エッセイ

Notes :
OECD 経済協力開発機構;
‘Society at a Glance’『図表でみる社会』（OECDの報告書);
rate ～を評価する，見積もる;
unpaid 無給の，無報酬の;
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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publication ‘Society at a Glance’ shows who works the longest among the 26 OECD members. They rated work according to 2 types: unpaid and paid. According to the study Mexicans work the longest, at 595 minutes or 9 hours 55 minutes per day, but a lot of that is unpaid work such as cooking at home, cleaning, shopping, etc.　If you look at who does the most paid work then it is the Japanese! (by Prof. Simon Smith)
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Notes:
epic: 叙事詩的な
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When I see falling snow, I am reminded of one day last year. It was New Year’s Eve. After flying back from London to Osaka, I took the bus to Matsue. The journey was only supposed to take 4 hours but in the end it took 16 hours. The bus left Osaka at 2pm on December the 31st, and arrived in Matsue at 6am on the morning of January 1st! The reason for this epic journey was the heavy snow that fell on Matsue and the surrounding area causing bad traffic jams and delays everywhere. As well as welcoming in the New Year on the bus, I also watched Kohaku in my bus seat. Although at the time it was a terrible experience, it has now become a good memory!
(written by student Kakitani, edited by Prof. Simon Smith)
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