Essay Funny Valentine By Caroline Pover	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
国際カップルのバレンタイン 2月14日、筆者の職場では皆がピンクか赤い色のものを身に付け、ささやかなプレゼントを持ち寄ってバレンタインデーを祝いました。ところで、欧米では、バレンタインデーは女性が恋人からプレゼントをもらって互いに愛を確認する日。筆者の周りには、日本と欧米の習慣の違いから、思わぬごたごたを体験した国際カップルも…。

Valentine's Day was a great source of entertainment in our office this year! Most of the people here are foreigners, and mostly women, so we always celebrate it in Western style, where women are supposed to receive gifts from their loved ones, as opposed to the Japanese style of men being the recipients.

We started the celebrations by ensuring everyone in our office wore something red or pink. And we all had to bring one gift worth ¥500. Lots of the presents were chocolates or sweets, which we ate for the rest of the day

We have three single girls in our office, and they planned to buy each other a big bouquet of flowers each on the day. They had them delivered to the office so our office had three huge bouquets in it, and smelt beautiful all day.

The international couples among us had some interesting stories. One man in our office has a Japanese girlfriend, and he arranged to have a large bouquet of flowers delivered to her in her office. I bet her colleagues were very surprised

Another man in our office has a Japanese boyfriend, and it was their first Valentine's Day as a couple. So he decided that he would show his Japanese boyfriend how he would like to be treated next year, and had 25 red roses delivered to his boyfriend's office. His colleagues must have been very surprised too!

One of the funniest stories this year came from one English girl and her Japanese boyfriend. They have been together for four years, and she had warned him many times that he should not forget Valentine's Day and that she didn't want to wait for White Day for something special

Before they went to work in the morning, there was no mention of the special day - not even a card. She thought he might be planning to surprise her that evening so she didn't say anything. All day in our office, there were flowers arriving and excited conversations about what everybody would be doing that evening. Still, there was no news from her boyfriend

Suddenly, she came rushing over to me with a piece of paper, waving it at me angrily. It was an e-mail from her boyfriend and it said: "I am working late tonight so won't be home until 11 p.m., so you should have takeaway food on your own. Can you get home by 6 p.m. to wait for a delivery that is coming for me?" In the U.K., this would be a justifiable reason for breaking up with someone! We all copied down his e-mail address and bombarded him with messages that suggested (ｖery kindly) that he should think about doing something special for her on that day. He was shocked but he replied, saying he would plan something special. We all heaved a sigh of relief and looked forward to hearing about it.

The next day, she was even angrier. He had come home at midnight, and given her some chocolates that the women in his office had given him, and a gift that she had given him for his birthday but he didn't like! He hadn't quite understood. He is a really lovely man, and he wouldn't mean to do anything thoughtless. He probably didn't know what to do. So I e-mailed him again and suggested he had better do something to fix the problem. Immediately!

Three hours later, a huge bouquet of red roses arrived at our office for her, from her boyfriend, with a little note saying sorry and that he loved her. Finally, he understood!

I know we shouldn't really need Valentine's Day to show that we love someone, but it is a lovely excuse.

Shukan ST: March 3, 2006

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