商務禮節美語第218期:Social Networking 社交關係 (中)

Jimmy因爲天性靦腆，所以每逢社交活動，一律能推就推。同事Brad和Pam努力說服Jimmy, 因爲social networking是事業發展一個不可缺少的環節。Pam說，
P: you.know, I'm not such a big fan of company events myself. I don't like all the organization involved. I don't like being told when and where to do things. In fact, I don't even like big crowds of people.
B: But, in today's society these are the ways we connect. Social networking has boosted my career in so many ways.
J: Such as?
B: Well, take last week for example. I was at a club when I saw this guy I hadn't seen in a long time. He starts talking about his friend who is looking for a computer programmer.
Pam說，其實她也不是特別喜歡公司舉辦的各種活動。I'm not such a big fan of company events myself. 這裏說的 a big fan of something，意思就是對某件事情非常熱衷。
比如說，I'm a big fan of sushi. 我特別愛吃壽司。I'm a big fan of hip hop. 我特別愛聽嘻哈歌曲。I'm not a big fan of horror movies. 我不喜歡看恐怖電影。
Brad補充說，參加社交活動爲他提供了不少機會，上星期他去夜總會，遇到一個很久不見的熟人。這個人的朋友正好在找電腦編程師。
J: And you got the job?
B: Yeah! The next day his friend called me and yesterday we signed a contract. I'm going to be setting up their company website, and the money is pretty good.
P: So I guess what Brad's saying is that if you don't get out there and be seen, people might forget about you.
J: Yeah, I can sort of understand your point. But how do I overcome my shyness? I'm just not very good with people.
結果，Brad還真拿到了這份工作，幫一家公司set up their company website，設計網站，而且the money is pretty good，報酬也很好。看來，有熟人介紹就是不一樣。Jimmy聽後表示，I can sort of understand your point，我大約明白你的意思了。這裏所說的point是指問題核心。
我們經常聽人，,t he point of the matter is....問題關鍵是...言歸正傳，就算真願意出去社交，Jimmy要如何克服性格靦腆的障礙呢？按他的話說，I'm just not very good with people，我就是不擅於跟人打交道。
P: I was super shy for years! Then one day I finally realized that the world isn't looking at me.
J: What do you mean?
B: In other words, sometimes we feel shy because we think people are looking at us and judging us. But in reality, that's almost never the case.
Pam說，自己以前也特別靦腆，I was super shy for years! 這裏所說的super是特別的意思，用來加重語氣。我們可以說，Her boyfriend is super sweet，她男朋友特別溫柔體貼，或是，It's super hot in here，這裏簡直熱死了，還可以說，I have been super busy this week，我這個星期忙得兩腳朝天。
Brad也說，很多人天性靦腆，是因爲覺得大家都在注意自己，但事實上that's almost never the case，根本不是這樣。Pam跟Brad能說服Jimmy嗎？我們下次繼續聽。