マイケルズイングリッシュスクール英会話 大阪天王寺 毎週の単語レッスン
This week\’s OMG! 今週のびっくりニュース
\’Black Company\’ nominations announced
It\’s an award nobody wants.
A group of journalists and rights activists on Dec. 1 announced 10 nominees for the 2016 Black Company Awards, given to companies with exploitative and illicit work practices.
Ad giant Dentsu Inc., which as recently come under fire over the karoshi, or death by overwork, of a young female employee last year, and courier company Sagawa Express Co., where a male employee at its Sendai office committed suicide after being harassed by his boss, were among the nominees. The \”winners\” will be announced on Dec. 23.
Now in its fifth year, the awards have helped highlight the culture of overwork, discrimination and harassment pervasive at Japanese companies, as well as push the phrase \”black company\” to national prominence.
Major discount store operator Don Quijote Co. was chosen for having employees log overtime of up to 415 hours over three months.
Being nominated for an award, let alone winning one, is seen as a major PR disaster for a company.
「ブラック企業大賞２０１６」ノミネート
nominations – 候補・exploitative – 搾取的な・違法な・(has) come under fire – 非難を受けた・courier – 宅配便・ committed suicide – 自殺した・ highlight – 〜を浮き彫りにする・discrimination – 差別・pervasive – まん延する・push ~ to … – 〜を…へと押し上げる・prominence – 有名なこと・log – 〜を記録する・let alone ~ – 〜は言うまでもなく・
Read more about black company here!
If you\’re interested in learning vocabulary through news and current affairs, check back every Saturday for another article!
The aim of the articles is to be short enough to easily digest, whilst still providing some important new words. Furthermore, we deliberately choose topics that you\’ve probably heard in the news already. This makes them relatable and easier to understand. Could you tell your teacher about this news story, in English? Try to practice recounting the story, or even rewriting it in your own words. Afterwards, you can show it to your teacher for correction. Additionally, you could also try a translation of the article. This is an intellectually stimulating exercise which is both fun and great practice for understanding the different ways of thinking between English and Japanese. Finally, please remember to have fun learning English! The most rewarding thing for us at Michael\’s English School is seeing your results. See you next time!
