実践ビジネス英語 ディクテーション (11/29, 30)

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 16のテーマは、‘Laptop Etiquette’（ラップトップのエチケット）でした。Vignetteでは、セミナーなどでラップトップをたたき続けてメモを取る行為が周囲の人々の集中力の妨げになることから、デジタル機器使用のマナーや効率的な使い方、手書きの効用などが話題になりました。

Talk the Talkでは、お二人がセミナーや職場、大学での実体験について語られています。

 Laptop Etiquette

（S: 杉田敏先生　H: Heather Howardさん）

S: Our current vignette starts with Nissen talking about a seminar he attended and how the man next to him was typing very loudly on his laptop.

Have you ever experienced anything like that, Heather?

H: I don’t attend many seminars or meetings where people are using laptops, but I have worked with people who seem to have a vendetta against their computers.

Meaning they bang on the keys so hard and so loudly, you can hear them all the way across the office.

I would recommend that people be aware of their keyboard use in any situation.

When someone is typing that loudly, it’s off-putting and not just because of the noise.

Even if I know in my head that the person isn’t angry, that kind of aggressive banging creates a tense atmosphere.

To me, it’s almost like the person is swearing non-stop.

What about you, Mr. Sugita?

S: I was giving a talk to a group of high school teachers recently when I noticed a disturbing noise coming from the front row.

Somebody was pounding on his laptop as he looked at my slides on the screen.

The sound was highly distracting, not only to me, but also to some members of the audience.

Two people wrote in the post-lecture questionnaire that it was difficult to concentrate due to the glowing, noisy laptop.

I think the attendees should have been asked beforehand to refrain from using their laptops.

Laptops and cellphones weren’t ubiquitous in your college days, were they, Heather?

H: Yes, my fellow students and I would chip out our notes on stone tablets.

No, it’s true, there were no laptops and cellphones to ban then.

But a few of my professors did forbid people from packing up their bags before class had ended.

Basically, when it got down to the last five or ten minutes in class, some people would start putting textbooks, notebooks, etc. into their backpacks, and that really ticked off these professors.

Their position was “Hey, class isn’t finished, and it’s rude for there to be all the shuffling and rustling while I’m still talking. It’s like you’re saying, ’I don’t care about absorbing all of today’s material or all the work you did to get ready for class. I just want to bolt out of here the first second I can.”

So, they made a rule: nobody was allowed to pack up until the professor said, “OK, that’s it for today.”

I think they were right to do so. The vignette talks about the skills people need to succeed in the real world and tact is certainly one of them.

Even if we think someone is uninteresting, it’s usually not a good idea to let them know that right to their face.

S: You know that the only place nowadays that you can see almost all the attendees typing away on their laptops is at press conferences.

I can understand that better than a lecture situation as the reporters may be under pressure to file stories soon after the conference, or even while it’s going on.

They can also download relevant background information or do fact checking on the fly.

The topless meeting practice may have started in Silicon Valley and spread to college campuses, but I’m all for it.

The best evidence available now suggests the students should avoid laptops during lectures and pick up their pens.

It’s not too much to think that the same holds true for workplace meetings.

Words and Expressions

have a vendetta against: ～に恨みを抱く

off-putting: 不快にさせる

tick off: （人）を怒らせる、いらいらさせる

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。