Pratica di Shadowing: Why does Japan work so hard? | CNBC Explains - Impara a parlare inglese con i video

Creazione lezione...
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Working long hours is a way of life in Japan.
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So much so that some occasionally die from it.
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Kuroshi is a term that means death by overwork.
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So why are people working so hard and can it be fixed?
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Japan has some of the longest working hours in the world.
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Nearly a quarter of Japanese companies have their employees work more than 80 hours of overtime per month.
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Those extra hours are often unpaid.
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Today, Japan's corporate culture is driven by the so-called salaryman.
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The salaryman is defined by his loyalty to his company and expected to spend his entire career working for the same firm.
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Not only does he work long hours in the office, but it's also assumed he'll participate in after-work activities too, like drinking with colleagues.
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And they're not taking enough time off.
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In 2017, one survey found that despite being entitled to 20 days off per year, Japanese workers left 10 of those days unused,
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used, topping every other country in the survey.
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You don't have to be in the confines of corporate walls to feel the impact of its work culture.
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It's 3 a.m.
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Thursday morning right now in Tokyo.
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I'm in the area of Ginza.
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Every few minutes I see a man wearing a suit holding a briefcase.
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The nation's work ethic dates back to what's referred to as Japan's economic miracle, which was its dramatic economic growth beginning in the 1950s,
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which propelled it to become the world's second largest economy.
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Inside Japan's corporations, the culture emphasizes the success of a company as a whole to be more important than any single individual,
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which might explain why one study found that 63% of Japanese felt guilty for taking paid leave.
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But perhaps more concerning is this.
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Long work hours don't necessarily mean high productivity.
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In fact, Japan has the lowest productivity amongst the G7 nations.
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Earlier I mentioned the term karoshi.
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It means death by overwork.
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It's legally recognized by the government and usually is marked by a heart attack, stroke, or suicide due to stress.
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There's hundreds of cases of karoshi reported annually, although some argue these cases are underreported and that the real number could exceed that by up to 10 times.
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An employee of the advertising firm, Dentsu, jumped to her death in 2015.
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The cause was said to have been depression caused by overwork.
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The case generated widespread attention and renewed calls to change the long working hours and illegal unpaid overtime, highly common in Japan.
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The firm was fined for violating labor standards
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because she was reportedly forced to work more than 100 hours of overtime per month.
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The company's CEO even resigned over the controversy.
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After the death, Dentsu made some changes within the company.
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One of them, the lights in the office now turn off at 10pm every night in an effort to force employees to leave.
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Both the government and companies are now actively trying to reduce the number of working hours here.
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And there are some early signs of hope.
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Japan's government has considered several initiatives to curb the number of hours spent at the office, including making it mandatory to take at least five vacation days a year
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and requiring a rest period between the end of one day and the start of another.
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In 2016, a new holiday, Mountain Day, was started, bringing Japan's number of annual public holidays to 16.
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And in 2017, the government launched an initiative called Premium Fridays,
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in which it encouraged companies to allow their employees to leave at 3 p.m on the last Friday of the month, promoting consumer spending and less time in the office.
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But one study found that less than 4% of employees in Japan actually left early on the first Premium Friday.
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Which is why, despite these initiatives, a cultural challenge still looms.
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Since Japan's culture emphasizes the group over the individual, well, no one wants to be the first one to leave the office.
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And there's another reason that there's pressure on people to work hard.
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Japan's economy is in danger, and in order to maintain its massive size, Japan needs to put in the hours.
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Japan lost its spot as the world's second largest economy to China in 2011, a title that it had previously held for 42 years.
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Japan is dealing with a labor crisis.
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Its population is aging fast, and its birth rate is in decline.
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That means its total population is going down.
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And in the next 50 years, it's projected to shrink by nearly a third.
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The population is expected to go from 127 million in 2015 to just 88 million by 2065.
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There's two likely ways that a nation can compensate for the labor shortage, immigrants or robots.
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Japan has always been less inclined to accept immigrants.
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In fact, its percentage of foreign workers is tiny compared to other nations of large economies.
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So without more immigrants, it's looking to robotics to fill in the gap.
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Its robotics industry has spanned from hospitality to manufacturing, and now even reaching farms by creating robots that melt cows.
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But whether technology could open the door for a better work-life balance for Japan's workforce still remains to be seen.

Informazioni su questa lezione

In questa lezione, esploreremo il tema del duro lavoro in Giappone attraverso il video "Perché il Giappone lavora così duramente?". Prenderemo spunto da aneddoti e statistiche per comprendere come la cultura del lavoro in Giappone influenzi la vita quotidiana degli individui. Durante la pratica, ci concentreremo su specifiche espressioni e vocaboli che ci aiuteranno a discutere argomenti legati al lavoro, alla produttività e agli stili di vita. Questa lezione offrirà un'opportunità unica per esercitarsi nel shadowspeak e migliorare le proprie capacità di conversazione in inglese.

Vocabolario e frasi chiave

  • Karoshi: morte per sovraccarico di lavoro.
  • Salaryman: un impiegato giapponese tipico, noto per la sua fedeltà all'azienda.
  • Orario di lavoro: le lunghe ore di lavoro che i giapponesi affrontano.
  • Produttività: misura dell'efficienza lavorativa, di particolare interesse poiché il Giappone ha la più bassa produttività tra le nazioni G7.
  • Iniziativa: programmi governativi per ridurre le ore di lavoro, come il “Premium Friday”.
  • Tempo libero: si riferisce ai giorni di ferie che molti lavoratori giapponesi non utilizzano.
  • Emigrazione: tema centrale per affrontare la crisi lavorativa in Giappone.

Consigli per la pratica

Per massimizzare i benefici della tua pratica di conversazione in inglese, segui questi consigli durante l'osservazione del video:

  • Shadowing: prova a ripetere immediatamente dopo che l'oratore ha detto qualcosa. Questo ti aiuterà a lavorare sulla tua pronuncia e intonazione, migliorando così la tua abilità nel shadowing in inglese.
  • Ascolta attentamente il ritmo della voce dell'oratore. Pronuncia le parole con la stessa velocità per creare una fluidità naturale nel tuo parlato.
  • Pausa il video e annota frasi che consideri interessanti o difficili. Prova a usarle in conversazioni future o a memorizzarle per migliorare il tuo vocabolario.
  • Utilizza il materiale come un punto di partenza per discussioni più ampie su temi di cultura lavorativa, produttività e stili di vita. Questo non solo ti aiuterà a migliorare il tuo inglese, ma amplificherà anche la tua comprensione culturale.

Infine, ricorda che la pratica costante è fondamentale. Utilizza risorse come site di shadow speak per esercitarti regolarmente e migliorare la tua abilità di comunicazione. Buona pratica!

Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?

Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.