Business Communication in Action 実践ビジネス英語
Hello, everybody.こんにちは。みなさん。
Hello and welcome to the show.
This is Heather Howard.
Let's take a look at conversation at work.
Doing more with less (3)
Walker describes how a bank in his home state of Florida introduced
a new system in which employees could move freely between tasks
ultimately allowing the bank to trim six full time positions.
Breakstone talks about a similar example of a delivery company that
used computerized labels to better organized truck loading.
Walker says that surprisingly cutting staff can help create
a more customer friendly environment.
Comes to mind: Appear in one's thoughts, Walker means.
Say, you recommended a colleague for a certain project,
you might tell them, "You came to mind immediately when
the boss asked me for recommendation.
I know how hard working and creative you are."
Spring / jump
Sunshine State: All the U.S. states have nicknames.
I was born in Alaska, for example, which is called the last frontier.
And I lived for about 10 years in Oregon,
which is called the Beaver State.
Tied to: Walker uses this to mean require to stay at.
You know, unable to get away from.
Another very common expression using tie is "tie up",
which can mean to keep occupied or busy.
For example, I'm sorry I couldn't call earlier. I was tied up in a meeting.
Many's the time: Something has happened many times,
Wakimoto is saying.
I think it's a little old-fashioned, a little formal sounding.
But we still use it.
Unfortunately I have to admit that many's the time
I worried about things that ended up never happening.
For ages: Wakimoto said, for a long time, in other words.
You'll also hear, "ages ago," which means a long time ago.
For example, "Oh, he joined the company ages ago.
Or he's been here for 35 years."
Head south: This means decline, deteriorate, fail.
You can also say, "go south."
For example, "The negotiations went south
when the parties couldn't agree on profit share."
Front-line employee: This means someone
who is directly involved with providing a service or making a product.
A nurse would be a front-line health care worker, for example.
Lean and mean 経費節減をした 意地の悪い lean and agile 身軽な/活気のある
Take a leaf from the same book:
Emulate someone else's behavior, do something similar to what they've done.
You might say, "I should take the page from John's book
and saved 10% of my income every month."
In other words, save 10% a month like your friend John does.
Take a page from the same book
Employ: Breakstone means hire, retain as employees.
But employ can also mean utilize, make use of.
As we're hearing in this vignette, companies are employing
the latest technology to enhance the productivity.
That's all for today.
Hope that was useful. See you next time.