mentioned in the vignette, of course. But I'd say we
start even before we leave when we're booking our tickets and hotels and things like that, we
do most of it online now. But instead of using our regular credit card, our bank has a service
called "virtual number", so it generates a credit card number that I can give to hotels on
airlines and places like that. But the number's stolen and somebody starts using it, I can
identify where I gave that number and so I know what business isn't guarding your date very
carefully.

Uh, so the number's good only for a month or a limited period of time?

Right. Yeah, if from one month to almost two months, it depends on when you generate the
number.

I see.

Yeah. I think it's good until the end of the following month.

Uh-huh.

So if I got a number early in December, it would be good until the end of January.
この最後の単語は、general って聞こえましたが、前後関係から明らかに January ですねー。

Is there any limit on when you use?

I don't think so. No more than my actual credit limit and you can generate as many numbers as
you like. So if we know we're going to be making various reservations, for example, for
staying in different hotels, we'll generate four or five numbers and give a different
number to each hotel.

I see. So when you travel, you carry a credit card. Not too much cash?

Recently it depends on where we're going. Most places have good ATM machines all over. So we
tend to keep the credit cards for emergencies or reservations when you don't have a choice,
and use ATM machines fairly regularly. That way we can pay cash and we don't leave credit card
numbers all over.

Right. What about safety when you're up in the air?

Yeah, after the credit card numbers. And when I get on the plane, I tend to look around for
the exits. I don't always count the rows. But I get a pretty good idea how far I'd have to
walk or crawl to find the exit row. And another thing I do, when I travel, is use a waist pack
or waist bag, because I can attach it to myself. I can't lose it very easily. If I lose
everything else, if I lose carry-on, if I lose my larger suit case, as long as I have that
waist bag, I can, you know, get a new hotel. I can buy clothes. I can get new a ticket if I
have to.

Right. And passports. In the old days, the only time you need the passport was when you're
going to a new country.

Right.

But nowadays, with everybody being so security-conscious, you have to show your passport
quite often.

Yeah.

...in going into public buildings or in visiting a major company.

Yeah. Ah huh. So I like a waist pack that has a few pockets in it, cause that way after I
finish showing my passport, I can close it up in one of the...sort of internal pockets that
are much harder to reach.

Sure.

And I put the less important things like chopsticks and earplugs on the out of side. So if
someone does somehow manage to open it, when I'm not paying attention, it's a lot harder to
get at the really valuable stuff. Sometimes getting out of the airport is a little tough,
you know, how to get from the airport to your hotel, especially if you arrive late at night.
We always check first inside the airport. I may ask approximately how much is it for taxi
ride from here to wherever we're going. And then we check it again with the driver before we
get into the taxi. So we have one idea from the people in the airport and then we hear what
the taxi driver tells us, and if they're, you know, similar, then you feel like it's probably
okay.

Rei が 使ってたフレーズです。


my mood always shoots up whenever I talk to you

あなたと話していると、気分がいつも高揚してくる。

just like a company stock that develops a new product

新商品を開発した会社の株のように…


なかなか 洒落た言い方ですよねー。

When I see the word misspelled without the "k", I think it would be very difficult to
understand that this is meant to be the past tense of "panic", cause I see [penaist] or
[peneist], and I am sure it would take me a while to realize it's supposed to be "panicked."

I heard about that one also. I think they said the man who shot was having some kind of mental
trouble, and therefore he was acting sort of strangely.

"Read the riot act" is used in the US a lot, too, especially in situations where you have a
small group of people who are beginning together out of hand or out of control. Teachers
might "read the riot out" to their classes if the classes are acting up.

騒擾取締令を読み上げる=叱る とはなかなか おもしろいフレーズですねー

Yeah, it's kind of slangy, but it does sound very sympathetic. It sounds like you really
understand the other person's point of view. And you probably would use it only when you also
pretty much agree with them, I think.

And you have to use this phrase with the continuous verb because otherwise it means "I know
where your were born."

進行形 は continuous verb って言えばいいんですねー

I know where you're coming from. あなたの言いたいことはわかる。
I know where you come from. あなたの出身地を知っている。

こんな例文を中学生に紹介したら、きっと英語に興味をもってくれるかも…。

そういえば、I know what you did last summer. ってタイトルの映画がありましたねー。

A similar phrase "A stitch in time save nine." うーん。確かに。

Probably that's become more popular because it sounds better than temp or part time or one of
those temporary worker labels.

There are many many similar words for a con artist. It makes me think it must be very popular
pass time for many people.

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