quit vs. retire

Preview　（腕試し）

Which of the following sentences are natural?

（次の文章の中では、どれが自然でしょうか？　チェックボックスも利用できます。）

1. In the U.S., people often (but not always) retire when they are around 65 years old.

2. Kurt really wants to quit his current part-time job and find good full-time work.

3. Toshi, a recent college graduate, retired from his first company so that he could find a better and more interesting job at another company.

4. Kumiko, who is 27 years old, retired last year. She plans to travel around Australia for a year and then come back to Japan to work.

5. Albert, who was never really enthusiastic about his job, got fired for sleeping at his desk.

A. 3 & 4

B. 1, 2 & 5

C. 1, 3 & 5

D. none

QuickGlossary （用語辞典）

vague = 曖昧な

accountant = 会計係

passive voice = 受け身

recession = 不景気

Explanation （説明）& Examples（例文）

Quit

When you leave a job with plans to find another job, we usually say that you have quit your job. (You can also say that you have left your company, but this is rather vague.)

Yumiko really wants to quit her job; she knows, however, that it'll be hard to find a new one in this recession, so she's going to wait a little while until the economy improves.

Retire

If you're around 65 years old and leave your job with no plans to find another job, you can say you have retired.

Shinpei retired when he was 68 years old. Now he likes to play mahjong and trim his bonsai; he says he doesn't miss his job at all.

You might also say this if you are extremely rich. For example, Michael Jordan retired from basketball a few years ago. He's young, but he's so rich that he doesn't have to work if he doesn't want to.

Resign

The word resign is also used to refer to quitting a job, but it is usually used only in formal contexts.

"People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook." Less than one year after having said this, Richard Nixon resigned the presidency in disgrace.

(In this case, the use of the word quit wouldn't be technically wrong, but it really wouldn't be the most natural word choice.)

Be Fired

We say that someone is fired when that person is forced to leave a company because she or he does a poor job or otherwise does something very bad at work. It is often used in the passive voice with either the verb "get" or the "be" verb.

Henry was/got fired from his company because he was late for work almost every day.

Be Laid Off

Finally, we use the phrasal verb lay off when someone must leave a job because of restructuring or bad economic conditions.

Ken was an excellent manager, but he was/got laid off when the recession hit.

Exercises（練習）

1. Kanae, who really loves her job, has worked at the same company for forty-five years and plans to quit retire resign next year.

2. Kumi didn't like the first job she got after graduation from university and quit retired resigned after working there for only six months.

3. 50 employees at a small electronics manufacturer were laid off retired fired when the company's sales started to fall.

4. Some people never quit retire resign --they just work right until the end of their life.

5. No one likes to get quit retired fired , but it actually encourages some people to finally find a job doing what they really want to do.

6. At what age do you plan to quit retire fire ?

7. Mr. Watanabe, an accountant at a small trading company, didn't want to quit retire resign , but his company felt that he was getting too old to do his job.

8. Matt never stays in one job long--he always seems to quit retire resign each one as soon as he starts to get used to it.

9. The president of the country was forced to get fired retire resign when it became known that she was involved in a financial scandal.

10. Tommy was laid off retired fired by his boss because he used his office computer to play games and surf the Internet.

Answers:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.