遠山顕の英会話入門 2023年秋号 Dialog 8
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Write It!
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◆ ある外国からの女性
K: a woman でスタートしてよろしいでしょうか？
C: Sounds good to me. Here are two ways we can do this and both ways are going to start with "a woman." So, the first way we can write this is, "A woman from abroad."
C: And for the second way, we can write, "A woman from overseas."
◆ ……を楽しく見ています
K: enjoy でいきましょうか？
J: Yes. There are several ways of saying this, but we are going to go with yours, Ken, your suggestion. "Enjoy doing something."
K: Oh, okay.
J: In this case, it's "enjoy watching."
K: OK.
◆ やはり……です
K: Are there ways to say this, Carolyn?
C: There sure are. Um... let's look at two ways to write this.
K: OK.
C: The first one is using "also."
K: OK.
C: And the thing we have to be careful about is where it comes in the sentence. And here, I'd recommend writing it sort of in the middle.
K: All right.
C: So, in this case, it would be "She and friend are also dressed up."
C: And the other word we can use is "too." And this is usually going to come at the end of a sentence.
K: Uh-huh.
C: And it's going to follow a comma. So, it's going to be 何々 "comma too." And in this situation, it'll be, "She and her friend are dressed up, too."
C: Both work.
K: Both work.
*****
C: Oh, yeah.
J: I know they did. I just have a feeling. Yap.
C: Good job.
K: Great!
J: Way to go!
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Before We Move On!
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K: You know, I have several questions for you.
CJ: Okay.
K: Concerning Halloween...
C: Oo...
J: I love it. Yeah.
K: As a kid, did you dress up for Halloween? That's a first question. Carrolyn, first.
C: I sure did. Um, I would say I was usually a princess.
K: Oh, so you dressed up as a princess.
C: As a princess or a queen, but I guess probably a princess. But one year I was Frankenstein.
J: Wow!
C: And that was fun.
K: That must have been a cute Frankenstein.
C: It was a very small Frankenstein.
K: Okay. How about you, Jeff?
J: Oh, I always did. In fact, I would start planning it days in advance.
C: Wow.
J: Yes.
K: What did you dress up as?
J: Um... You know, every year was different, but I would usually either dress up as an alien.
C: Ohhh...
J: I remember one year we spray painted a football helmet and put little antennas on it.
C: That's so cute.
K: So, when you said alien, was it spaceman or was it Arnold Schwarzenegger's uh… Arch Enemy or whatever.
J: Well, that alien wasn't around when I was a kid.
K: Oh, I see.
J: So it was just a... it was just like a little green Martian kind of alien. Yeah.
K: I see.
C: That's cute.
K: Did you buy those costumes? ... or how did you come up with those costumes?
J: No, we never did.
C: No, neither did we.
J: Uh... my..., my parents were quite crafty. They had a lot of really good ideas, and so, we made our own.
C: Yeah, same here. I would like to say my parents were crafty. I love them to bits, but they are ... our costumes involved a lot of old bedsheets.
(I love them to bits. = 非常に愛している、大好きである。"to bits"は「細かい断片」や「小さな部分」という意味を持ちますが、この表現では愛情が非常に強く、最大限の愛情を込めている様子を表現しています。)
J: Ah!
K: Oh, I see.
C: But they worked and it was really fun making them.
K: So those costumes, Halloween costumes were not sold at that time at the stores.
J: They were.
C: Oh, they were. Sure, sure.
J: They were. I just thought ours were better, the ones that we made.
C: And it never even occurred to me to buy a costume. We were always, just we just assumed we would be making our Halloween costumes.
K: So, that was part of the tradition.
J: That was part of the fun.
C: Yeah, part of fun.
J: Part of the excitement.
J: So, Ken...
K: Yeah?
J: Did you dress up for Halloween?
K: Oh, never.
J: Never?
K: You know, I didn't grow up with that kind of culture. You know... I grew up in Japan and ... but I dress up these days as a candy giver.
C: Ohh!!!
K: The costume is very simple. It's my home clothes. So, it's easy.
C: And I guess you need the prop you need the candy bowl or something.
(prop = 小道具)
K: Yeah. And I've never gone trick or treating but I used to take my daughter, take my kid ...
J: Okay.
K: ... trick or treating when she was very little. I have fond memories of those.
J: And this was in Japan?
K: Yeah. This was in Japan. Our neighborhood, there were a lot of people from abroad.
C: Okay.
J: Oh, that's why.
C: And did you make the costume yourself or did you buy the costume?
K: For my daughter?
C: For your daughter.
K: Oh, I think my wife made it.
C: Oh.
J: Oh, good for her.
K: Yeah.
＊＊＊＊＊
「Crafty」という言葉は、通常、手先が器用で、巧妙で機知に富んだ人を指す形容詞として使われます。しかし、注意が必要で、この言葉は複数の意味を持つことがあります。一般的には、工作や手仕事に長けたり、巧妙な手腕を持っている人を指すポジティブな意味で使われることがあります。
ただし、時には「crafty」は悪賢い、策略的な、あるいは不正な手段を使うといったネガティブな側面も含むことがあります。文脈によってはどちらの意味で使われているかを注意深く判断する必要があります。
総じて、手腕が巧みで、器用な手仕事や技術的な能力に長けた人を指す言葉として使われることが多いです。
