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ALC Newsletter No. 068 09/20/07
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By the International Marketing Team at ALC Press
http://www.alc.co.jp/international
Contents:
1) The "Dear Readers" Column: Messages from the International Marketing Team at ALC Press
2) Topics in Japan #24: The year 2007 problem
3) Quiz on Japan #7: Why was October 10 previously set as "National Sports Day"?
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Dear Readers,
Greetings from Tokyo!
Since our foundation in 1969, ALC has been publishing English learning
and teaching books and magazines and therefore we have been known
as "Eigo no Aruku" among Japanese people. "Eigo" means English and "Aruku" is our company's name in Japanese. So, that phrase implies
that people associate ALC with English or that ALC is best known for
its English learning/teaching publications.
The English section of ALC's website is extremely popular among
Japanese people and one of the most visited subsections under the
English section is the Translation & Interpretation category.
Translator and interpreter are two of the most sought-after
careers among Japanese people wishing to develop their
careers using the English skills they have acquired or will acquire.
Some overseas educational institutions offering translation and/
or interpretation courses wish to promote them in Japan. Therefore,
we have decided to launch a new unit in February 2008, introducing
translation/interpretation courses overseas in the Translation& Interpretation category of the website. We will list educational
institutions offering such courses in the new unit and effective
advertising spaces will be also available. We believe such information
will be quite beneficial for our motivated web users.
We are now researching educational institutions overseas offering
translation/interpretation courses (English/Japanese), for the
new unit. If your institution offers such courses, please let us know.
Best wishes from the International Marketing Team at ALC Press.
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Topics in Japan #24: The year 2007 problem
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Remember the year 2000 problem, or the millennium bug, that caused
widespread concern that computer systems would break down at
midnight on December 31, 1999? Well, there turned out to be no
significant computer failures at that time, but now Japan is facing a
new and different problem called "the year 2007 problem."
The year 2007 problem is the concern that the year 2007 will bring
some serious problems to companies and industries because of the
retirement of Japan's baby boomers, who were born mainly between
1947-1949. The primary concern of the year 2007 problem is that
there will not be enough engineers to operate certain types of
computer programs, because those programs were innovated
and developed mostly by the baby boomers.
But then people realized that the year 2007 problem might have a
much larger impact on various types of industries. Because of their
retirement, the working population will decrease and therefore offices
and the businesses around them will have to be downsized. The
accumulated know-how of the baby boomers will also be lost.
Furthermore, companies will have a lot of people to pay retirement
benefit to, so some companies may have financial problems.
On the other hand, it is also expected that the year 2007 problem
will result in bringing some benefits to industry. Of course companies
can hire baby boomers again even after they retire, and if they hire
them as contractors, then they will be able to take advantage of their
knowledge while paying them less. Also, retired baby boomers will
have plenty of time and money to spend, so they will probably boost
consumption especially in the travel, leisure and retail industries. We
don't know how much impact the 2007 problem will have, but at least
it is sure that the baby boomers, who have long contributed to the
development of Japan's economy, are a key component in our society.
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Quiz on Japan #7: Why was October 10 previously set as "National
Sports Day"?
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How much do you know about Japan? We'll give you a quiz in each
issue, so try to find the right answer!
［Answer to last week's quiz］
Last week's quiz question was "What picture is seen on the moon?"
The answer is: (c) a rabbit making a rice cake. There is a legendary story
behind it: Once upon a time, several different animals happened to find a
man, exhausted and lying on the ground, in a forest. Each animal brought
something to help the man, but only the rabbit couldn't find anything. So
the rabbit jumped into the fire and burned its body so the man would be
able to eat it. The man turned out to be a god, and he made the rabbit
appear on the moon so that its merciful behavior could be passed on as
an example down the generations.
［Quiz for this week］
Quiz #7: The second Monday of October is a national holiday called
National Sports Day. It used to be held on October 10, but was changed
to the present day in 2000. But why was October 10 set as a "sports"
holiday in the first place?
(a) Because the first baseball game was held in Japan on this date
(b) Because the Tokyo Olympics of 1964 was held from this date
(c) Because Japan's professional soccer league (J-League) started on this date
(d) Because if you rotate the numbers "10 10" around 90 degrees, it becomes the word "sports" in the Korean language
Check out the correct answer in the next issue!
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Thank you for reading!
*Back issues of the ALC Newsletter are available at:
http://www.alc.co.jp/international/Newsletter.html
*If you wish to be removed from this newsletter or change the e-mail
address to which it is sent, please let us know by e-mailing us at:
intl-mag@alc.co.jp
Publisher: ALC Press, Inc.
2-54-12 Eifuku, Suginami-ku, Tokyo 168-8611 Japan
Writers: The International Marketing Team at ALC Press / Ayako Ishimoto
Editor: The International Marketing Team at ALC Press
Copyright (c) 2007 ALC Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
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