10月に入り仕事がたまり、メルマガもたまってしまいました。
先々週、王将に餃子を食べに行こうと思い、自宅から徒歩
6分の場所にある店に行ったところ、店の外に20人ほどの
待ち行列ができていて、あきらめました。
不況下にあって王将強し。
なぜ6分という中途半端な数字を把握しているかというと、
歩きながらPodcastで、6 Minute Englishをちょうど
聞き終えたからでした。
BBC 6 Minute English
■NHKラジオ 実践ビジネス英語 Customer Service In a Down Economy (2) 9/24 2009
■意味を考えてみよう。今日取り上げる単語が含まれています。
Experience has taught me that the best way to deal with
customer service reps is to explain your problem calmly,
logically and succinctly.
I had a similarly vexing experience when I was in Atlanta
on business last month.
as both population and income growth flatten out in the U.S.
because cutting back on services drives customers away.
Businesses today are realy caught between the devil and the
deep blue sea.
──────────────────────────────
calmly, logically and succinctly, 冷静に、論理的に、そして簡
潔に
──────────────────────────────
Something that is succinct expresses facts or ideas clearly
and in few words.
ex) He succinctly summed up his manifesto as 'Work hard,
train hard and play hard'.
──────────────────────────────
vexing experience, いらだたしい経験
──────────────────────────────
動詞のvex = annoy
If someone or something vexes you, they make you feel annoyed,
puzzled, and frustrated.
vexingは形容詞
ex) There remains, however, another and more vexing problem.
──────────────────────────────
flatten out, 横ばいになる
──────────────────────────────
If you flatten something out or if it flattens out, it
becomes flat or flatter.
ex) a bulldozer flattening out the ruts in the road.
rut わだち、車の跡
──────────────────────────────
drive someone away, （人）を追い払う、（客など）を遠のかせる
──────────────────────────────
To drive someone or something away means to behave in a way
that forces them to leave.
ex) 'Flies!' Etta cried and attempted to drive them away
by waving her hand.
──────────────────────────────
between the devil and the deep blue sea, 進退窮まった状況に
陥って、苦境に立たされて
──────────────────────────────
If you are between the devil and the deep blue sea, you are
in a difficult situation where the two possible courses of
action or choices that you can take are equally bad.
[mainly BRITISH]
ex) Now exactly what do we really want? You see we are
between the devil and the deep blue sea on this issue and
people just do not know exactly what to do.
──────────────────────────────
その他にも、次も押さえておきたい。[誌面の都合上省略] ★は重要表現
──────────────────────────────
way out in the suburbs, 郊外のずっと外れに
valet, （ホテルやレストランの）駐車係
receive royal treatment, 最高の [すばらしい] もてなしを受ける
vigilante consumer, 自警団的消費者
