美語情景對話 第665期:Conrad's English House 康拉德的英語屋

Todd: So, Conrad, you have a new business. Can you talk a little about your new business?

託德：康拉德，你開始了新事業。你能談談你的新事業嗎？

Conrad: Sure, I have a small English language school called Conrad's English House here in Odawara, where we're sitting here, and by the way, thanks for helping me as my guest teacher today, Todd.

康拉德：當然可以，我在小田原開了一家小型的英語語言學校，名字是康拉德的英語屋，就是我們現在坐的這裏，對了，託德，謝謝你今天幫忙做客座講師。

Todd: Oh, no problem, no problem.

託德：哦，不用謝，不客氣。

Conrad: Yeah, I started it in April and all of my students are very motivated and it just makes teaching a very joyful experience.

康拉德：嗯，我四月份創辦的這家學校，我的學生都非常積極，這使教學成爲了有趣的經歷。

Todd: So, what's it like being a new business owner, or owning your own business compared to working for somebody else?

託德：當老闆的感覺怎麼樣？擁有自己的企業和給別人打工相比如何？

Conrad: Yeah, well, it's so much better to run your own school and to be in control of things for one thing, but also, all of the hard work that us English teachers do here in Japan, usually we're doing it for another company, but now I'm doing it for myself and it makes, really, every minute of it much more pleasurable.

康拉德：自己經營學校感覺好多了，一方面可以自己掌控事情，另一方面，日本的英語教師很辛苦，通常我們都是給別人做事，但是現在我爲自己工作，所以每一分鐘都很愉快。

Todd: Can you give an example of why it's different, or how it's not the same as working for a company?

託德：你能舉例來說明一下不同之處嗎？自己當老闆與爲別人工作有什麼不同？

Conrad: Yeah, well, for one I can set my own schedule and the times, the hours are what are comfortable for me and what I think match my students needs the best as well.

康拉德：首先，我可以制定自己的計劃和時間，我可以選擇感覺舒服的時間工作，教授我認爲最符合學生需求的內容。

Todd: Is there anything about owning your own company, or your own business, that you don't like?

託德：自己當老闆有沒有什麼地方是你不喜歡的？

Conrad: Not, yet Todd. It's just been since April and so far everything's been nothing to complain about although, you know, just being a new business owner there's lots of things that need to be taken care of and thankfully my, wife, Aki is taking care of all those things like setting up the school and getting a business license and all of those things that need to be done.

康拉德：託德，目前我還沒有不喜歡的。我四月份纔開始創業，目前沒有什麼可抱怨的，不過創業有很多事情要處理，幸運的是，我妻子秋處理了這些事，比如成立學校，獲得營業執照還有其他需要做的事情。

譯文屬僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載

重點講解：
1. by the way 順便地；附帶說一句；
例句：By the way, I can't take a morning flight.
對了，我不能坐上午的飛機走。
2. compared to 與…相比；和…比起來；
例句：He's a mere slip of a lad compared to his brother.
跟他哥哥一比，他不過是個小毛孩。
3. in control of 控制，管理，掌握；
例句：Nobody knows who is in control of the club.
沒人知道是誰掌管着這傢俱樂部。
4. take care of 處理；應對；
例句：They leave it to the system to try and take care of the problem.
他們讓系統去設法解決這個問題。
5. set up 創建；建立；安排；組建；
例句：He has set up a firm of his own.
他自己開了一家公司。