Lesson 8

Dear Prof. Sue Garreis

Thank you for yor messages so quickl.

My replies are in bule. My homework is at the end in black.

Dear Mei,

Thank you for the eighth message. My comments and corrections follow.

Corrections are in italics. The color of the week is green.

sincerely,

Prof. Sue Garreis

I want to put. It's safe. And I won't lose my most valuable documents. Japan is discussing if it introduce a system such as social security number.  

⇒Where do people in Japan put their most valuable documents? We are concerned in part about theft of the documents. Valuable documents are safe from fire in the bank's safe deposit boxes. They will be destroyed in a home fire. Of course, they will be more easily stolen from a home or business as well.

It will be interesting if Japan goes to a system of ID (identification) numbers. What do people use for identification now? Passports? Everyone has a social security number in the US. They are issued when a child is born now. In the 1960s, when I got mine, they were issued when you got your first job. Will Japan just use a number as a means of identification or is Japan thinking of introducing something like Social Security? The identification system is ok, but the benefit system is not. I hope Japan doesn't repeat the mistakes we have made. It was a very serious error for Congress not to raise the age of benefit collection (retirement). When Social Security was first introduced, the retirement age was a little past the life expectancy of people. Now the retirement age (65-67) is about ten years younger than the life expectancy of men. Most people have the expectation of being able to stop working while they still have plenty of energy and having their retirement savings take care of them while they travel. Not so! The way Social Security is funded in the US is unusual, I think. The people who are working have to pay a tax. That tax (FICA) is used to pay the benefits of people who are retired. That system worked well in the beginning when the number of workers far outnumbered the retirees. But soon there will be many, many more retirees than workers. The benefits will not be available as they have been in the past.  It would be better if Japan just used the identification aspect.

I mistook, thinking all American often go to New York. Your express made me change my thinking.

⇒Americans travel to a variety of cities. Because the country is so wide (three thousand [3,000] miles across), most of us just travel near our side of the country. While many people have been to New York, I cannot say that most of us have been there. Often a trip to New York will be a school trip. My trips there were for conferences.

Right. We also should be careful of that wherever we travel.

I see. I must find a job so quickly!

⇒I hope you are able to find a satisfactory job fast.

⇒In English, we say Ai-firs. So either Japanese pronunciation would work in Japan. Here in the US, though, the pronunciation is like two American words: eye, firs.

Thank you for teaching.

⇒In the future we will mostly confine our discussion to business matters. However, this course has a cultural component, too. So I will talk a little about some aspect of American culture as well. This week it is the Fourth of July. In order for countries to do business successfully, the business persons must be aware of each other's cultures. That provides some common ground on which to start a business relationship, and avoids some serious misunderstandings which could result in business failures. I will also ask you and Saya most weeks about some aspect of your lives that has nothing to do with business. It is easier to talk about familiar things. It provides a great way to practice English, using simple words. Business discussions do not always lend themselves to simple words! There is no need to apologize for the wide-ranging number of topics we have discussed so far. It has been great fun for me, as well. However, we are now on record for future students saying that students and I talk mostly about business. Future students should note that you are a graduate student. The structure and content of my responses to you are much different from that of undergraduate students. Our communications are more difficult than they would be if you  were an undergraduate student and they cover a wider range of ideas.

I think so too. It provides a great way to practice English. Sorry. I didn't really mean that. I can hereby certify at your comment that you agree with talking other than accounting. Thank you. And I'm sorry if I offended you. I will continue as ever until I will get a second warning.

Sad to say, we don't have our class during the summer vacation. But there's nothing I can say about it. Thank you for giving so much email all the time.ase

 

Fourth of July is Independence Day, isn't it? Maybe I have studied about it since I was a junior high school student. Was America a colony of England? I am surprised.

⇒Yes, we were an English colony once. But we chaffed under the British rule and rebelled. I guess that is what happens when criminals and misfits are sent to a new country! Fourth of July and Independence Day are synonyms.

Have you already seen some fireworks? In Japan, fireworks begin on about August. Oh! I don't like mosquitoes! Mosquitoes is my enemy. Yes. Mosquitoes bother me everyday! Those guys appear in my gas station everynight. We are mosquitoes's bait! We can't open our mouth as there are many mosquitoes and other insects, during night. When I am at home, I burn mosquito repellent. So there are not mosquitoes.

⇒We in America use any excuse to launch fireworks. There are fireworks after some baseball games in the summer. At the Nationals Baseball Stadium in Washington DC there are small fireworks after every home run. There are fireworks at Memorial Day in May. There are many, many fireworks displays on the Fourth of July. Individuals can buy fireworks to set off themselves. So in the summer, some people will set off small ones whenever they want. Now that I think about it, I don't recall hearing many fireworks go off on ordinary days, though.  I lived in a place once where some neighbors set off fireworks on Christmas Eve (Dec)! The fireworks that Meg and I saw were great. Not too noisy, since they were set off downriver. And beautiful! There was a clear view of all of them.

Homework

 

1. It's $29,446.

Correct.

2. It's $9,446.

Correct.

3. It's -$5,000.

Correct. Under US GAAP, we use parentheses to emphasize the fact of a negative number. We do not want anyone to read the number too fast and thionk it is positive. So we write a five thousand dollar loss as ($5,000). The minus sign is too easily overlooked.

4. The accounting was about right. The English was about right. Getting to and using the linked web pages was very easy.

Thank you for your feedback.

Vocabulary-Income Statement (Part 2)

Thank you for the vocabulary list.

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Mei

⇒Mei,

The new lesson is at: http://msgarreis.com/summary110.htm. The topic this time is a summary of the first half of the course. I hope you have a great summer break. I look forward to resuming in the fall.

NEXT
BACK
CONTENT