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Change

May 21, 2020

There was a saying "Make lemonade out of lemons," or, "He turns even his problems to good account," or, "He always gets something even out of his mistakes," or, "He tries to make a profit from any situation." He wanted to learn and use various terms under the current Coronavirus situation. The prime minister of a certain country, who suffered from the Coronavirus, who was over-weight, and because of this he became in serious condition, decided to make new policies in order to reduce the number of obese people. His government was thinking about ways to encourage the use of bikes, which would also reduce the risks of Coronavirus infections by people's train and bus commuting to/from work. The news added that the prime minister originally liked cycling, and when he was a mayor of a certain large city, he implemented a bike rental system. As he was a bike rider, who was concerned about CO2 problem, he welcomed the change very much. Because of the Coronavirus, a lot of workers had to stay and work at home. When the internet had started and people started to use e-mail regularly, working at home became "in-fashion". It was called SOHO, short for "Small Office Home Office". But, it didn't continue because people needed to trust others by meeting in person. Also, maybe working together as "one team" was difficult at that time because of low technology. But now, a person can access to one's company's computer, while a cloud computing system keeps it safe, and one can work with others while looking at the same documents. New technologies are able to enable this! One can easily have a web meeting with low cost on one's tablet computer, which usually already includes a camera and mic. Maybe this would lead to companies to start to think about ways to make their company more efficient, like having their workers stay at home certain days in the week in order to reduce their commuting costs, which would reduce their total costs. It would also reduce their CO2 footprint. How about schools? For children, going to school and studying together is an effective system. If the government prepares good teachers and good facilities, children can study safely and it would guarantee a certain quality of education and a certain quantity concerning their grades. Parents could work without worrying about their children. In addition, studying together is a good chance to nurture social skills for children, like how to manage to get along with others. But sometimes the learning environment becomes inflexible, and issues like smart children being bored becomes a problem. Bullying is a universal problem. There are many countries that can't prepare a good school environment, so this might be a good chance to shift some parts of education to web education. If there were funny and understandable teachers that could teach on the web, other teachers might be able to use their time more suitably. Students could study by teachers in other countries. Teachers could focus and teach to their strong areas. He watched some programs for kids. The TV companies broadcasted educational programs for students who might not be able to study neither at home nor school. They were well made and even adults, like him, enjoy studying science, history, literature, and even mathematics or physics. Adults should study basic knowledge again, because it would make their life richer.     As people have more free time at home, some of them might start to grow vegetables in their gardens. Planting tomatoes, green peppers, eggplants, cucumbers was not so difficult at all. Growing vegetables with other families seemed educational for children, and would also help their household expenses, and would be environmentally friendly as well. He read in the paper that the government would change many regulations for bus companies to simplify merge. In this country many local bus companies were going bankrupt. If these companies merged, their territory would widen, their fees become less expensive, and it would become more convenient for local residents. He thought about the 'subscription model'. In this Corona time, the businesses effected the most were theaters and performers, sports fields and players, restaurants, bars, hotels, karaoke shops, and taxis; basically, places where many people go or use. These businesses are based on the number of the customers multiplied by the price for one's service. But, for example in his sport gym's case, he pays a monthly price and although they would refund for a certain time period, the company's overall business wouldn't be effected by its everyday attendants. He thought that maybe this 'subscribe model' might decrease business risks if businesses could adopt them and change accordingly. Maybe many restaurants could adopt a monthly ticket plan that could be used to book seating. Maybe taxis could be contracted by a monthly fee. Smartphones could enable these verifications. The fees might go down drastically and we could enjoy good food at a lower price. Maybe taxi drivers could have a more steady service.

*Make lemonade ouf of lemons :転んでもただでは起きない
*account :報告、話
*obese :肥満の
*encourage :促進する、勇気づける
*infection :伝染
*implement :実行する
*in-fashion :流行の
*in person :直接会って
*footprint :空き容量
*guarantee :保証する
*concerning :関して
*nurture :養う
*eggplant :ナス
*regulation :制約
*merge :合併する
*subscription :定期購読、定期契約
*multiply :掛け算する
*refund :返金する
*verification :認証