【PS English 講師厳選！⑪】使えるビジネス英語 – 農業にまつわるイディオム10選！
人間の社会は農業をルーツとしており、その土地のものを食べて生活していた私たちの過去の生活に由来するイディオム／表現がたくさんあります。
ここでは、ビジネス英語の職場でよく使われる農業をテーマにしたイディオムを10つ紹介します。それぞれの慣用句をより良く理解するために、その成り立ちもご紹介します。
1) to kill the goose that lays the golden egg
(origin – a story where the greedy farmer kills the goose to take all the golden eggs but there are no more golden eggs left!, so he’s ended his valuable source of income)
Meaning: to ruin/end a valuable source of income 目先の利益に目がくらみ、お金を生む重要な源を失うこと
Example: “We need to keep this customer happy, we don’t want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg”
2) To make hay while the sun shines
(origin – hay is grass used to feed animals and can be ruined easily if it gets too wet so best to cut it while it’s dry and sunny)
Meaning: to make the most of an opportunity while it lasts 「好機を逃すな」
Example: “This is a great opportunity for us to grow the business we need to make hay while the sun shines”
3) to plough back
(origin – a plough is a farming implement used to make trenches to plant crops)
Meaning: 利益を同じ事業に投資すること
Example: “We’ve had a very good year, beating budget by 25%, it’s important we plough back some of that profit into the business for future growth”
4) to plough a lonely furrow
(origin – a farmer often makes furrows (trenches) with his plough on his own without any support from other people)
Meaning: 独力で仕事をする
Example: “We’ve been ploughing a lonely furrow with this IT project, we really need to find a partner to collaborate and work with”
5) to put all your eggs in one basket
Meaning: 一つのことにすべてを賭けること
Example: “We shouldn’t rely so much on the domestic market, we’re putting all our eggs in one basket”
6) to separate the wheat from the chaff
(origin – wheat is a valuable cereal grain, chaff is the surrounding part we can’t eat)
Meaning: 良いものと悪いものを分ける
Example: “We really need to separate the wheat from the chaff, we’ve got a lot of departments generating no income at all”
7) when pigs fly
Meaning: something that will never happen 絶対にありえないこと
Example: “Yes it would be great to get a long-term government contract, when pigs fly! Let’s be honest, it’s never going to happen”
8) to take the bull by the horns
(origin – bulls are male cows and can be very difficult to control!)
Meaning: 困難に正面から立ち向かうこと
Example: “We need to take the bull by the horns and close down the Paris office, it’s just a waste of money!”
9) don’t count your chickens before they hatch
Meaning: 「取らぬ狸の皮算用」
Example: “Yes the US contract is potentially fantastic but it’s not signed yet, so don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched”
10) until the cows come home
(origin – comes from the practice of cows coming home to their shelter from the fields slowly and casually)
Meaning: for a very long time ずっと、長い間
Example: “We could talk about this problem until the cows come home, but it wouldn’t solve anything, instead of talking we need to take some action”
PS Englishでは、より自然な英語を話せるように、ネイティブスピーカーの講師が今回ご紹介したような使える英語・表現をマンツーマンでお教えします！
ネイティブのようなナチュラルな英語を話したい！イギリス英語を学びたい！ビジネスの場でも恥ずかしくない英語を話したい！という方は是非こちらから無料コンサルテーションをお申込みください。
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