节目资讯
刊物:职场秘诀
日期:2009-01-08
难易度:High
关键字:get out of (the) trees so (you) can see the forest, have (a lot) on
(one’s) plate, scope, pare, keep
Advanced Studio Classroom is on the air.
Welcome to our Advanced class for 2009.
Today’s January 8.
Join us as we talk about ”How to Succeed at Work.”.
Well, we certainly welcome all our returning students for this new year’s
lessons.
And we have some very special people with us in our classroom today as
panelists.
We have some of our new staff members for our Studio Classroom programs.
One of them is Winnie.
Hello, Winnie.
Hi, Doris.
Hello, listeners.
Winnie, where do you come from?
What’s your hometown?
I’m from New York City in America.
New York City, well, that’s a long ways away.
But Winnie, are you interested in staying here a long time and helping Studio
Classroom?
Of course. I’m really excited to be here.
Good. Well, you know, Winnie is a very good teacher and I’m glad she can join
us.
And this is your very first time on Advanced, isn’t that right?
Yes, it is.
Well, thank you for being with us.
And then we have someone who came to work in our editorial department, Ryan.
How are you, Ryan?
I’m doing very well, Doris.
And you’ve been working here a vey short time, but how do you like our Advanced
and Studio Classroom programs?
I love it. It’s very educational, very useful and English that you can use on
everyday basis.
And I’m sure you like Chinese people too.
Of course I do.
I love traveling around, seeing all the beautiful things on this island,
culture, everything.
Well, what about eating Chinese food?
Do you like that?
Of course, of course.
I love going to night markets, trying everything, and... yeah, everything.
Well, you know, Ryan is like a lot of foreigners.
They love the night markets and the Chinese food.
But this is a very good time because it’s just the time before the Lunar New
Year holidays.
And there are so many good things to eat, so many people shopping.
But it’s also a new year as far as our regular calendar is concerned, January 8.
And a lot people are trying to figure out, how can I do a better job?
Winnie, how long did you teach actually in America?
I’ve taught for four years in America.
Four years.
Yes.
Well, did you figure out how you could succeed and be a really good teacher?
Did you think about it much?
Oh, yes, all the time.
It took a very long time for me to realize how I need to improve, how should...
how do I become a better teacher.
And it was a very long learning process.
I think everybody wants to succeed.
Now actually, what does it mean when you say you really succeed in something,
Ryan?
How can we say that I have succeeded?
What makes us feel we’ve succeeded in something?
Sometimes maybe someone says something to you that ”Oh, wow. You did really
good.” Then you think, ”OK. Wow. I am doing good.”.
Um, sometimes maybe you reach a milestone or something a goal that you’ve been
shooting for.
Um, it’s different in every case.
Mmhm.
I think we feel when we’ve accomplished something that people have recognized or
we’ve done a job that’s finished, we’d say, ”Oh. I’ve succeeded.”.
I know a lot of people want to succeed in their job.
They get promoted, get a higher salary.
But we also need to learn how to succeed as people, not only at work, but how to
be a better person.
And during the year on lessons in Advanced, we’ll be talking about a lot of
those different things.
But today our lesson is going to start on page 16.
And I hope you all have the magazine.
This is considered a BUSINESS article.
It’s something to think about ”How to Succeed at Work.”.
And what does it say here after ”How to Succeed at Work”?
It says, ”Advice from a business coach on how to make positive changes in your
working environment.”.
A business coach.
Just to think of that and I think about football coach.
That’s right.
A coach is somebody that helps you do your job better.
And then we talk about a working environment.
What does a working environment actually mean?
A working environment is basically where you work.
Maybe the culture of the organization, the expectations of everyone - depending
on what kind of company it is, it could be very different.
Right.
At school...
Right.
... is very different from...
Work.
Yeah. Any other place, so... yeah.
Well, I like to have a nice working environment myself.
At Studio Classroom, we try to have kind of a family working environment, don’t
we?
That’s right.
And sometimes people call each other Auntie and Uncle and everything else.
But you know, a working environment is very important.
Because if the environment is not good, we just don’t even feel like doing a
good job, isn’t that right?
And you just don’t want to come to work in the morning.
Right.
Instead of saying, ”Well, I can hardly wait to get there and see what’s gonna
happen today.
Well, this is by a coach.
So let’s decide, as we look at this article today, what we’re going to learn.
I think one thing we’re going to learn today is how to look at the big picture,
aren’t we?
When we talk about the big picture, what is a big picture of something, Winnie?
A big picture is usually another perspective.
I like to think of it as a puzzle.
Sometimes you only see that one small piece.
But when we say the big picture, you can see how everything it should look when
you’re at a farther distance.
When all the pieces are all together, you can see the whole picture.
What do you think of when you think of the big picture, Ryan?
Sometimes when I’m thinking of the big picture, I’m thinking of um... ”How do I
fit in in the situation?”.
Sometimes it’s hard for me to understand why things are happening.
But when I look back and see how everything happens in my life, then I... I
understand how the pieces fit together just like Winnie said.
Like a puzzle, right?
Exactly.
Right.
And sometimes, you know, we, like a person who’s painting or a person who’s
doing something (Chinese) with their hands, and they’re looking at a little
thing they’re doing.
But when you look at the big picture, you see the whole.
Maybe you’re making a rose, and you’re just put in the red part.
But you see the big picture, you see the whole flower or the bouquet.
You look at a different angle, like you said, a bigger perspective.
So that’s what we’re going to talk about today: how to get the big picture or
how to find out how to see things differently.
If we want to succeed, we have to look at how we are looking at our world.
So I guess that’s what this coach is going to teach us today.
And we’re gonna have a question and answer for each day.
The first question, the one that we have today, I’m going to ask uh... Brandon
to read it for us.
(Music).
Get the big picture, then master your tasks.
Question: I have so many tasks on my plate that I often don’t know what to do
first.
The email flow is so heavy that I don’t know how to organize it so that I can
determine my next actions, let alone find time to answer them all.
How can I get out of these trees so I can see the forests?
If I were going to ask that question, I would not make it so complicated.
He’s using different idioms here.
I would just say, ”I have so many things to do, how can I get them done?”.
That would be the simple way to say it.
But he’s trying to make it very literary, isn’t he?
That’s right.
And he’s talking about the things that you have to do, the jobs you have been
assigned, a task or a job.
But how can you put jobs on your plate?
Is that kind of an idiom, Winnie?
That is definitely an idiom.
You have this image of maybe food on a plate.
And in this case, we’re talking about tasks or jobs or responsibilities that
belongs to you.
OK.
So how many things you have to do today.
I do know what to do first.
And sometimes you’ll get a lot of different jobs from your supervisors or things
you haven’t finish, you’d say, ”Oh. Should I finish this or should I do this one
for today?”.
And there are so many things to do.
Do you ever have that problem when you’re working, Ryan?
People give you a lot of things to edit, to look at, and prove.
Do you ever say, ”Which one should I do first?”.
Do you ever have that problem?
Yes, I do.
And sometimes when you do set a schedule, set your priorities, then you’re given
more.
And you’ve got to reoganize.
That’s right.
Something comes in. You say, ”This has to go to print today.” And the other one
doesn’t have to go till tomorrow, so I’ll push this one ahead of that one.
But you have to look and see what the big picture is.
If you don’t get this one done, maybe the magazine won’t get out on time.
So you’ll have to say, ”I don’t what to do this because I haven’t done the other
one.”.
You have to look at the big picture and see what’s going to happen if you don’t
do it, don’t you?
Yes.
I think everybody has to do that.
You have to look and see which ones need to be done first so you organize it
that way.
But when you talk about ”Getting out of the trees and see the forest,” that’s
kind of an expression that we mentioned sometimes.
What does it say that at Specialized Terms on the left?
This is also an idiom.
And getting out of the trees so you can see the forest is to say that you see
the general idea, and sometimes it’s hard to see that because you are uh...
concentrated on the details.
Right.
It means when you have so many details to do, you forget what the whole
picture’s gonna look like when you get through.
So I wouldn’t worry about memorizing all this little idioms, but it’s nice to
know what they mean.
And people like to use pictures in their words, and Chinese people do that all
the time with their expressions.
And this is what people do in English, so you just have to say, ”What do they
mean by this?”.
Well, they also talk about the e-mail flow is heavy.
I think everybody’s e-mail flow is heavy, isn’t it?
Yes, it is.
Especially with all the stuff we get today - everyone’s trying to sell something
to you.
Um, we get a lot of e-mails that we don’t even want.
So you have to sometimes sort through, proritize.
Mmhm.
I want this. I don’t want that.
Yeah.
But how many e-mails do you think come into your box everyday, Ryan,
approximately?
Um. Well, since I’m new here, I don’t get a lot of my work e-mail.
But in my personal e-mail, I get a lot from friends back home, other friends in
Taiwan, stuff I’ve signed up for that I didn’t... don’t want anymore.
Stuff like that.
So about how many do you think that would be? A hundred a day?
Yeah.
Maybe a hundred if you count all the spam and everything.
Yeah.
It comes a lot.
What about you, Winnie?
I’d say a little less, but maybe around fifty or so.
Oh, that’s good.
I get at least two hundred.
But you know, some of them I... some of them I get rid of and some of them I
want,
because here’s the home newspaper from Seattle to see what’s going on or
something.
But if I don’t have time, I can’t read it, see?
So this is what we have to do.
Which ones do I open?
Well, if I see one that says ”urgent,” I need to know today, I’m going to open
that first.
I might not want to, because I think, ”Oh-uh, that means work.”.
But I have to decide then which one to do first.
So how do you see which ones you need to do instead of looking at everything in
row, 1, 2, 3, 4.
I have to get the big picture and say, ”OK. Look at all these e-mails.”.
And sometimes, some don’t get answered for a long time because they don’t seem
that important.
And people say, ”Well, I sent you an e-mail two weeks ago.”.
I say, ”I’m sorry. I didn’t get that one open yet.”.
So we have to kind of prioritize, don’t we?
Yes.
Right. So that’s the question.
When this person who’s coaching says, ”How do you know what to do?”.
Well, there’s answer.
We’re gonna have the answer in two parts, so we’re on page 16.
And we’re going to ask Bryan.
We have Ryan and Bryan, and...
Oh, we have so many... names.
And um... we know that we have several people working on the magazine.
So they’re going to help us on this.
And I’m going to ask Bryan if he will readthe answer for us on page 16.