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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.

Vanishing Professions (1)

Ueda describes meeting a person with a now unusual job title.

And Grace says such staffers used to run their offices.

Salmans agrees saying the work they used to do is now seen only in old movies.

Grace describes the decline of the so-called “pink-collar” career path for women. A trend that Salmans says has gone largely unnoticed .

Vanishing:

Guess what?

What I am about to say will surprise you, Ueda means. Such as, Guess what? Carl's been transferred to Paris. It's also common to use this sarcastically when we're going to say something that isn't surprising at all. Imagine a coworker who's always late. One day, there's an important meeting. And guess what? She was late.

You know what?

Bona fide:

Job title:

Executive assistant: executive = exec

It isn't every day (that): Grace says, "It isn’t every day you meet an executive assistant or administrative assistant." Grace is saying this is rare, it's not common. Like, it isn't every day you meet a famous politician. And you can say, "It's not every day" as well. It's not every day you meet a famous politician.

Dying breed: We also say, "vanishing breed." Ah, they both use the image of an animal that's going extinct, disappearing from the world. You could say, "She still writes letters by hand. She's one of a dying breed."

Take dictation: Write down what someone says as they say it. Afterward, you would usually prepare those words in a letter or some other form. We also have the verb "dictate," which means "say something for another person to take down." Executives used to dictate their letters to their secretaries.

Dictation 書き取り練習

Timesaving: Lyons says, "A lot of the timesaving work that executives assistants traditionally took care of can now be done much quicker by a computer." This refers to things that save time. Executive would save time by having their assistants prepare the letters. Nowadays, we have timesaving apps and such. I've also read about timesaving workouts, you know, meaning exercise that people can get done quickly.

Laborsaving 　労働節約型

Energy-saving　

Power-saving

Fuel-saving

Task:

On one's own:

Decline:

Have no idea: In this case, "have no idea" means completely unaware, not know that something exists, or is going on. Imagine a coworker suddenly quits. You say, "Wow! I had no idea they were unhappy here.

Or, I had no idea Jenny could play the flute so beautifully.

It's anyone's guess. 誰しもの想像・推測　誰にとっても推測でしか言えないこと

すなわち　誰にもよくわからないこと　不確かなこと　

You're not alone.

Other people share your feelings or they're in the same position. And we often use this to assure people. Your concerns, your problems are shared by others. Like, I know you're angry at Peter. Well, you're not alone. Other people are angry at him too. Ah, we also say, "you're not alone in." Like, hey, you're not alone in disliking him.

Go largely unnoticed: Be mostly unnoticed. Most people don't notice as something happens or exists. The new tax measures went largely unnoticed by the public, for example. Or, the crime went largely unnoticed by the press.

At one go:

Disappear in dribs and drabs: Disappear a little bit at a time. When I first heard this expression I thought it was "drips" with a "p." But no, it's "dribs" with a "b." Things like, I saved some money in dribs and drabs and finally had enough to buy a new bicycle. "Bits and pieces" is a similar expression to this. She wrote the book in bits and pieces over the years.

That's all for today.

See you again soon. Bye.