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Idioms list, Class: 2B, Group 4

Deborah Peltenburg

Title article(s): (+ add a copy of the article with idioms underlined!!!)
Business la franaise by Simon Kuper (March 8, 2013)
Word Meaning in Dutch
1 Expound Verklaren
2 Perceived by Waargenomen door
3 Billingual guide Tweetalige gids
4 Shrewd insights Scherpzinnige inzichten
5 Reckon Rekenen
6 Incomprehension Gebrek aan begrip
7 Many of its
recommendations
remain useful
Veel van de aanbevelingen bruikbaar blijven
8 Given to tantrums Gegeven aan driftbuien
9 Temper Humeur
10 Cleverness rules Intelligentie regels
11 Tiring Vermoeid
12 Interlocutor Gesprekspartner
13 Exaggerated admiration Overdreven bewondering
14 Customary Gebruikelijk
15 To urge Aan te dringen

Business la franaise by Simon Kuper (March 8, 2013)
A routine meeting or an intellectual orgy? A new bilingual guide tries to ease the stresses of Anglo-French business
relationships
In a British work meeting, the aim is usually to make decisions. Nobody will expound a philosophy of, say,
the toiletries market. If they do, they are joking. (Approximately 61 per cent of British work conversation is
spent trying to be funny.) But French meetings are different, says a new guide to Franco-British business
relationships. In France, a meeting is a debate In extreme cases a very unstructured meeting in France
may be perceived by the British as an intellectual orgy.
The fascinating bilingual guide Light at the End of the Tunnel: Practical Reflections on the French and British
in Business, published by the French chamber of commerce in Great Britain, is full of shrewd insights into
both sides codes. My only question is whether thats much use. After 11 years in Paris, I reckon the main
reason for Franco-British incomprehension isnt clashing codes. Its different languages.
The chambers guide joins a long tradition. In 1944, for instance, the UKs Foreign Office issued the booklet
Instructions for British Servicemen in France. Sixty years later it was republished as a cult classic. Many of
its recommendations remain useful, such as: It is as well to drop any ideas about French women based on
stories of Montmartre and nude cabaret shows.
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By contrast, the chamber of commerces guide concentrates on working life. From its bullet points emerges
a picture of a French boss strangely like the late French comic actor Louis de Funs: loud, excitable, given to
tantrums, and usually late himself. Here are some of the guides insights into French business practices:
Raising ones voice or losing ones temper may be seen as a sign of leadership
The French sometimes disagree for the sake of discussion and to test conviction
They make greater use of body expression in confrontational situations
Performance appraisals start as a one way process subsequently evolving into an emotional dialogue
Criticism can descend into personal observations.
There are other differences besides. A British employer might hire you for your experience, or because you
were captain of cricket at school. In France, what matters is education. Cleverness rules. Consequently, the
guide says, in meetings the French can be perceived as arrogant due to use of intellect and logical
arguments. Even worse, for Britons: French business people will potentially view humour as lack of
seriousness.
Meanwhile, the French like everyone else on earth are baffled when Britons say inscrutable things like,
I agree with you, up to a point. (Guide for foreigners: this means, Thats insane!) As a Dutchman I know
in a British company complains, its tiring being in a workplace where nobody ever says what they mean.
The chambers guide was written by a group of plain-speaking non-academic Franco-British business men
and women who understand both countries. They explain French and British codes well. And yet knowing
another countrys codes is of limited use. If you are British, your French interlocutor wont expect you to act
French. She knows you are different. Maybe she even likes that. She may, for instance, have an exaggerated
admiration for le fair-play britannique. She probably understands that British executives share emotions
only when drunk. People tend to allow each other their national codes, up to a point.
The greater Franco-British problem is language. Most French business people under 50 can now speak
Globish: the simplified, dull, idiom-free version of English with a small vocabulary. Its silly to expect more
from them. If Brits had discovered circa 1995 that English no longer sufficed internationally, they wouldnt
have adapted well either.
Globish just about gets the French through international business meetings. But it isnt enough for building
relationships. French people build working relationships over lunch, and Brits over evening beers, but the
principle is the same: this is when trust is created, and information casually exchanged. And these
informal exchanges only happen between people who speak the same language almost perfectly.
Ive seen it at conferences. During the day, everyone spends the sessions checking email. Then the French
go for dinner together to speak French. The British eat with the Americans (often swapping complaints
about the French). At 11pm the Americans go to bed, and the Brits go to the bar to build more trust.
These exchanges pay off. The Zurich-based economists Peter H. Egger and Andrea Lassmann recently
analysed 81 academic articles on language and international trade. They found that on average a common
language increases trade flows directly by 44 per cent. Thats where things break down between French
and British.
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Its customary at this point to urge British schools to start teaching French again. But that probably wouldnt
help. When dealing with French people, only near-native French confers an advantage. Speaking mediocre
French is worse than useless. If mediocre French is all you have, its much better to speak English, and force
the French person to operate on your turf. Then when he has a tantrum, just smile fondly and say: I agree
with you, up to a point.

General topic: a routine meeting or an intellectual orgy?
Gist of the article: a billingual guide has conducted research of Anglo-French business
relationships.



Summary:

Britisch meetings are different from Frens meetings. This was said by a new billingual guide to
Franco-Britisch business relationships. This means people who are speak French and British
together. A british meeting is used to come to an conclusion, but a French meeting is more like a
debate.

The Franco-British use complicated codes to communicate with each other. But this is not the
main reason is this incomprehension, the different languages are the main reason.

Experience and education are dissimiliar for the two countries. In the British country, they look at
your past experience. On the other hand, the French employer is looking for your education. This
means that the French people may seem to be like arrogant through the education.

I concluded that international business meetings are not enough for building realtionships with
each other. French people do this at lunch, and the British people do this at evening beers. Why
this differnce? People feel more at their convenience when trust is created. These conversations
will only happen if they speak the same language fluent.





















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Week 2 - Consumer spending, Dropping shopping
Britains squeezed households largely explain the countrys
flatlining economy (the Economist, March 9
th
, 2013)
HENRY FORD said that it was
customers, not employers, who
really pay workers wages;
employers merely look after the
cash. Ford also thought economies
did best when workers could afford
to buy the goods that they make.
These old American ideas do a
good job of explaining Britains
consumer slump. Digging into a
typical households accounts
suggests when it might end.
Spending by private households is
the biggest slice of GDP, accounting
for 63% in 2012. It has been remarkably weak, even by comparison with previous
recessions (see chart). To see why, start with the accounts of a typical household in
2012. On the top line are median pre-tax wages of 37,000 ($56,000). Tax and
national insurance take 9,400 leaving disposable income of 27,600. Next a host of
unavoidable bills have to be paid. Borrowing,
mainly mortgage payments, drains 7,700. With
council tax, utilities and petrol costs running to
5,000 a year, the average Briton was left with
close to 15,000.
During the boom years income and outgoings
moved in ways that made household finances
glow. Average weekly earnings grew at 4% a
year between 2001 and 2007, while prices went
up by just 2% a year. Workers buying power
increased steadily and strong private
consumption underpinned rising GDP. But in
2008 the numbers flipped. Since then pay
increases have been 2% a year, price
increases above 3%. Workers cash buys
less and less.
A glance at Britains strong employment figures might suggest that wages should
recover some of their old vigour soon: surely firms hiring more must pay more? But
strong jobs numbers do not always translate into better pay. Over the long run wages
tend to move in line with productivity. In Britain, growth in output per worker is
low relative to other countries and to other recessions. Whereas the
productivity slump is puzzling, the puny wage increases are not.
That makes the prospect of rising prices all the more painful. Energy bills are an
ongoing worry. In 2011 and 2012 gas charges rose by close to 10%, electricity by
more than 6%. Another price hike of up to 10% could be coming in the autumn,
according to Amit Kara, an economist at UBS, a bank. Overall, the impact of these
prices and other administered prices like tuition fees imply that even if all
others are flat, inflation would still be 1% in 2013.
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That is worrying, since other prices are highly unlikely to stand still. Firms facing
higher energy bills tend to pass on cost increases. Another worry is the continued fall
in sterling says Mr Kara. The pound has depreciated by close to 6% in 2013 against
the currencies of Britains main trading partners. When the pound loses value imports
become more expensive, cutting buying power.
Banking on spring
Some relief may be on the way. With an average mortgage of 113,000 and an
interest rate of 3.4%, Britons shell out 3,800 a year on interest payments. Slugs of
quantitative easing (QE), in which bonds are bought with newly created money, have
done little to lower household borrowing rates, in part because banks faced a spike in
their own borrowing costs as the euro crisis intensified. A new schemefunding for
lendinghas targeted bank funding costs, which have fallen sharply since last
summer. There are early signs of a broad easing as banks start to pass the savings
on. Homeowners with a decent deposit can refinance mortgages at 1.75%, saving the
average household 1,860 a year. Easier borrowing is one reason household cashflow
should rise this year.
Lower mortgage rates may mean knock-on benefits for renters too. As landlords
borrowing costs fall, competition should keep rental rates at bay. That would help a
lot, especially in London where rent payments can take up to 60% of pre-tax income,
according to Shelter, a charity. Renewed efforts to boost the housing supply through
new buildings and office conversions would help too.
Cheaper borrowing will certainly free up cash. But whether that leads to stronger
consumption and economic growth depends on whether the cash is saved or spent. At
present British households are firmly in saving mode. The saving rate, which fell from
6% in 2001 to zero by 2008, jumped and has been around 7% for five years. That has
allowed Britons to lower their debt-to-income ratios rapidly, by a quarter in four years.
This high rate of saving and fast pace of deleveraging mean that Britain does not need
to return to a debt-fuelled spending spree. All that is needed is for the pace of saving
to slow. If the saving rate fell to 4%, that would give a spending boost of 41 billion,
lifting GDP by 2.7%.
And there are signs that firms borrowing costs could ease soon too. Senior Bank of
England officials have recently backed radical ideas to release fresh credit: from
negative interest rates to the break-up of RBS, a state-owned lender. With these
activist ideas, monetary policy is likely to work in firms favour. Cheaper credit to new
and lively firms could lift productivity and, in time, wages.
At the moment consumer spending is under the cosh. But it could come goodjust as
exports could rise, and companies could start spending some of their colossal cash
piles, boosting Britains economy. What nobody knows is when.
http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21573132-britains-squeezed-households-
largely-explain-countrys-flatlining-economy-dropping-shopping








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Word Meaning in Dutch
1 squeezed uitgeknepen
2 merely alleen
3 afford verschaffen
4 consumer slump recessie
5 digging into Graven in
6 remarkably weak Opmerkelijk zwak
7 disposable income Besteedbaar inkomen
8 mortgage payments Hypotheek betalingen
9 council tax Gemeentebelastingen
10 utilities nutsbedrijven
11 Buying power Koopkracht
12 the puny wage De miezerige lonen
13 prospect vooruitzicht
14 ongoing worry Voortdurende zorg
15 tuition fees College geld
16 Slugs of Proppen
17 Renewed efforts Nieuwe inspanningen
18 borrowing costs Uitleen kosten
19 a state-owned lender Een staatsbedrijf geldschieter

Summary:
The economic Henry Ford explained the Britains consumer slump. First, he said that the
customers definitelly pay the workers wages, not the empolers. The employers merely look after
the cash. The spending of Britains households are weak. The incomes and outgoings grew after
1980.

The long term vision shows that workers wages are induce in the same line with the productivity.
But in 2008 the numbers flipped. When then pay increases have been 2% a year, the price wil rise
above 3%. In 2013 the inflation will be 1%, this because of the increasing administered prices.
On the other hand, when other prices are not increasing. Besides that, the imports become more
expensice just because the pound had depreciated.

In Britain, growth in output per worker is low relative to other countries and to other recessions.
We can conclude that the workers buys less and less.

















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Week 3 - Wood
The fuel of the future
Environmental lunacy in Europe
Apr 6th 2013 |From the print edition

WHICH source of renewable energy is most important to the European Union?
Solar power, perhaps? (Europe has three-quarters of the worlds total installed
capacity of solar photovoltaic energy.) Or wind? (Germany trebled its wind-power
capacity in the past decade.) The answer is neither. By far the largest so-called
renewable fuel used in Europe is wood.
In its various forms, from sticks to pellets to sawdust, wood (or to use its
fashionable name, biomass) accounts for about half of Europes renewable-
energy consumption. In some countries, such as Poland and Finland, wood
meets more than 80% of renewable-energy demand. Even in Germany, home of
the Energiewende (energy transformation) which has poured huge subsidies into
wind and solar power, 38% of non-fossil fuel consumption comes from the stuff.
After years in which European governments have boasted about their high-tech,
low-carbon energy revolution, the main beneficiary seems to be the favoured fuel
of pre-industrial societies.
The idea that wood is low in carbon sounds bizarre. But the original argument for
including it in the EUs list of renewable-energy supplies was respectable. If wood
used in a power station comes from properly managed forests, then the carbon
that billows out of the chimney can be offset by the carbon that is captured and
stored in newly planted trees. Wood can be carbon-neutral. Whether it actually
turns out to be is a different matter. But once the decision had been taken to call it
a renewable, its usage soared.
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In the electricity sector, wood has various advantages. Planting fields of windmills
is expensive but power stations can be adapted to burn a mixture of 90% coal and
10% wood (called co-firing) with little new investment. Unlike new solar or wind
farms, power stations are already linked to the grid. Moreover, wood energy is not
intermittent as is that produced from the sun and the wind: it does not require
backup power at night, or on calm days. And because wood can be used in coal-
fired power stations that might otherwise have been shut down under new
environmental standards, it is extremely popular with power companies.
Money grows on trees
The upshot was that an alliance quickly formed to back public subsidies for
biomass. It yoked together greens, who thought wood was carbon-neutral; utilities,
which saw co-firing as a cheap way of saving their coal plants; and governments,
which saw wood as the only way to meet their renewable-energy targets. The EU
wants to get 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020; it would miss
this target by a country mile if it relied on solar and wind alone.
The scramble to meet that 2020 target is creating a new sort of energy business.
In the past, electricity from wood was a small-scale waste-recycling operation:
Scandinavian pulp and paper mills would have a power station nearby which
burned branches and sawdust. Later came co-firing, a marginal change. But in
2011 RWE, a large German utility, converted its Tilbury B power station in eastern
England to run entirely on wood pellets (a common form of wood for burning
industrially). It promptly caught fire.
Undeterred, Drax, also in Britain and one of Europes largest coal-fired power
stations, said it would convert three of its six boilers to burn wood. When up and
running in 2016 they will generate 12.5 terawatt hours of electricity a year. This
energy will get a subsidy, called a renewable obligation certificate, worth 45 ($68)
a megawatt hour (MWh), paid on top of the market price for electricity. At current
prices, calculates Roland Vetter, the chief analyst at CF Partners, Europes largest
carbon-trading firm, Drax could be getting 550m a year in subsidies for biomass
after 2016more than its 2012 pretax profit of 190m.
With incentives like these, European firms are scouring the Earth for wood. Europe
consumed 13m tonnes of wood pellets in 2012, according to International Wood
Markets Group, a Canadian company. On current trends, European demand
will rise to 25m-30m a year by 2020.
Europe does not produce enough timber to meet that extra demand. So a hefty
chunk of it will come from imports. Imports of wood pellets into the EU rose by
50% in 2010 alone and global trade in them (influenced by Chinese as well as EU
demand) could rise five- or sixfold from 10m-12m tonnes a year to 60m tonnes by
2020, reckons the European Pellet Council. Much of that will come from a new
wood-exporting business that is booming in western Canada and the
American south. Gordon Murray, executive director of the Wood Pellet
Association of Canada, calls it an industry invented from nothing.
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Prices are going through the roof. Wood is not a commodity and there is no single
price. But an index of wood-pellet prices kept by the Argus Biomass Report rose
from $116 a tonne in August 2010 to $129 a tonne at the end of 2012. Prices for
hardwood from western Canada have risen by about 60% since the end of 2011.
This is putting pressure on companies that use wood as an input. About 20
large saw mills making particle board for the construction industry have closed in
Europe during the past five years, says Petteri Pihlajamaki of Poyry, a Finnish
consultancy (though the EUs building bust is also to blame). Higher wood prices
are hurting pulp and paper companies, which are in bad shape anyway: the
production of paper and board in Europe remains almost 10% below its 2007
peak. In Britain, furniture-makers complain that competition from energy producers
will lead to the collapse of the mainstream British furniture-manufacturing base,
unless the subsidies are significantly reduced or removed.
But if subsidising biomass energy were an efficient way to cut carbon emissions,
perhaps this collateral damage might be written off as an unfortunate
consequence of a policy that was beneficial overall. So is it efficient? No.
Wood produces carbon twice over: once in the power station, once in the supply
chain. The process of making pellets out of wood involves grinding it up, turning it
into a dough and putting it under pressure. That, plus the shipping, requires
energy and produces carbon: 200kg of CO2 for the amount of wood needed to
provide 1MWh of electricity.
This decreases the amount of carbon saved by switching to wood, thus increasing
the price of the savings. Given the subsidy of 45 per MWh, says Mr Vetter, it
costs 225 to save one tonne of CO2 by switching from gas to wood. And that
assumes the rest of the process (in the power station) is carbon neutral. It
probably isnt.
A fuel and your money
Over the past few years, scientists have concluded that the original ideacarbon
in managed forests offsets carbon in power stationswas an oversimplification. In
reality, carbon neutrality depends on the type of forest used, how fast the trees
grow, whether you use woodchips or whole trees and so on. As another bit of the
EU, the European Environment Agency, said in 2011, the assumption that
biomass combustion would be inherently carbon neutralis not correctas it
ignores the fact that using land to produce plants for energy typically means that
this land is not producing plants for other purposes, including carbon otherwise
sequestered.
Tim Searchinger of Princeton University calculates that if whole trees are used to
produce energy, as they sometimes are, they increase carbon emissions
compared with coal (the dirtiest fuel) by 79% over 20 years and 49% over 40
years; there is no carbon reduction until 100 years have passed, when the
replacement trees have grown up. But as Tom Brookes of the European Climate
Foundation points out, were trying to cut carbon now; not in 100 years time.
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In short, the EU has created a subsidy which costs a packet, probably does not
reduce carbon emissions, does not encourage new energy technologiesand is
set to grow like a leylandii hedge.
From the print edition: Business
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21575771-environmental-lunacy-europe-fuel-future

Word Meaning in Dutch
1 The fuel Brandstof
2 Environmental lunacy Milieu waanzin
3 renewable Vernieuwbare
4 Solar power Zonne-energie
5 poured Gegoten/geschonken
6 boasted Opscheppen
7 beneficiary Begunstigde
8 properly managed
forests
Goed beheerde bossen
9 Chimney Schoorsteen
10 soared Gestegen
11 intermittent Onderbroken
12 coal-fired Steenkool centrales
13 alliance Bondgenootschap
14 sawdust Zaagsel
15 incentives Prikkels
16 Hefty chunk Flinke brok
17 collateral damage Bijkomende schade
18 biomass combustion Verbranding van biomassa
19 encourage Aanmoedigen

Summary:

Environmental lunacy in Europe

The most used renewable fuel in Europe is wood. The energy consumption had been account for
about half of the European consumption.

On the other hand, in the electricity sector wood has much advantages. For this electricity
windmills is too expensive. But the power stations had some things explored that can be adapted
to burn a mixture of 90% coal and 10% wood. This with little new investment. Unlike new solar or
wind farms, power stations are already connected to the network.

Lately, in Europe the demand of timber increased hardly. But Europe does not produce enough
timber to meet that extra demand. This means that a lot of timber had to be produced. So,
imports of wood pellets in the EU rose by 50% in 2010. Western Canada and the American south
are countries that are booming in new wood-exporting business.

We can conclude that the EU has created a subsidy which costs a packet, probably does not
reduce carbon emissions, does niet encourage new energy technoliges.