Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
I’d start by keeping an eye on the death notices.
English answer:
start looking at the obituary notices because...
English term
Japan
I’d start by keeping an eye on the death notices.
"Have you ever been a secretary before? No? Well, if seventeen-fifty a week is fine, then you can be one now. The going rate is twenty, but good luck finding a job that pays the going rate. I’d start by keeping an eye on the death notices. Also, you can answer the phone, which shouldn’t be hard, as it doesn’t ring very often.”
Jun 25, 2018 20:43: lorenab23 changed "Level" from "Non-PRO" to "PRO"
PRO (3): Yvonne Gallagher, Robert Forstag, lorenab23
Non-PRO (1): Edith Kelly
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Responses
Ireland
right word, right place. everytime
Native in: English (Variants: US, Canadian, Irish, UK) 
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, English, and 1 more.
start looking at the obituary notices because...
There used ti be a TV programme "The Golden Girls" and one of them used to look for a widower to date by looking to see whose wife had died in the death notices l
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Note added at 12 mins (2018-06-25 11:15:41 GMT)
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So, someone who has been in the job a while (and has died!) was getting the "going rate" of twenty but if you want to start a job right now you will only get seventeen-fifty a week. As I said, you have to see it as a tongue-in-cheek humorous remark
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Note added at 1 day 2 hrs (2018-06-26 13:54:45 GMT) Post-grading
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Glad to have helped. Yes, this sort of joke can be difficult to understand. It can be used in a variety of situations: e.g. someone waiting for a hospital or nursing-home bed might be told in a joking way to check the death notices!
Announcements in newspapers
| neutral |
AllegroTrans
: True, but this doesn't explain what is being said here
2 hrs
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| agree |
Sarah-Leah Pimentel
: Yes, if there is announcement of a death, then there might be a job opening
7 hrs
|
| disagree |
Daryo
: and there are also notices about marriages, births, christenings, or whatever was fashionable to put in the newspapers at that time [$20 a week is not today!] ... // TOO VAGUE
9 hrs
|
| neutral |
Edith Kelly
: not to the point
22 hrs
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