2021/4/24(土) SMC
Hello everyone !
Here are the minutes of the meeting held on Apr. 24. The weather was beautiful and the dogwood blossoms along the way to the venue turned to new leaves.
For his opening remarks, the President talked about some of his friends and coworkers who speak English either at their workplaces or in their private lives every day. The native English speaker has knowledge of a rather limited number of Japanese words and phrases despite the fact that the person has been living in Japan for 20 years. The non-native English speakers he said were from the Philippines and India. He underlined something common between those non-native English speakers and the Japanese who have been working on English study. In India there are about 1,000 provincial languages, he said. Also he said for the coworker, English is her fourth language.
SM Kaneko and SM Takahata served as the Coordinator and the Lecturer respectively.
The Coordinator took up the English sentence of “I wouldn’t put it past him.” that was put in the previous SM Noro’s Lecture, adding his understanding of the sentence as a result of review.
（ラジオ英会話の大杉先生の97年のシリーズで、I wouldn't put it past him to try to ruin your reputation somehow. を習いました。この表現 I wouldn't put it past a person (to do)人がそれをやりかねないと思う。についてテキストの巻末にある質問コーナーに松本茂先生が答えています。 これはインフォーマルであり他人の悪口を言う表現である事を分かったうえで使うように。(beyond the possiblity of )範囲、能力、程度を超えて及ばない がこの慣用表現のもとの意味の概念で・・・中略。文法的には説明できないものを慣用表現としているわけだから、そのまま覚えるしかないような気がしますとありました。）Quoted from the internet.
Lecture
Materials from Jissen Business English.
That sounds like a worthwhile project, given how important a medium of communication email has become.
But I still far too many poorly written emails.
far too much/long/busy etc
That’s far too much to pay.
People often overlook emails containing information because of things like inappropriately titled subject lines, impersonal greetings or just plain bald writing.
impersonal: (usually disapproving)having no friendly human feelings or atmosphere; making you feel unimportant
Business letters need not be formal and impersonal.
a cold impersonal stare
And when people shunt emails aside, the result is miscommunication. That takes toll on business efficiency and productivity.
Illness had taken a heavy toll on her.
I find that something of a turn-off. But I’m a bit of an old fogey.
Pornographic pictures are a real turn-off to most women.
fogey: someone who has old-fashioned ideas and does not like change
You sound like my 10th-grade English teacher---a real stickler. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind you.
stickler: a person who thinks that a particular quality or type of behaviour is very important and expects other people to think and behave in the same way
a stickler for punctuality
That can be a mixed blessing.
Wealth can be a mixed blessing.
Illness had taken a heavy toll on her.
Most people don’t spend the same amount of time that they used to back in the day when people wrote long discursive letters in longhand.
discursive: discussing many different ideas, facts etc, without always having a clear purpose
longhand: if you write something in longhand, you write it by hand using complete words, rather than typing it or using special short forms of words → shorthand
shorthand: a fast method of writing using special signs or shorter forms to represent letters, words, and phrases
To make sure my message gets through, I use numbers or bullet points.
That kind of structure forces me to clear out my backlog of emails and respond to those that require a prompt answer.
backlog: a large amount of work that you need to complete, especially work that should already have been completed
When she eventually returned to work, there was a tremendous backlog of paperwork to catch up on.
Now I’m wondering whether my emails make the grade.
What does it take to make the grade as a top golfer?
Since you’re obviously a conscientious emailer, let me remind you that every email requires you to do something.
conscientious: taking care to do things carefully and correctly
A conscientious teacher may feel inclined to take work home.
He was thorough and conscientious, rather than brilliant.
Table Topic Speech
“A favorite nickname of yours “(SM K. Narisawa)
In his long teaching experience, he had some difference nicknames. However, he said that the most common nickname was Carnel Thunders without mentioning whether or not he favors it.
“Who has been the most influential person in your life and why? “( SM Yo. Narisawa)
The speaker raised her husband, reasoning that the person consistently supported her to pursue her teaching English career. In response to a question about what kind of professions would she seek without him, she said that she wouldn’t take up English study after her retirement, explaining that she has other hobbies such as flower arrangement.
“The most important lesson of my life so far.” (SM Yu. Narisawa)
The speaker said his mother is his mentor, saying that she gave him encouragement and the spirit of always putting forth an effort. At the time of selecting his first choice high school, his mother consistently was uplifting his spirit without hesitation, he recalled. At the same time, he talked about an aspect of dynamic character with her perspective of taking up financial investment and betting. Regarding his father, he said that he was very talkative and even interrupted conversations between brothers. From this, the attendees assumed that his parents had similar characteristics which have surely been passed on to their children !
“If I were an animal, I would be a…. “ (SM Takahata)
The speaker said that she would fly like a bird, complaining that she hasn’t seen her daughter in person for more than one year due to the pandemic. Also she said she had a desire to see her three grandchildren even under restricted situations.
“If I were invisible for a day?” (SM Yamazaki)
Obviously the speaker was at a loss for making a speech with such at title, saying that “I lack imagination.” The Coordinator raised some vocabulary questions around “opaque” and “translucent”.
Prepared Speech
“Great manga artist” (SM Yu. Narisawa)
The speaker took up an issue of the similarities between The Lion King, which was released in 1994, and the anime Kimba the White Lion created in 1965 by Tezuka Osamu, using the word of “take-off”.
The plots of The Lion King and Kimba the White Lion share certain, very broad elements. Both are coming-of-age stories centering on an African lion cub, and both cubs' fathers are murdered in the first act, but Kimba includes several human characters in addition to animals, and focuses on the conflicts between encroaching civilization and nature. However, Japanese and American fans of Tezuka's character seized upon several similarities between the two works that, if they are simply coincidental, would rank high among all-time coincidences.(From the internet)
“Brain training” (SM Yo. Narisawa)
The speaker took up one of her favorite issues of “brain training”, holding her father up as an example. Her father enjoyed his life, using his brains such as doing number quizzes (Sudoku), reading novels, and contributing articles to local newspapers, she explained with pride. She said that he hadn’t show any signs of dementia until the very end of his life at the age of 92. At the same time, she recommended the attendees to do some light exercises as well as enjoying communications with friends with a message of “Let’s enjoy daily life to the fullest and keep our bodies healthy ! “ SM Takahata recalled her father who passed away last year, saying that one of his pleasures in the very end of his life was reading English newspapers even after he suffered dementia mainly due to loneliness.
“What does the future hold for SMC?” (SM K. Narisawa)
The speaker talked about additional Zoom meeting schedules that had already been deployed among members by email, with an introduction of his experience of using English in ESS when he was a university student. In ESS, he spend a lot of time putting on a play in English, he said.
With a wild dream of having English conversation every day in his mind, he spelled out the details about additional Zoom meetings on a regular basis; twice a month excluding Mondays that fall after the Saturday SMC and the 5th Saturday morning of each month, starting from May. He emphasized that having a situation being surrounded by English would be preferable, just like his coworkers from the Philippines and India.
“A cute boy” (SM Yamazaki)
The speaker took up a male second grader of an elementary school who he has been working with to improve this writing skills. Also he talked about its unique system focused on English emersion.
Zoom Meeting 5/3 (7:30-9:00 pm)
SMC 5/8 (9:30-11:55 am) Oyama Community Center
Coordinator: SM K. Narisawa, Lecturer: SM Kaneko
Reported by YAMAZAKI
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