http://www.nhk.or.jp/gogaku/english/business2/index.html

 

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.

 

 

Active Aging (3)

 

McMillan describes the amount of money that experts recommend saving so as to retire by age 65 and have the same kind of lifestyle.

And Lyons comments about how bored he would be if he only gardened and played golf.

Grace says people who keep working into their 70s and later are healthier and have stronger social connections.

Ueda recommends replacing the concept of retirement with a third act of life.

 

 

Personal-finance expert:

 

In line with:

 

Feel passionate about: Lyons says that many experts believe continuing to do work that you feel passionate about is a good way to increase longevity.

When you feel passionate about something, we feel strong dedication to it and enthusiasm.

And people feel that it's something that needs to be done. You know, it's important to do it.

He's passionate about recycling, for example. About reducing his carbon footprint.

Or, she's passionate about supporting local businesses. She does most of her shopping in her own neighborhood.

 

Carbon footprint 二酸化炭素排出量

 

Longevity: Lyons is talking about the length of someone's life.

Scientists are always researching how to increase longevity, for example.

And longevity can also refer to a long life, living a long time.

Like, she attributes her longevity to low stress and a vegetarian diet.

 

Quality of life: How good the different elements of one's life are.

Financially, in terms of human connections, etc. etc.

And having community connections is very important to one's quality of life. You know, having friends nearby that we can meet and talk to.

 

Weed the garden: Lyons is talking about actually removing unwanted weeds, you know, from a garden.

But we also use the phrasal verb "weed out" to mean locate and remove elements that we don't want that are undesirable.

Ah, this software weeds out spam emails.

Or, market surveys help us weed out unpopular products.

 

Weed 雑草 verb garden 庭の雑草を抜く weed out phrasal verb 何かを除去する 取り除く

 

Play the occasional round of golf:

 

Sense of well-being and purpose:

 

*Work into one's 70s and beyond: Beyond, past, further than.

You could also say, ah, I can't spend beyond $500.

Or, the company has decided to expand beyond tablet computers and get into mobile phones.

 

Stay socially connected:

 

When you get right down to it: Ueda says, "When you get down to it, it's a question of mindset."

 

Mindset: This refers to the way our minds are set.

In other words, the attitudes or personality that determines how we respond to things, how we interpret the situation.

He has a very optimistic mindset, for example. He always believes that things will work out.

Or, she has a very suspicious mindset. She doesn't trust anybody.

 

Third act of life: This would be the final stage of life if we divide it up into youth, middle age and being elderly.

And obviously we're using the image of a stage play, you know, which is divided up into sections called acts.

We also use "acts" about films too. There's no intermission. There's no lowering of a curtain.

But if we say, "the third act of a film," you know, we're talking about the final section of the story. When it's all rounded up and ended.

 

Sense of fulfillment and meaning: Fulfilment is the state of being happy and satisfied, often because we're using our abilities or we're doing something meaningful.

He gets a lot of fulfilment from volunteer work, for example

 

*I mean: Lyons says, "I mean I'd be out of my skull if all I had to do was weed the garden and play golf."

We sometimes use this expression to justify or explain what we just said.

Things like, I don't like logo. I mean the font is hard to read and the colors are way too bright.

つまり

 

Be bored out of one's skull 退屈でたまらない

 

*skull/mind/brains

 

Be bored to death 死ぬ程退屈する

 

 

That's all for today.

See you next time. Bye.