“Thorn in my side”の意味と使い方 Bizmates初級ビジネス英会話 Point 189

Thorn in my side ってどういう意味？

Thorn in my side は、日本語で言う「悩みのタネ」のことです。ずっとつきまとう痛みやわずらわしさを表すフレーズで、こちらで紹介している”Pain in the butt” とほぼ同義です。脇腹にトゲが刺さって、抜けない状態の比喩になります。

聖書の記載に”Thorn in my flesh” という表現があり、そこから派生したフレーズであることもあり、”Pain in the butt”よりも少し上品な響きの表現です。

ただ、その分、”Pain in the butt”や”Pain in the neck”ほど頻繁には使われません。少しインテリな代替フレーズ、という位置づけと言えます。

Thorn in my side ってどういう場面で使うの？

たとえば同僚と、問題ばかり起こる取引先との仕事について話しているとします。

A: How’s it going with your business partner?
B: Really bad. It’s a thorn in my side. We exchange more trouble than money.

A: あの取引先とはうまくやっていますか？
B: もう本当に悩みのタネです。お金以上に問題ばかりやり取りしていますよ。

Thorn in my side の自然な使い方を動画で学ぶ

こちらの動画で、発音や、会話の中での自然な使い方を、Bizmatesのプレゼンター Justinが解説します。

【CC】ボタンを押すと字幕機能も利用可能ですので、英語学習に是非お役立てください！

Hello everyone. Nice to see you again and

thanks for tuning in to this week's

Bizmates for Beginners video lesson and

I've chosen a really interesting

expression to introduce to all of you

today and that is "thorn in my side." So

it's a really interesting one, let's find

out how to use it and what it means but

first before we do that, let's do a quick

review of last week's expression. Alright

everyone so imagine I ask you: How's your

new management position? You were

recently promoted but management is

really challenging, it's really tough and

you are struggling every day. So how do

you respond? I'll give you five seconds

okay, are you ready? Alright go!

OK time is up everyone if you said "it's an

uphill battle" then that's right. Good job

and thank you for remembering last

week's class. OK moving on to this

week's expression "thorn in my side" this

is what I sometimes hear okay everyone

I'm talking to Taro and as you know, taro

is a manager now and one of his key

responsibilities is to create a monthly

report about his department but

Taro doesn't really enjoy doing this

so I asked him: Hey, Taro how's your

monthly report coming? And he says it's

troublesome! So he doesn't really enjoy

doing it. It's a little bit annoying for

him and although this expression is okay,

to be more natural he can say... that's

right yeah it's a thorn in my side. Okay

so whenever you have to do something

that's annoying or bothersome or

troublesome continuously, you can't

escape it, you always have to deal with

it, it's a thorn in your side okay?

Alright now for pronunciation, it's

fairly simple but one key point, please

be careful with the "TH" sound. To make a

nice TH sound, push air through your

teeth like this... okay, so I'm pushing air

through my teeth and that's where the TH

sound comes from, alright? So thorn in my

side. Alright your turn please repeat go ahead.

Very good OK now after my question:

Hey, how's your monthly report coming?

OK, very good. That's right, yes it's a thorn

in my side. It's a bit annoying but I

have to do it all the time. I can't

escape it, it's a thorn in my side, okay?

Alright good job everyone so please

remember this for next week's review, okay?

So our bonus question this week everyone

is another way to say: "let's go next time"

So imagine your coworker invites you out

for dinner or invites you out for a

drink after work, but you already have

plans or you're busy so you can say...

Alright if you know the answer leave it in

the comments below, if you don't you can

find it in one of our previous Bizmates

for Beginners videos, okay everyone?

Alright and that is it for me this week

thank you so much for watching have a

great weekend everyone. I'll see you next

Friday. Thank you.