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发表于 2014-2-17 13:20:15
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这篇翻译得真好!拜读了!~我把英文版贴出来,供校对参考!
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VOX POPULI: Resisting smartphones, the opium of the 21st century
“Smoke-free” is an expression that some non-English-speaking Japanese may misunderstand to imply an environment where smokers are free to light up with abandon. But it actually means the exact opposite--a nonsmoking environment that is literally free of smoke.
Thus, “sumaho-free” would mean free of smartphones, “sumaho” being short for smartphones in Japanese. People who can’t live without those gadgets would probably panic at such a notion, but a company in the Gifu Prefecture city of Seki has introduced an incentive program to wean workers off them.
At Iwata Manufacturing Co., employees who refrain from using their private smartphones during office hours are paid a 5,000-yen bonus every month. The Digital-free Bonus Program is the brainchild of President Shuzo Iwata, 65, who wanted to do something about employees who spend most of their lunch break hunched over their smartphones rather than speaking with their colleagues.
“Talking with people. Reading books. Taking time to think. These are what I would call analog activities,” Iwata explained. “Encouraging such activities and creating more time for them should help my employees improve their powers of imagination and self-expression and become more considerate toward others. After 10 years or so, there should be noticeable improvements, and I hope they will result in greater corporate competitiveness.”I could not agree more.
Of the company’s 90 workers, 20 have signed up for the program so far. They are still a minority, but Iwata noted: “Actually, any company where all workers readily agree with their president would give me the creeps. A slow and gradual change is what I’m aiming for.”
In this day and age of “digital deluge,” any attempt at resisting it in some small way is refreshing and worthwhile.
Come to think of it, smartphones today are becoming increasingly elaborate and loaded with all sorts of apps to lure new users. Late last year, the Asahi Kadan poetry section of The Asahi Shimbun ran this piece: “Observing fellow train passengers nowadays/ It seems so apt to define smartphones as the opium of the 21st century.” This is a pretty blunt statement, but it is true.Occasionally, I think it’s a good idea to be free of those contraptions all day.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 15 |
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