뉴스&스피킹(영자신문)

하루 10분이면 영어에 대한 두려움을 극복하고 누구나 유창하게 영어를 구사하실 수 있습니다.

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  • Japanese Women Stand Against High Heels Thousands of Japanese women have joined a social media campaign against rules for what kind of clothing is acceptable at work. The campaign also rejects expectations that women wear high heels in the workplace.

    The movement is called #KuToo. The term #KuToo is a play on the Japanese word “kutsu” for shoes and “kutsuu,” meaning pain.

    Yumi Ishikawa launched the campaign after leaving a message on the social networking service Twitter. She wrote about being forced to wear high heels for a part-time job at a funeral home. The 32-year-old said the requirement is an example of gender discrimination.

    Ishikawa also works part-time as a writer and as an actress. She has started on online appeal to demand the government bar companies from requiring female employees to wear high heels on the job. As of Tuesday, nearly 20,000 women have signed the appeal.

    Ishikawa wrote that wearing high heels causes health problems for women with their feet and in the lower back. “It’s hard to move, you can’t run and your feet hurt. All because of manners,” she wrote, noting that men do not face the same expectations.

    Japan’s gender discrimination

    While many Japanese companies may not exactly require female employees to wear high heels, many women do so because of tradition and social expectations.

    Ishikawa said she had been the target of online harassment over the campaign, mostly from men. “I’ve been asked why I need to make such a big deal about this - can’t I just work this out with your company?” she said.

    Ishikawa told the Reuters news agency, “We need people to realize that gender discrimination can show up in lots of small ways.” She noted the way women are treated by their supervisors and expectations that women will do all the housework and childcare - even if they work outside the home.

    Japan, she said, is “way behind other countries in this regard.” Japan finished in 110th place out of 149 countries in the World Economic Forum’s gender-equality ratings.

    Until recently, Japanese businessmen were expected to wear neckties at work. However, that has changed since the government launched a campaign in 2005 to persuade companies to turn down air-conditioners and reduce electricity use.

    “It would be great if the country had a similar kind of campaign about high heels,” said Ishikawa. The health ministry said it was considering the appeal, but had nothing more to say.

    In Britain, Nicola Thorp launched a similar appeal in 2016 after she was sent home from work for refusing to wear high heels.

    A parliamentary investigation found there was discrimination in British workplaces, but the government rejected a bill banning companies from requiring women to wear high heels.

    I'm Alice Bryant.
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  • US College Graduates Want Work with Purpose When she was growing up, Camille Roberts always saw science in her future.

    Her parents are both doctors of chemistry and she wanted to follow their example by going into medical research.

    It was not just that she enjoyed the idea of making scientific discoveries. The 24-year-old Pennsylvania native says her parents taught her the importance of helping others. She saw medical research as a way of helping improve society.

    And, seeking an education in such a field would likely lead to a high-paying job.

    So, in 2013, Roberts began studying biomedical engineering at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

    During her four years there, she volunteered with young children in the city. She also worked as a teaching assistant for several professors. These experiences introducedher to other, more personal ways to help people.

    After completing her studies in 2017, Roberts took a research position at the National Institute of Mental Health. But she soon began feeling deeply unhappy with her work. She wanted a change.

    “What meant more to me was a day-to-day impact that I could see and that I could feel, and had more control over,” Roberts told VOA.

    So in 2018, Roberts took a job doing what she had come to find much more enjoyable: teaching. She started teaching science classes at the Fusion Academy, a private high school in Washington, D.C. that serves students with non-traditional needs.

    Many of Roberts’ former classmates and coworkers now have jobs that pay them much more than she makes. Many of them also have more free time than she does. But Roberts says she would not trade more money or more free time for the creativityand purpose she now finds in her work.

    Roberts is not alone. In fact, several new studies show that college graduates in the U.S. are increasingly looking for more than just good pay from their jobs. Experts say this may greatly change the relationships between employers and employees.

    In April, the employment website Indeed released a study on the job interests of recent college graduates between 2014 and 2018. Over the four-year period, the listings that gained the most interest changed from higher-paying business and finance jobs to arts and social services jobs.

    Nick Bunker suggests the reason is the strong economy the U.S. is currently experiencing. He is an economist with Indeed’s Hiring Lab. Bunker argues with high demand from employers and low unemployment, graduates are more likely to turn to career fields that might otherwise seem riskier to them.

    “People do have their own individual views of the world,” he said.” “And in a tighter labor market, recent graduates are going to have more of an ability to find jobs that fit with those views.”

    Also in April, the research organization Gallup and Bates College in Maine published a joint study on career interests of U.S. college graduates.

    The researchers asked more than 2,200 graduates of four-year programs what they wanted from their jobs. The people they questioned were between the ages of 21 and 55. About 80 percent of them said it was either very important or extremely important to feel a sense of purpose from their work.

    What is a ‘sense of purpose,’ exactly?

    Rebecca Fraser-Thill says it comes from identifying goals in your work that are both meaningful to you but that also affect the rest of the world. Fraser-Thill is director of faculty engagement at the Bates Center for Purposeful Work.

    Fraser-Thill notes that the research shows that every generation represented in the study wanted to find a sense of purpose in their work. Other Gallup studies have shown that today’s young people -- often called Millennials -- want it even more than earlier generations.

    In the past, employers offered greater job security than most jobs today, Fraser-Thill notes. A person would often work for one company for most of their lives. That company would then offer them financial assistance once they ended their careers. So even if workers did not feel as much of a sense of purpose, they at least felt a more personal connection to their employers.

    “That doesn’t exist anymore,” said Fraser-Thill. “All of the students who are graduating now are going out into a world where … there’re going to be fewer companies looking out for them … And because of that, they know that … this sense of purpose has to come from within.”

    She says people with jobs they find meaningful are 10 times more likely to be healthier mentally and physically. This in turn makes them better workers.

    But it is not necessarily the kind of job a person has that makes work seem purposeful. Instead, purpose comes from how an employee relates to the duties for which they are responsible.

    An office worker might not feel as though they are saving the planet, for example. But Fraser-Thill says if their employer takes the time to find what an employee’s interests are and centers their responsibilities on those interests, workers will have a more purposeful connection to their work.

    Colleges and universities can help students find what gives them purpose before they graduate, she adds. The schools can do so by helping them find internships. And professors can offer classwork that makes them think about their career goals, and hold discussions about what they should really expect from the working world.

    I’m Pete Musto.

    And I’m Anne Ball.
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  • Soap's Connection to 'Soap Opera' Now, Words and Their Stories from VOA Learning English.

    On this program we talk about common expressions in American English. And on today’s show we will talk about a very common household object. People used it thousands of years ago and most likely you used it today. I am talking about soap.

    History experts say instructions for making soap were reportedly found on a clay Babylonian tablet. Ancient Egyptian, Chinese and Roman cultures also used some kind of soap.

    Today there are many different types of soap – from bars to liquid, from scented to plain. There are soaps to clean our bodies, our pets, our cars and our homes.

    Advertising for these products is big business. In fact, it is this connection to advertising that has given us the name of a very popular form of entertainment – soap operas.

    Just as many cultures have their own kinds of soaps, they also have their kinds of soap operas – complicated stories about human relationships.

    Many years ago (in the U.S.), they were the first programs to be paid for by soap-making companies. Companies that made soaps, detergents and other cleaning products originally broadcast their commercials during these shows. And who was mainly watching these daytime shows?

    Housewives.

    So, these commercials were aimed at women who may have been cleaning their homes while watching the television program.

    Put new Duz in your washing machine. Finest duds (clothes) you’ve ever seen. Bigger news now when you sing, Duz does everything.’The new Duz brings you 'The Guiding Light' created by Irma Phillips.

    So, that is where the “soap” part of the name "soap opera" comes from. But what about “opera”? Why not call them “soap shows”?

    Well, in soap operas, the human stories that play out are extreme. The characters and situations of the shows are over-the-top! They probably would not happen in real life. In fact, that is why many people criticize or make fun of soaps. They are too unrealistic.

    But who cares?! Not the people who love soap operas, that’s for sure.

    People do not watch soap operas to see real life or to learn valuable lessons. Soap operas are escapist entertainment. You get to escape your own life and live dangerously in someone else’s … for about an hour at a time.

    As you may have noticed during this program, we often call soap operas just “soaps,” as in, “Don’t bother Felicia right now. She is catching up on all her soaps.”

    Now, some people may not want to admit that they enjoy watching such a show. For this reason, some people call soap operas their “guilty pleasure.”

    Guilty pleasures appeal to our secret desires, the ones we do not like to publicly share. You watch something, enjoy it … and then feel a little guilty afterward.

    People who watch soap operas – either daytime or nighttime soaps – are usually very loyal followers. In fact, it is this audience loyalty that appealed to advertisers in the first place.

    Soaps can be very addictive. Their stories are open-ended. Each episode leads to the next, to the next, to the next. And they usually end on some sort of cliffhanger, or an especially exciting ending. You really want to know what will happen next.

    “Tune in next week!”

    And you do tune in next week. You can’t wait to find out what happens! That is how a soap opera gets you hooked.

    But that’s not all! I have so much more to tell you …

    … next week on Words and Their Stories.


    I’m Anna Matteo.
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  • Many Healthcare Workers Need to Know English AB: So, how can – or do – nurses overcome such challenges?

    CHARLOTTE NWOGWUGWU: I think that nurses, at least in my experience, have truly done an amazing job with overcoming this. And by this, I mean becoming lifelong learners.

    I was really open about my own deficits in terms of what I didn’t know, what I needed to learn because that truly is one of the first steps to really be able to make the change or improve your own quality as a nurse and your own ability to speak the English language fluently. And for me, also, it is important that I practice. And, a lot of nurses will tell you that they do do that.

    I’m a firm believer that it takes a village. So…administrators in hospitals also need to take an interest in the nurse workforce and also identify this [strengthening English skills] as an area of improvement.

    AB: That’s a great, very thorough answer and it partially answers my next question. So, if someone were interested in the nursing field, what path of study do you suggest for a foreigner who wants to become a nurse in an English-speaking country?

    CHARLOTTE NWOGWUGWU: I truly believe that the individual has to make that personal decision whether they would want to study in their own country or here.

    Now, with that said, if an individual studies, say, in Spain, for example, or in Nigeria…or whatever country it is, for them to become a nurse – a licensed nurse – here, they still have to take the board exams. So, ya know, my response is really – they have to make that personal decision as to where they would want to get their degree from.

    AB: OK great. Well, thank you so much.

    CHARLOTTE NWOGWUGWU: Thank you. You’re very welcome.

    And, in addition to her job as a global health professor, Nwogwugwu continues to practice nursing. She works part-time at the Perry Point VA Medical Center in Maryland.

    I’m Alice Bryant.
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  • American Craft Brewers Experiment with Taste Pickle pilsner, tamale lagers, and carrot stouts. These were among the beers at the Strange Brew Festival in Reno, Nevada, last month, where competition in the American craft beer market has intensified.

    Visitors at the Reno event could taste sweet beers made with Jolly Rancher candy and fiery ones made with garlic.

    Beer makers are called brewers. They have long experimented with different flavors. Many hundreds of years ago, for example, Belgians put sour fruit into their beer.

    But today’s American brewers have taken experimentation to a new level. They do this hoping to stand out in a market where everyone is trying to be different.

    Growth in craft brewing

    The U.S. craft brewing market has grown quickly. Last year, there were 7,346 craft brewers, up 93% from 2014. Craft beer sales rose 7% to $27.6 billion last year, about one-fourth of the total U.S. beer market.

    Those numbers come from the Brewers Association, an industry trade group.

    Jon Brandt is a beer lover who works for Washington-based distributor Madidus Importers.

    “People are looking for ways to differentiate themselves and be the next big thing,” he said. “A lot of it is just about trying to get noticed.”

    A beer with unusual elements can do that. Denver-based Wynkoop Brewing Co. appeals to customers with its Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout. The stout is made with specially cooked barley, seven different grains and grilled buffalo or bull sex organs.

    Some beer lovers criticize the movement toward unusual beers.

    Charlie Bamforth is a professor in the food science and technology department of the University of California, Davis.

    “I personally am not a fan of ridiculous brews incorporating materials and gimmicksthat have no historical provenance in brewing,” he said.

    Bamforth said laws restricting some kinds of additives — like Germany has — might be going too far. But he would like to see some laws defining what can and cannot be called “beer.”

    “If someone wants to explore bizarre components,” Bamforth said, that person should use the name “alternative beverages” in place of the name of beer.

    Jess Lebow wrote the books The Beer Devotional and The United States of Craft Beer. He says the high level of experimentation is what makes craft beer so special. Lebow said he might only try a cow meat and onion beer once. It might be great, but even if it is not, it might lead to a beer that is a big hit.

    “There are really only so many flavors you can create with water, malt, barley and hops,” he said. “At the end of the day, if the brewer is having fun trying new things, then I’m probably having fun trying their beer.”


    I'm John Russell.
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