Japan's Young Slackers

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 520.

II.

Ex. 2 “I have to admit that the office is where I feel most fulfilled.”

to admit – признавать, допускать, сознаваться (в преступлении)

to acknowledge – признавать (открыто), сознавать

(E.g. he was acknowledged as their leader. – Он был признан лидером)

to recognize - признавать

(E.g. He recognized that he wasn't qualified enough. – Он признавал (сам видел), что недостаточно квалифицирован.)

to recognize a new state – признать новое государство

1. Новые улики заставили Кларенса признать, что он подделал документ.

2. Доставлять себе удовольствие – признанный путь получить чувство благополучия.

3. Экономическая ситуация сейчас нестабильна и уровень безработицы высок, так что ты сам должен признать опасность быть уволенным.

4. Г-н Браун – общественный деятель, поэтому он никогда не признает свой тайный брак, который может нанести непоправимый ущерб его репутации.

5. Г-н Стюарт в прошлом месяце получил повышение, таким образом его длительная служба на благо компании была, наконец, признана.

III.

Ex. 2 “It's a siren song that neither employers nor workers are likely to resist.”

to resist – противиться, сопротивляться, не поддаваться

(E.g. to resist the enemy – оказывать сопротивление врагу

to resist the police in the discharge of their duty – оказывать сопротивление полиции при исполнении служебных обязанностей)

to oppose – противиться, сопротивляться, выступать против

(E.g. People oppose this police. – Люди выступают против этой политики.)

1. Надеюсь, мы сможем навязать это решение комитету, так как его самые влиятельные члены вряд ли будут выступать против него.

2. Мартин ввязался в драку, а потом сопротивлялся аресту. Теперь ему не обойтись без хорошего адвоката.

3. Я не знаю, что вот-вот случится. Папа так слаб, что больше не может сопротивляться болезни.

4. В стране много людей, которые выступают против новой политики правительства.

Exercise 6. Read the following article quickly and find answers to the questions given below. Try to concentrate only on those passages that provide the information you need and skip those that are of no importance to you at the moment.

1.What does the term ‘freeter' mean?

2.What kind of people become freeters?

3.What major sub-groups does the younger generation in Japan fall into?

4.Why do so many young Japanese adopt the freeter lifestyle?

5.What job opportunities did the older generation have?

6.What is the attitude of the older people to the freeter lifestyle of the young?

Meet the easygoing ‘part-time' generation.

Gone are the days when most young men expected to climb the corporate ladder at Sony, Mitsubishi or another industrial giant, while their sisters took “office lady” positions until marriage. Nowadays Japan Inc. simply isn't creating middle-class opportunities like it used to, and while young Japanese might fantasize about jobs-for-life, most end up with something much different: paid-by-the-hour temporary work.

Japan has a name for its swelling legion of part-timers. They are called freeters (derived from the English word free and the German word for worker, Arbeiter) – a term that describes not just an employment category but a lifestyle. By reputation, freeters are a bit like America's Gen-X slackers: they work only when they need cash, hang out, travel whenever possible and celebrate their rejection of their parents' old workaholic lifestyle. Japan's new workers froth cappuccinos, pump gas, pack boxes and run cash registers. “I couldn't be a salary-man,” says Yoshinari Nozaki, a 30-year-old design-school dropout. “Getting up early even in winter, crushing yourself into a commuter train, working late and drinking with your superiors to ingratiate yourself. Where's the freedom in that?”

Ten years ago, such behaviour was virtually unheard of. From the early 1960s until 1992, career jobs awaited not just college grads but kids out of high school as well. Major corporations recruited aggressively at top universities, where male students willing to trim their hair and don three-piece “interview suits” had their pick of careers inside Japan Inc. All the while, major manufacturers sought fresh high-school grads to staff factories and sales offices. The good times ended when companies reined in hiring, and universities began to feel the “job-seekers' ice age.” It's been a long freeze. In 2000 only eight in 10 college grads landed jobs of any sort after matriculation.

Now magazine publications are chock-full of help-wanted listings of unskilled, short-term positions. Typically, the ads emphasize a job's ease, flexibility and fun – not old-fashioned draws like status or career promise. Reads one: “For this job you are free to choose your own clothing and hairstyle. You can get up late in the morning. You don't have to ride crowded trains. Even if you have no experience, you get a good rate pay. Yes, all these selfish wishes can come true!” The position advertised: $11-an-hour-telemarketing.

Many of Japan's freeters harbor artistic aspirations. Daiki, for example, earns meager wages passing out fliers in a gritty underpass in Tokyo and spends his free time composing rap lyrics. Daiki, 20, still lives at home and hangs out in clubs at night. “If my folks are still up when I get home, I get an earful,” he says. “When I wake up in the afternoon, I hear the same refrain: ‘Get a job!' My dad's a mechanic and he works very hard. That's why they never let up on me.”

As originally coined, the term freeter described “artists and musicians with a purpose in life who needed part-time work to make a living,” says Reiko Kosugi, an expert on part-time Japanese workers at the Japan Institute of Labor, a government-funded think tank. Even today, she adds, young people with entrepreneurial or artistic ambitions make up one of three main subgroups. The other two are kids who tried unsuccessfully to land career jobs and drifters with no firm plans. Kosugi believes the last group, the drifters, to be the fastest growing. “As children they saw only the backs of their fathers. They have no idea what they want to do. All they say is: ‘I don't want to be a salaryman.' In this sense, Japan's economic situation is reflected inside the family.”

In 1999 Kosugi and her research team interviewed 97 part-timers about their employment perspectives and motivations. Their study, entitled “Freeters: Their Reality and Thinking,” profiles a generation adrift. Most part-timers want freedom and flexibility, it concludes, but either lack firm career goals or “tend not to have any means of connecting their present situations to a future career.” At times, the dysfunction is staggering. One interview subject, a 31-year-old male, completed a doctorate in biology and abandoned the field abruptly – to attend beauty college. Another, a 19-year-old high-school graduate, quit a vocational business school to work in a club. “I had an eye on one bar I kind of liked,” she told scholars. “I was hired as a part-timer. I enjoy the job now, but I am also interested in fashion. I don't know if I will try to become a full-fledged bartender, or quit. I'm not sure.”

Traditionally minded Japanese find these antics heretical. To them, the young generation's self-indulgence breaks a time-tested social contract. Conventionally, Japanese salarymen work for decades within rigidly hierarchical corporations until they are eventually rewarded in the form of fat retirement bonuses. Freeters take the dramatically opposite approach: work as little as necessary, then have fun as long as possible until the money runs out.

Masahiro Yamada, a sociologist at Gakugei University in Tokyo, thinks Japan's self-indulgent youngsters constitute a bloodsucking “affluent class that can live like Japan's ancient aristocrats.” Yamada charges that Japan's kids “hinder the nation's economy and sap the nation's vitality.” His prescription: young Japanese should move out from their parental homes, marry earlier and have more kids. It's a view many older Japanese share. “I want him to get out and become independent,” the mother of a live-at-home 29-year-old son told NEWSWEEK. “I want him to discover what he wants to do with his life and be happy.”

Throughout the postwar boom, Japan's children typically stayed in the nest long enough to save a down payment for a flat of their own, and then married. Yet today's high housing costs and relatively low wages have made it tough for most young people to follow the job-marriage-mortgage path. They lack options and for that reason adopt the freeter lifestyle.

(From “Newsweek” June 4, 2001, abridged)

Exercise 7.

a) See Grammar Reference (Nouns in groups) p. … Read the article again and write out compound nouns and noun phrases with compound words used as attributes. Think of a way to translate them into Russian.

E.g. paid-by-the-hour temporary work – временная работа с почасовой оплатой

b) Rewrite the following sentences using noun phrases instead of the words given in bold type.

1.The firm employed a boy of 16 who dropped out of secondary school.

2.Small firms placed a lot of advertisements which showed that help was wanted for short terms.

3.Alison got a job of a cleaner at a café for which she got $8 an hour.

4. The boys who were 12 years old set off on a hike in the mountains which lasted for 6 hours.

5.The local authorities made it a point to create job opportunities for graduates of high schools who belonged to the middle class.

6.It was the time of recession which was as long as a decade.

7.They launched a project for employment which was funded by the government.

8.The research profiles the perspectives for employment of the younger generation.

9.The article keeps a low profile on the rate of unemployment among graduates of top universities.

10.The parents are concerned about the style of life of their children.

11.In New York Jack stayed in a room in a hotel which cost $400 a night.

12. We missed our connection at Kennedy Airport. Due to bad weather conditions there was a delay which lasted for three hours.

Exercise 8. Analyze the following sentences, translate them into Russian and replace the participle constructions with corresponding relative clauses.

E.g. The school being closed, the children were happy.

- As the school was closed, the children were happy.

1. The line being bad, we couldn't hear what Max was saying.

2. His English being poor, the boy went to evening classes to brush it up.

3. Their house being redecorated, the Smiths had to live in a hotel.

4. Everybody having gone to bed, the boy tiptoed quietly to his room.

5. The meeting having been called off unexpectedly, we didn't have to stay at work till 5.

6. The work done, he could relax.

7. A draft contract written, we could send it to the boss for approval.

8. The Labour Party candidate having promised to curb inflation, people voted for him.

9. The terms of the contract still being discussed, we couldn't write the final version of the document.

10. The suspected assassin still being questioned, the public relations officer couldn't give any conclusive information to the press.

11. With all debts paid off, Allan felt things were looking up.

12. With inflation going down and unemployment reduced, the ruling party leaders didn't worry about the outcome of the election campaign.

13. With Mr Gordon having taken over the company, all employees felt more secure.

14. With so many commercials being shown all the time, TV programs have become impossible to watch.

Exercise 9. Replace the relative clauses in the following sentences with participle constructions.

1. As Mike was not fully qualified, the manager could give him a job.

2. When the research was completed, the committee was ready to report on its results.

3. As many employees can do their work at home, big companies close down some of their offices.

4. As Mr Alister had started to work from home, his family moved to the countryside.

5. When the children became financially independent, their parents didn't have to support them any longer.

6. As her office hours were not regular, Mrs Smiley couldn't say when she would be able to meet the reporters.

7. As Martin was a top university graduate, the head of the company was glad to employ him.

8. As the housing prices were going up steadily, Mr Carlton did his best to make the down payment for his new apartment as soon as possible.

9. As many mothers work full-time, their children don't get enough care and attention.

10. As his computer was not working, Martin couldn't complete the work in time.

11. As Martin's computer hadn't been repaired in time, he couldn't complete the work.

12. As major corporations don't create new job opportunities, it has become difficult for university graduates to get a job.

13. As Margaret hadn't completed her doctorate, she wasn't considered a full-fledged scholar.

14. As Ms Speedy caused irreparable damage to the computer system, she is going to be fired.

15. As the problem has been imposed on the employees of the company, they are not eager to address it.

16. As the managers of the company have been deprived of all his benefits, some of them are going to resign.

Exercise 10. Translate the parts of the sentences given in italics using participle constructions if possible.

1. Будучи не в состоянии взять на себя ответственность, they didn't know what to do.

2. I can't say that the film, который сейчас показывают по первому каналу, is a masterpiece.

3. Не имея поддержки со стороны родителей в молодости, the millionaire was proud that he was a self-made man.

4. The old movie star, которая была популярна почти полвека, couldn't get used to being retired and forgotten.

5. The idea, которую сейчас обсуждают, reflects the opinion of the majority of our employees.

6. The idea, которую только что выдвинули, can't possibly help to promote our business.

7. The man, которого сейчас обыскивает офицер службы безопасности, might be involved in drug trafficking.

8. The man, которого только что обыскал офицер службы безопасности, might be involved in drug trafficking.

9. The ties, которые были установлены c этой страной, can't be considered stable.

10. The letters, которые были написаны вчера, must be passed on to the head manager for approval.

11. Согласившись оплатить расходы на свадьбу своей дочери, Mr Davies started thinking how to raise the money for it.

12. Так как он неправильно процитировал президента в статье, the journalist had to resign.

13. Так как журналист неправильно процитировал президента в статье, the editor had to give him the sack.

14. Получая огромную прибыль, the business elite can put pressure on politicians and make them change their political course.

15. Так как ему отказали в визе, he couldn't get his degree at Oxford.

16. Так как с этой страной дипломатические отношения были прерваны, tourists couldn't get visas.

17. Когда контракт был подписан, the businessmen went to the best restaurant in the city to celebrate the event.

18. You can't raise a healthy generation, при том что родители оба работают полный рабочий день.

19. The company cut down its budget, при этом нескольких старых служащий вынудили уйти на пенсию.

20. Даже при том, что данные будут приходить сюда со всего мира, the scientists won't be able to predict and earthquakes accurately enough.

Exercise 11. Supply the correct form of the verbs given in brackets.

A.

The relationship between the British royal family and the popular press is curious, to say the least. In many respects the press yet (1) ______________ (mod.v./realise) that the royals are indeed the goose that lays golden eggs. Royal scandals and royal divorces which (2) ______________ (to illustrate) with tasteless photographs and (3) ___________ (to support) by the worst kind of journalistic excess (4) ___________ (to prove) to be just the thing for raising newspaper circulations. Every photograph became a contribution to some new rumour; even private telephone conversations (5) _____________ (to print) on the front page. What the press yet (6) ______________ (mod.v./ realise) is that such intrusions into the privacy of members of the royal family also (7) _______________ (to help) to create an atmosphere in which the very existence of the monarchy (8) _______________ (to call) into question. The prestige of the royal family undoubtedly (9) _____________ (to suffer). And how this (10) _______________ (mod.v./not be) the case when their lives (11) ______________ (to turn) into some absurd soap opera? Just as the press feeds the illusion that the characters on television, those awful creeps in ‘East Enders' and ‘Neighbours', are somehow ‘real people' so it (12) ___________ (to reduce) the royal family to the status of a series of cardboard characters. And if you secretly (13) ____________ (to think), ‘Well, that's what they are,' you (14) ___________ (mod.v./be) just another victim of the illusion. There are real issues still (15) _____________ (to debate) about the role, and indeed the survival of the royal family, issues to which the popular press hardly (16) ________________ (to contribute). If the monarchy should lose its constitutional role, the press will be largely to blame. And ironically it then (17) _____________ (mod.v./lose) one of its main circulation boosters, and it (18) _____________ (mod.v./kill) off its golden goose for good.

(From “Advanced Language Practice” by M.Vince)

B.