実践ビジネス英語 ディクテーション (7/27, 28)

こんにちは。NHKラジオ「実践ビジネス英語」”Talk the Talk”のディクテーションです。

Lesson 8のテーマは、‘Seeking Advice’（「アドバイスを求めて」でした。Vignetteでは、メールの返信が来ない場合の対処法やアメリカのadvice columns（人生相談コラム）、アメリカ社会が訴訟好きであることなどが話題になりました。

“Talk the Talk”でも、人生相談に寄せられた、ある母親の相談を取り上げています。ひどい話です・・・。

Seeking Advice

（S: 杉田敏先生　H: Heather Howardさん）

S: Our current vignette begins with Ueda Shota, asking for advice.

A certain person hasn’t responded to his email and he wants to know what to do.

What do you tend to do in that kind of situation, Heather?

H: I often use a variation of Lyon’s little white lie.

I’ve written to people saying, “My email service has been acting up lately, and some of my mails aren’t getting through to people. Could you tell me if my email of XX date reached you?”

I combine this with my 24-hour rule.

If I find myself thinking, “Hmm.…I haven’t heard back from Ms. X yet,” I wait another 24 hours if I can before contacting them again.

It’s uncanny how many people actually get back to me within those 24 hours.

People probably have a similar sense of time and Ms. X was just thinking, “Oh, I didn’t reply to Heather yet. I’d better do that now.”

I think that rule has often saved me from appearing too anxious or pushy.

S: The conversation later turns to advice columns.

My own introduction to Americana was also through popular American advice columnists like Ann Landers and Dear Abby, as well as etiquette experts like Miss Manners and Emily Post.

I was thrilled by their witty advice based on fairly conservative American family values.

I still remember that pet phrases Ann Landers used to use―urging someone to dump an unworthy boyfriend, she would often say “Put him on a slow boat to China.”

Or “wake up and smell the coffee!” meaning “You’re just dreaming. Face reality.”

It was quite interesting to learn from columnists like hers what Americans tend to worry about, and to see what solutions and advice they would receive.

H: I’ve always liked reading advice and etiquette columns about weddings.

There’s something about weddings that inspires truly bizarre human behavior.

One of the most shocking ones I’ve ever come across was just recently, in an American newspaper.

The question came from the mother of a supposed-to-be bride, whose fiancé had run off with another woman two months before the wedding.

When the mother notified people about the cancellation, some of them complained about their nonrefundable plane tickets and demanded that the bride’s side reimburse them.

When it came to the poor jilted daughter, apparently they could only spare a few perfunctory words of support.

The mother was so upset, she said she didn’t want any further relationship with those people.

S: What was the columnist’s advice?

H: She said, <quote> “You don’t need me, you’ve got this. You have seen their true colors, and you are free not to have any relationship with them anymore.”

I liked her next line even more.

She said, “if you’d like you can give them the runaway fiance’s number to see about reimbursement .”

お疲れさまでした。お読みくださり、ありがとうございます♪