包含運動的商業俚語，kick off真的是“踢”的意思嗎？

When doing business with Native Speakers of English you will hear a lot of metaphors and idiomatic expressions used. They can relate to all sorts of areas like war, fire, health.

當和母語爲英語的人做生意時，你會聽到他們使用很多隱喻和慣用用語。它們可以涉及到戰爭、火災、健康等各種領域。

One of the biggest areas is Sports. If you want to use these Business English phrases like a native speaker, it would be useful to have an understanding of what they are and what they mean.

體育是這些隱喻和慣用語涉及最大的領域之一。如果你想像本地人一樣使用商務英語短語，瞭解有哪些短語和它們的意思是非常有用的。

By the way, using phrases will help you to speak English fluently.

順便說一下，這些短語可以使你的英語更加流利。

In this blog post, I’d like to explore the strong relationship that exists between sports and business. If you look at the qualities that sports and business share, you’ll begin to see why Business English has so many sporting metaphors.

在這篇博文中，我想探討體育與商業之間的緊密關係。如果你看看體育和商業之間的共同點，你就會明白爲什麼商業英語有這麼多的體育隱喻。

Kick off

開始

to start

開始

Good Morning everyone. Shall we kick off the meeting then?  (Football)

大家早上好。那麼我們開始開會好嗎？（足球）

ON TARGET (english phrase)

瞄準目標

making good progress and likely to achieve what has been planned

取得很好的進展並有可能實現計劃中的目標

It looks like we are pretty much on target with this project. (Archery)

看來我們在這個項目上的目標是有可能實現的。（射箭）

Up to scratch

達到標準

to be of a good standard

達到很棒的標準

I know we have a great team whose work is really up to scratch. (Track and Field)

我知道我們有一個很棒的團隊，他們的工作真的很出色。（田徑）

Know the ropes

知曉內情

to be able to do something well

能夠做好某事

Our new Sales Director has a lot of experience and really knows all the ropes. (Sailing)

我們的新銷售主任經驗豐富，而且懂得一切訣竅。（帆船）

Ballpark figure

大概的數字

a rough estimate

粗略的估計

Can you give me a ballpark figure on the total sales costs? (Baseball)

你能給我一個大概的總銷售成本數嗎？（棒球）

Jump the gun

搶跑

to do something too soon, especially without thinking about it carefully

做事太快，尤其是不仔細考慮

We still have some costs to factor in and I don’t want to jump the gun. (Track and Field)

我們還有一些成本要考慮，我不想草率決定。（田徑）

In pole position

跑道內圈的位置

to be in the best possible position

處於有利地位

We are in pole position to win the contract. (Motor Racing)

我們在贏得合同方面處於有利地位。（賽車）

NECK AND NECK (english phrase)

並駕齊驅

to have the same chance of winning as someone else

有與別人一樣的獲勝機會

We are neck and neck with our competitors, so we really need to work hard to maintain our market share. (Horse Racing)

我們與我們的競爭對手並駕齊驅，所以我們真的需要努力保持我們的市場份額。（賽馬）

The ball in our court

我們場上的球

to be in a position to make the next step

處在推動下一步的位置上

We have done what we can, the ball is in your court now. (Tennis)

我們已經盡力了，現在該你們來推動下一步如何走下去了。（網球）

Take our eye off the ball

將視線從球上離開

to make a mistake, especially by doing something carelessly

犯錯誤，尤指粗心地做某事

We really cannot take our eye off the ball with this deal as it will be a real winner for us. (Football)

對於這筆交易，我們真的不能掉以輕心，因爲我們很可能會是贏家。（足球）

A great way for you to familiarise yourself with sports idioms is to check out the70 Remarkable Sports Idioms You Can Use In Business And Daily Life.

一個讓你熟悉體育習語的好方法是看看你可以在商業和日常生活中使用的70個著名的體育習語。

Try and find different ways it is used in a business context. You may find these in advertisements, articles or hear them. Decide which one you find most interesting and try to use them in a similar situation with English speakers.

嘗試在業務環境中找到不同的使用方法。你可以在廣告、文章中找到或聽到它們。決定哪一個你覺得最有趣，並試着在一個類似的情況下與英語爲母語的人使用它們。

This is just a taster of the sports idioms there are in the English Language. Do you know others? Do you know how and when to use them? Do share them with us. And if you think that your friends and colleague could benefit from these expressions, please share this blog post with them.

這只是一個品嚐英語中體育習語的人。你認識其他人嗎？你知道如何以及何時使用它們嗎？一定要和我們分享。如果你認爲你的朋友和同事可以從這些表達中獲益，請與他們分享這篇博文。