Category: Business English
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Double Jeopardy
WotD: Double Jeopardy To explain double jeopardy, we’ll first have to step into the law courts and then into the life of a middle-aged woman. I know it sounds complicated, but bear with me here. Under North American laws, a person cannot be tried for the same criminal offence twice. What that means is if…
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Deadbeat landlord
WotD: Deadbeat landlord Before looking at what a deadbeat landlord is, we need to make sure you know what it means to be a deadbeat. Someone who is a deadbeat is lazy and good for nothing. They will never offer to help, and if you ask them to contribute, they will find a way to…
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Lose your shirt
Idiom: Lose your shirt At first glance, you may look at this idiom and wonder how the heck someone can lose their shirt. Of course, sometimes you can see a sad pair of shoes in a parking lot or a single, lonely shoe on the side of a road, but how often do you see…
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End user
Word of the Day: End user People are not people anymore. We are consumers. After purchasing a product or service, we become end users. It’s no joke and no secret that the business–customer relationship is declining in our consumerist societies. I dislike that last term end user. If you don’t know what it is, it’s the person…
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Sign off
WotD: Sign off Most things need approval of some kind. A person in authority will sign off on something when they want to approve it or give a subordinate permission to do something. If a child wants to go to a sleepover at their friend’s house, they must first get their parents to sign off on it.…
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Hit the ground running
Idiom: Hit the ground running I’ve always thought hiring a new employee who can hit the ground running is better than hiring an inexperienced person who needs to be trained first. As I get older, I also wonder why some companies discriminate against older workers. In many cases, older…no, mature workers already have the skills that companies need.…
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Going concern
English Idiom: Going concern ArtisanEnglish.jp has been a going concern for a little over two years now. Wow! Time flies. On Monday last week, ArtisanEnglish.jp had its second anniversary. That’s right; it continues to grow, albeit slowly. A business that is successful and growing is usually called a going concern. Although ArtisanEnglish.jp is a…
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Don’t fish off the company pier
Proverb: Don’t fish off the company pier Keep your work and private lives separate; in other words, don’t fish off the company pier. We all know we don’t keep every fish we catch. Catch and release in the company pond is not a good idea because some fish come back to bite you. Don’t fish off…
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White Knight
Word of the Day: White Knight Let’s talk business. When a company is in financial trouble, one option to get out of it is to find a white knight. A white knight is another company or even a person who can buy the company or invest enough money into it to get it out of…
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Laissez-faire
Word of the Day: Laissez-faire There has been much media coverage about Renho, the new leader of the Democratic Party in Japan, and her dual Taiwanese-Japanese nationality. It was also reported that the Japanese government had taken a laissez-faire attitude towards dual citizenship. Although officially, Japanese citizens should give up their other nationality and possess…
