実践ビジネス英語 ディクテーション (3/13, 14)
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 23のテーマは、’To Recline or Not to Recline’（座席を倒す際のマナー）でした。Vignetteでは、飛行機や新幹線などで後ろの乗客に配慮せず座席を倒し口論に発展するようなケースが増えていることを中心に、話題は新たなマナーや権利意識にまで広がりました。Talk the TalkでHeatherさんがおっしゃっている機内での注意点は、私も気にして心掛けていることでした。立ち上がる時に背もたれを思いっきり掴む人、いるんです。後ろから座席を蹴るお子様についてもお客様からよく苦情を受けました。
To Recline or Not to Recline
（S: 杉田敏先生 H: Heather Howardさん）
S: Our current vignette talks about reclining one’s seat on a plane and how to avoid friction with the person sitting behind you.
Heather, have you ever argued with a fellow passenger over this issue?
H: I haven’t. You know, I don’t remember this being an issue when I was younger and flying more often.
At least, I hope it wasn’t an issue and that people weren’t fuming in silence behind me.
But as Alvarez points out, economy-class seating has been getting more and more cramped, so when I reclined my seat in the past, I probably wasn’t getting quite so much into the space of the person behind me.
Yet at the same time, I think I usually didn’t recline my seat all the way when the lights were on.
I would put my seat back a bit, so it was a little more comfortable.
The only time I reclined fully was when the lights were turned off, and, as the vignette also states, that’s a time when it’s not likely to offend the person behind us.
I also haven’t been on a Shinkansen train lately, so I haven’t heard about or seen practiced the etiquette on reclining seats there.
S: The question of reclining your seat, especially on the Shinkansen, was never an issue in Japan until a number of comedians and TV personalities started airing their grievances on talk shows and through social media in recent years.
It became a much-talked-about subject on Japanese television, and a consensus emerged that we should speak to the passenger seated behind us before reclining our seat―slowly.
Usually, it takes a long time for a new rule of etiquette to be established, but I was quite surprised on more than a few occasions last year when Shinkansen passengers seated in front of me asked if it was all right to recline their seats.
I was impressed that this practice had become the norm quite rapidly.
H: It seems like a good approach.
People are likely most offended by the perceived insensitivity, when someone seems to jack down their seat without any consideration for the person behind them.
If we have the courtesy to ask, to show that person some respect and thoughtfulness, I’m sure the vast majority of people will say, “Of course, please go ahead.”
S: Are there any other points of etiquette you keep in mind on planes, Heather?
H: Well, one thing I try to do personally is, when I’m getting up out of my seat or sitting down, I try not to steady myself on another person’s seat.
Because it jostles the seat and I know it annoys me when my own seat gets shaken that way.
So, I try to use only the back or the armrest of my own seat.
That way, I’m not rattling anybody.
S: Have you ever witnessed a fight on a plane?
H: No, thank goodness.
I hate being around fights.
Once I tripped over my suitcase and fell over backward on a Tokyo train platform, because two men suddenly started fighting.
And I was backing away, you know, trying to get away from them.
So, to be trapped on an airplane with people who are fighting, unable to escape from that situation, that would be pretty unnerving for me.
お疲れ様でした。
お読み下さり、ありがとうございました♪
