通勤學英語 15Mins Today

每日跟讀#736: Japanese women say #KuToo to company ‘rules on height of Womens’ heels’

繼#MeToo運動席捲全球後，越來越多女性陸續公開講述自己遭遇性騷擾的故事，然而日本很晚才跟上這項運動。根據社運人士，缺少法律保障、再加上文化壓力促使人要接受與隱忍自己的苦楚，使年輕女性的處境脆弱。

Women have come forward to tell their story but Japanese women have remained slow to embrace the #MeToo movement. Lack of legal protection, combined with cultural pressure to accept and bear one’s hardship, make young women vulnerable, according to activists.

一項近期研究顯示了這項問題涉及的廣度：在日本每十間公司就至少有一間對於女性員工被迫穿戴的的高跟鞋高度有正式規定。

A recent study again shows the extent of the problem: more than one in 10 companies in Japan have formal regulations about the length of heeled shoes female workers are forced to wear.

根據日本工會聯盟(Japanese Trade Union Confederation)，大約57%的受訪者表示他們的雇主有針對女性雇員的服裝、及其他儀容相關的規章。

Some 57 percent of those polled also said their employer had regulations that stipulate the clothing workers are required to wear or other restrictions relating to their appearance, according to the Japanese Trade Union Confederation.

根據研究發現，這樣的規定在旅館及餐飲業最普遍，87%的雇員表示他們必須遵守服裝與外貌的相關規定。而在金融與保險業則有71%的僱員表示他們遭遇到類似的規定。

Such rules were found to be highest in the hotel and food profession where 87 percent of employees said they had to follow rules around clothing and appearance. Some 71 percent of workers in the financial and insurance industry said they were subject to equivalent regulations.

根據這項研究，超過三分之一的受訪者認為他們的雇主對於男性與女性雇員各有不同的規定，這也是「沒辦法的事」。而只有12%的受訪者認為這樣的規定是「不合適的」。

Over a third of respondents, however, argued that employers have divergent rules in place for men and Women which “can’t be helped.” Only 12 percent of respondents argued such procedures were “inappropriate,” the study shows.

因此，對於這個—響應#MeToo運動反擊性騷擾與性侵害的—#KuToo運動在社群媒體上被廣泛傳播，便引來不少的疑惑與納悶，即使目前這項運動發展仍較緩慢。

There are, therefore, little wonder that the hashtag #KuToo – echoing the #MeToo movement against sexual assault and harassment – has been widely disseminated on social media, even though progress remains slow.

這個#KuToo標籤取自於日文的鞋子 “kutsu” 與疼痛“kutsuu”的文字諧音。

The phrase is a play on the Japanese words for shoes “kutsu” and pain “kutsuu”.

民間婦女平權組織「現在就要平等」(Equality Now)的幹部Jacqui Hunt在BBC訪問中指出，這些對女性員工的規定是「性別歧視與刻板印象的宣言，對女性該有的裝扮與舉止的要求，印證了這種降低婦女在工作場所的地位的性別歧視」。

Jacqui Hunt, of Equality Now, a non-government organization which aims to promote the rights of women and girls, told the BBC that the rules are “a manifestation of sexist and stereotyped views on how women should look and behave, and exemplifies the type of sex-based discrimination that subordinates Women in the workplace.”

她指出，日本政府還試圖以女性未充分發揮的經濟潛能打造一個更具包容性的經濟體，相當諷刺。日本這種高度具有性別色彩的企業文化必須改進。

The situation is ironic as authorities have tried to build a more inclusive economy by tapping into Women’s underutilized economic potential. Japan’s highly gendered corporate culture needs to evolve, she noted.

Source article: https://chinapost.nownews.com/20191120-864085

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每日跟讀#735: How Unpredictable Work Hours Turn Families Upside Down

Unpredictable schedules can be brutal for hourly workers, upending their lives. New research shows that African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities — particularly women — are much more likely to be assigned irregular schedules, and that the harmful repercussions are felt not just by the workers but also their families.

對時薪工人來說，難以預測的工作時間表是殘酷的，搞亂了他們的生活。最新研究顯示，非裔、西語裔跟其他少數族裔美國人，特別是女性，分配到不規律時間表的機率遠高於他人，而身受其害者除工人本人外，還有他們的家人。

The findings come from continuing surveys of 30,000 hourly workers by the Shift Project at the University of California. The researchers compared workers who earned the same wages, including at the same employers, but had different degrees of predictability in their schedules. Those with irregular hours fared worse — and so did their children.

這些發現來自加州大學持續調查3萬名時薪工人的「輪班計畫」，研究人員比較了薪資相同、但工作時間可預測性不同的工人，包括為同一雇主工作者。工時不規律者狀況最差，他們的孩子亦然。

Black and Hispanic women had the worst schedules, and white men had the best, the researchers found. The children of workers with precarious schedules had worse behavior and more inconsistent child care than those whose parents had stable schedules.

研究人員發現，黑人和西語裔女性的時間表最差，白人男性的最好。跟父母有規律時間表的孩童相比，時間表變動大者的子女行為表現較差，托育情形也更不穩定。

“We’re talking about serious deprivation from relentlessly unstable paychecks,” said Daniel Schneider, a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who works on the Shift Project with Kristen Harknett, a sociologist at the University of California, San Francisco.

柏克萊加州大學社會學家丹尼爾．施奈德說：「我們談的是持續性不穩定工資造成的嚴重剝奪。」他跟舊金山加州大學的社會學家克里斯汀．哈奈特共同投人「輪班計畫」的研究。

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a left-leaning policy group, published five papers based on data about various subsets of the 30,000 survey respondents who are part of the Shift Project.

左傾政策團體華盛頓平等成長中心日前發表了五篇論文，悉以取自前述3萬名受訪者各子群體的數據為基礎。

Workers at all income levels are increasingly expected to be on call. At the high end, it can lead to overwork. At the low end, it means getting work schedules at the last minute, varying day to day, and not being guaranteed the number of hours that employees may need to support themselves.

各收入水平的工人都日益被期望能夠隨時待命，這在高收入端可能導致過勞，在低收入端則代表最後一分鐘才拿到工作時間表，每天變動而且無法保證員工獲得可維持生計的工時。

The researchers said the biggest reason for the scheduling differences by race was not because of factors like education or which jobs workers chose, but because managers gave worse shifts to employees who weren’t white.

研究人員說，時間表因種族而有差異，最大原因並非教育等因素，亦非工人所選擇的工作，而是管理者把比較差的班次分給了非白人員工。

Workers of color were 30% more likely than white workers to have had a shift canceled in the last month, for example. They had more schedule instability even when they had the same education, age and other characteristics as white workers, and worked at the same companies.

例如，過去這一個月有色人種工人被取消班次的情況，比白人工人高出三成。即使他們與白人工人教育程度、年齡和其他特點都相同，並且在同一公司上班，他們的時間表還是比較不穩定。

“We think what’s left after parsing out all these other reasons is discrimination,” Schneider said.

施奈德說：「我們認為，在解析了所有其他原因後，剩下的就是歧視。」

Children of parents with precarious schedules were much more likely to exhibit anxiety, guilt or sadness than children of parents with stable schedules, according to survey results from 4,300 workers with children 15 and younger. They were also more likely to argue, destroy things and have tantrums.

針對4300名有15歲以下子女的工人所做調查顯示，父母工作時間表不穩定的孩子，遠比父母時間表穩定的孩子更容易表現出焦慮、內疚或悲傷。他們也更容易爭論、破壞東西跟發脾氣。

Perhaps the biggest stressor for parents with unpredictable schedules was finding child care. Formal, high-quality day cares don’t allow families to drop off children unplanned and rarely operate outside typical business hours.

對於那些時間表難以預測的父母來說，最大的壓力源也許是找到托育服務。正式、高品質的日托服務並不接受家庭臨時送托，且很少在非一般上班時間營業。

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/346874/web/#2L-15887608L

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每日跟讀#734: Addicted to Screens? That’s Really a You Problem

Nir Eyal does not for a second regret writing Silicon Valley’s tech engagement how-to, “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products,” even as he now has a new book out on how to free ourselves of that same addiction.

儘管如今又寫了關於如何讓自己擺脫同樣癮症的新書，但尼爾．艾歐對於寫過矽谷科技參與入門指南《鉤癮效應：創造習慣新商機》毫不後悔。

In his original manual for building enthralling smartphone apps, Eyal laid out the tricks “to subtly encourage customer behavior” and “bring users back again and again.” He toured tech companies speaking about the Hook Model, his four-step plan to grab and keep people with enticements like variable rewards, or pleasures that come at unpredictable intervals.

在當初有關如何開發吸引人的智慧手機應用程序的手冊中，艾歐提出了「巧妙鼓勵客戶行為」和「反覆將使用者帶回來」的技巧。他親赴一些科技公司講述他的「鉤癮模型」，一個藉由變動獎勵或不定時來到的快樂等誘惑物，吸引跟留住人們的四步驟計畫。

Silicon Valley’s technorati hailed “Hooked.” Dave McClure, the founder of 500 Startups, a prolific incubator, called it “an essential crib sheet for any startup looking to understand user psychology.”

矽谷的部落格搜尋引擎Technorati讚揚了《鉤癮》一書，多產孵化器—500 Startups公司創辦人戴夫．麥克盧爾稱其為「任何想了解用戶心理的新創企業必備的小抄」。

Now in the latter days of 2019, Eyal has a new bestseller. This one is called “Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life.”

現在來到2019年下半年，艾歐有了新的暢銷書。這本書名叫《不容分心：如何控制注意力和選擇生活》（暫譯）。

If “Hooked” was a how-to, this is a how-to-undo.

《鉤癮》若是引人上癮的入門指南，新書就是如何不被鉤癮的入門指南。

Eyal, 41, is not alone in this pivot. Since “Hooked,” whistleblowers like Google’s former in-house ethicist, Tristan Harris, have popularized the idea that phones are unhealthy and addictive. Onetime executives at Facebook and WhatsApp have turned into tech critics. At Stanford University, the researcher B.J. Fogg, who ran the Persuasive Tech Lab, has renamed it the Behavior Design Lab and is now starting to roll out tools to reduce screen time.

41歲的艾歐在此一主軸上並不孤單。自《鉤癮》面世以來，像谷歌的前內部設計倫理學家崔斯坦．哈利斯這樣的吹哨者，已令手機不健康且容易上癮的觀念普及化。臉書和WhatsApp昔日高管已變成科技產品的批判家。在史丹佛大學，負責「說服科技實驗室」的研究人員法格，已將實驗室更名為「行為設計實驗室」，且已開始推出減少使用螢幕時間的工具。

“A movement to be ‘post-digital’ will emerge in 2020,” Fogg wrote last month. “We will start to realize that being chained to your mobile phone is a low-status behavior, similar to smoking.”

法格上月寫道：「2020年將出現『後數位化』運動。我們將開始意識到被手機捆綁是類似吸菸的低地位行為。」

Unlike the other newly wary, though, Eyal does not think tech is the problem. We are.

不過，跟其他新近警惕者不同的是，艾歐認為科技並非問題所在，我們才是。

“We talk about addiction, but when it comes to Candy Crush, really? Facebook? We’re not freebasing Facebook. We’re not injecting Instagram here,” Eyal said one morning over croissants at New York’s Bryant Park. “These are thingrs we can do something about, but we love to think the technology is doing it to us.”

艾歐某天早上在紐約布萊恩公園吃著牛角麵包時說：「我們談到上癮，但以網遊Candy Crush為例，真會上癮嗎？臉書呢？我們不會將臉書如古柯鹼般加熱來吸食。我們也沒在注射Instagram。這些是我們可以操控之物，我們卻喜歡認為這些科技正在操控我們。」

And so in “Indistractable,” which was published last month, Eyal has written a guide to free people from an addiction he argues they never had in the first place. It was all just sloughing off personal responsibility, he figures. So the solution is to reclaim responsibility in myriad small ways.

因此，艾歐在上月出版的《不容分心》一書寫了一份讓人們擺脫癮症的指南，他認為他們從一開始就根本沒有上癮。他認為這全是在擺脫自己的責任。因此，解決方法是以許多小方法重新負起責任。

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/347108/web/

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每日跟讀#733: U.S. vlogger rightly captures Jiufen beauty in stunning video

古色古香的街道、高掛的紅燈籠、老式的建築和廢棄的礦坑，這是台灣人心中對於九份的印象。但是在一名外國人眼中，九份是怎麼樣的呢? 一名來自美國的部落客Meghan，用影片記錄下他眼中的昔日掏金故鄉，將九份的韻味濃縮在短短幾分鐘的影片裡。

Rustic streets with red lanterns hanging above the tourists, retro-style buildings and an abandoned goldmine, these might be the first impressions of Jiufen to most people.

But what is Jiufen like in foreigners’ eyes? Well, you should watch “Spirited Away” to find out. Meghan, an American vlogger, documented the old goldmine town for international audiences, encapsulating the beauty of Jiufen within a short, yet stylish video.

日治時代因採金而繁華一時的九份，雖然在戰後因金礦產量下滑而逐漸沒落，卻保留了其獨特的山城美景。依山傍海的地理景觀、古樸的氛圍，使九份成為電影悲情城市中的取材之地。藉由電影的宣傳，這座被遺忘的城市才又重回大眾的眼簾，使台灣人重新看見九份之美。在那之後，九份便轉型成為觀光景點，吸引許多遊客循跡到訪。

Jiufen was once a prosperous town thanks to the local gold mine opened during the Japanese colonization era.

Even though the city went into decline with the shrinking of mining activities after World War II, the unique scenery of the town built on a hill has remained unchanged.

Located between the mountains and the sea, the beautiful landscape and the nostalgic atmosphere of the old town were first captured in Taiwan blockbuster “A City of Sadness.”

The forgotten city returned to public attention as a result, and Taiwan people suddenly remembered the beauty of Jiufen. The town then became a popular tourist attraction, drawing both Taiwan and foreigners alike.

坐落在新北市郊外，這座昔日的掏金故鄉絲毫沒有受到都市化的浸染，將歷史的痕跡完美封存，成為許多人遠離塵囂的天堂。

Located on the outskirts of New Taipei City, the small town has escaped urbanization, meaning that the traces of local history have been well preserved, making the town a paradise getaway from the hustle and bustle of Taipei.

這名來自美國的部落客Meghan在訪問中坦言，在踏足台灣之前對台灣沒有太多的了解，只聽聞台灣人很有禮貌、個性隨和。而在台灣短暫駐足的幾天內，他發現台灣美食既平價又美味，相當適合外國旅客到訪。

Meghan told The China Post in a recent email interview that she didn’t know what to expect from Taiwan at first. She had heard that local people were “friendly and easy-going.” During her stay, she then found out that the costs of living here are low so it’s easy to travel around Taiwan.

Meghan也提到，台灣對於攝影取景相當友善，對於像她一樣的部落客而言是一大優勢，可以盡情地拍攝出絕美的景象分享給他人。

She added that Taiwan is very “vlogger friendly;” most of the people she met were happy to let her film, “which is nice for content creators” like her.

受到網路上其他影片創作者的啟發，他決定也開始拍攝影片記錄生活中的美並分享給他人。「我熱愛將我所到訪之地的美、環境、食物和特殊的風俗分享給人們。來到台灣後，我才慢慢開始欣賞這個國家和它的文化。若不是親自到訪，我原來根本沒有機會認識這個地方。」

Inspired by other popular creators on YouTube, Meghan decided to start filming her journey around the world. “I like to show people the beauty, local communities, food and unique activities of the places that I visit,” she went on.

“Going to Taiwan I grew an appreciation for the region and culture that I never would have known about personally if I had not gone there.”

「透過我的影片，我希望能將自己在旅行過程中所見的美景和感動分享給我的觀眾。我不想只是呈現一張缺乏深度和層次的圖片，而是能帶給他們身歷其境的體驗。」

“Through my videos, I hope to share the beautiful feelings and views of my journeys and daily life. I don’t want people to just see a photo image now without all the layers and depth, I want them to see and feel how it is in person where I am.”

「我覺得各地的人們對於食衣住行的基本需求其實沒有那大的差別，但恰恰是他們建造房子的方式、他們穿的衣服、吃的食物中呈現出他們與眾不同的獨特之處。這份多元的美就是我想體驗的。」

“I do not think humans are really that different when it comes to wants and needs all over the world, but how they build their cities, wear clothes, spend their time and prepare food is very diverse and I love to experience that diversity.”

「就跟電影神隱少女一樣，九份在入夜後感覺活了起來。」Meghan 在影片中如此形容。

“Similar to spirited away, things really came alive at night,” said Meghan in the video, describing Jiufen at night.

影片中，Meghan換上旗袍，帶領觀眾穿梭在蜿蜒崎嶇的巷道中，在熙攘的市集裡買小吃、在茶樓裡砌茶眺望山海美景，並用縮時錄影巧妙地捕捉九份夜晚人潮湧入後，整條街燈火通明的那份鮮活感。在他的鏡頭下，九份之美又有了新的詮釋。

In the video, Meghan wore a qipao that she rented at a local shop, leading the viewers to wander in winding alleyways, buy snacks on the lively streets, drink tea in retro-styled tea houses while watching the beautiful scenery over the hill.

The vibrancy of Jiufen during night time when the crowd floods in was also captured in a time-lapse shot. Through her lens, she defined the beauty of Jiufen in a new way.

Source article: https://chinapost.nownews.com/20191122-867415

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Summary:

Jamie Oliver’s restaurant chain is on its way going bankrupt. Skynews reported that Jamie is calling in the administrators because the chain failed to stay afloat. Last year, the Mirror reported that the restaurant empire owed staff £2.2 million and was in £71.5 million of debt. Oliver blamed Brexit on the closure of six of his Jamie’s Italian branches. He said poor trading conditions, rising food and staffing costs, and a weakening pound. Restaurant consultant mentioned that Jamie’s demise can also be attributable to consumers abandoning the ‘middle market’ having realized they can get better quality food from (say) their local Italian or burger joint at the same price or less.

Vocabulary and sample sentences:

On the brink (of collapse) idiom. - a situation when you are almost in a new situation, usually a bad one

• I was on the brink of a nervous breakdown when I saw my credit card bill last month.

Closure n. - act of closing something / shut

• The closure of Jamie’s restaurant pushed Jamie to work harder.

Struggling adj. - striving to achieve something in face of difficulty

• Last month was a struggling period for me to pay rent.

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