『えいごで読む物語』シリーズでは、ランカル英会話に所属するメイトの日常や思い出をえいごでお届けします。

今回のテーマは「時間の過ごし方」

忙しい毎日を送っていると、プライベートな時間が取れない…という方も多いはず。
アメリカ出身のGrewが、休日や空いている時間をどう過ごすかの提案をしてくれました♪

初心者の方は「インテンシブ・リーディング（精読）」の読み物として、こちらのシリーズを読んでみることをオススメします。
コラムになっているため、文章量が少なく、また単語・表現も日常的に使われるものが中心となっています。

そのため、じっくりと読むインテンシブ・リーディングで文章の組み立て方に注目してみてくださいね！
詳しくは下にまとめてみたのでチェックしてくださいね。

詳しい練習方法は以下を参考にしてくださいね♪

Intro

How do you usually spend your free time? Do you have a lot? Only a couple minutes?  It feels to me that as we grow up we have less and less free time to do the things we enjoy.

But, we still do what we can. If we come back to the first question, ‘what do you usually do?’ I wonder if there are any differences between how people relax in the US and Japan.

How do kids spend?

Now, I’m pretty sure all kids kind of do the same things. We watch TV, ride bikes, play video games, take part in after school activities like cheer, dance, sports, or other programs.


I myself was a scout in the US. Not the coolest thing, but it taught me a lot about the outdoors. I’d go camping at least once a month and hiking as well. I even got to get a minor certification in rock climbing instruction and a lifeguard certification.

I know there are all the same kinds of programs here in Japan as well. So I think it’s a safe bet to say if you had an average childhood, you probably did something similar to kids around the world.
High school is probably where it starts to differ. A fun fact is that there are only 12 countries in the world that have a higher minimum drinking age than Japan’s 20 years old. One of which is the USA.

The US’s drinking age is 21 which most people find funny because everything else is legal at 18 the age you become a legal adult. And I don’t know what it’s like in Japan specifically, but this law is pretty strictly enforced because there are big penalties for people caught selling to someone underage.

But, that doesn’t stop young people in the US from drinking. As we say, ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way’ and so they do find ways to do what they want. This is why we see so many parties in movies about high school students in the US. It’s a very real thing.

Once you’re 18

Once you’re 18 though there are a lot of other things that young people will do. My friends and I would often go to the beach which was only an hour away.  Most Americans can learn to drive at 16, so we were doing these after school beach trips as soon as one of us could drive.

Movies are also really popular as well as bowling, at least in my town. There is also the option to go hang out at the mall. A lot of afternoons have been wasted walking around malls drinking Starbucks and eating in the food court.

I personally was more of a home body and spent most of my time playing video games with my friends online and offline. We finished school at 2:30pm so we had way too much free time. Dating is also a major activity once you enter high school and start university.

Free time for uni students

Once you get to university your time does become more full, but you have way more freedom. You’ll go out to bars, take part in campus activities and start taking some hobbies more seriously.

You can join a club, and there is almost any type of club you could imagine, I joined a couple myself. There were university sports teams and intramural teams that anyone could join.One the weekends you’re probably going out with your friends or once you realize how expensive that is you start to go back to house parties. This is what my friend group did.

Every Friday and Saturday night we were at one of our houses having a party. A few friends would move in together and rent a house where we would all gather. I know that this part in particular isn’t really common in Japan. They do tend to become more calm as you get older though so not as many crazy things happen.

Work for Live

Americans, especially young Americans, view their free time as incredibly important.  They make it a priority when looking for jobs and a place to live. They’ve begun to move away from the mindset that work is the biggest part of your life.

So, it’s becoming more common to see people enjoying their spare time in more creative ways. Last time I was home I took the opportunity to learn to scuba dive. My whole family is certified and we go diving together from time to time.

My mother is also part of a book club that meets weekly to discuss a monthly book they’re reading while they eat dinner and drink wine. My home town is surrounded by wineries so it’s also common for people to make a weekend or a Sunday of touring some wineries and sampling the different wines.

One of my best friends and I would go every Sunday, our ‘Sunday Funday’ as we called it. But, if I’m to be completely honest. Most Americans spend all evening watching TV shows at home or binging YouTube videos on their phone.

Some will troll around on Reddit and other blogging websites or Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. Many will go to sporting events, the biggest being American Football, but a lot of others are home bodies like I was.

Conclusion

All that is well and good, but it still brings me back to the same question, what do you do with your free time?  Do you go out, stay in, meet friends, drink at an Izakaya, or relax in the park?  Whatever you do, just make sure to enjoy it to the fullest.

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いかがでしたか？
短い空き時間でも、楽しみ方はたくさんありますね！
主軸がWork for Live、Live for Workどちらにおいてもあなたの毎日が素敵でありますように♪

LanCul英会話ではリーディングはもちろん、スピーキング、コミュニケーションにも役立つ学習動画を取り扱っており、教科書では学ぶことの出来ない、日常的でより実践的な多様な会話を学ぶことができます。
気になる方は下のプレビュー動画をチェックしてみてくださいね。

健康的で効率の良い言語学習法＜プレビュー＞

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