"No English, no job"「不會英語，就沒工作」

 ◎陳成良
In a bid to plug dwindling domestic consumption by tapping into overseas markets, some of Japan’s big-name retailers are telling their employees to start speaking English -- or find another job.
一些日本大型零售商希望透過拓展海外市場，緩解國內消費疲弱的壓力，因而要求雇員必須開始說英語，否則就請另謀高就。
As Japan’s population shrinks, the country’s retailers are increasingly looking to boost sales by expanding abroad and some firms are waking up to the necessity of being able to speak the global language of business in order to succeed overseas.
因日本人口減少，該國許多零售商越來越寄望拓展海外市場來提振業績。有些公司也逐漸意識到，只有掌握英語這種全球商業語言，才能在海外市場取得成功。
Rakuten, Japan’s biggest online retailer, plans to make English the firm’s official language, while Fast Retailing, operator of the Uniqlo apparel chain, wants to make English more common in its offices by 2012 and plans to test its employees for proficiency.
日本最大的網路零售商「樂天公司」計畫將英語作為公司的官方語言，而服裝連鎖業者「優衣庫」（Uniqlo）的母公司「Fast Retailing」希望到2012年，公司上下能更普遍地使用英語，並計畫測試員工的英語水準。
"It’s about stopping being a Japanese company. We will become a world company," Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani said last week at a news conference in Tokyo -- conducted almost entirely in English.
「不能再僅是一家日本公司了，我們將成為一家全球化的公司，」樂天執行長三木谷浩史上週在東京記者會上表示。這場記者會幾乎全用英語發言。
Employees at Rakuten will need to master English by 2012 to avoid facing the sack. "No English, no job," Mikitani told the Asahi newspaper.
樂天員工需在2012年前精通英語，以避免被開除的命運。三木谷浩史對朝日新聞說：「不會英語，就沒工作。」
新聞辭典
dwindling：形容詞，正在減少的；動詞原形為dwindle，減少。例句︰Taiwan’s population is expected to dwindle after 2050. （台灣的總人口預計在2050年後開始減少。）
tap into：動詞片語，打入（市場）。例句：The company is hoping to tap into a broader international market.（這家公司希望打入更大的國際市場。）
proficiency：名詞，精通；熟練。例句：He made little proficiency in literary accomplishments.（他在文學方面的成就不多。）