●英字新聞社ジャパンタイムズによる英語学習サイト。英語のニュース、よみもの、リスニングなどのコンテンツを無料で提供。無料見本紙はこちら
英語学習サイト ジャパンタイムズ 週刊STオンライン
『The Japan Times ST』オンライン版 | UPDATED: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 | 毎週水曜日更新!   
  • 英語のニュース
  • 英語とエンタメ
  • リスニング・発音
  • ことわざ・フレーズ
  • 英語とお仕事
  • キッズ英語
  • クイズ・パズル
  • 留学・海外生活
  • 英語のものがたり
  • 会話・文法
  • 週刊ST購読申し込み
     時事用語検索辞典BuzzWordsの詳しい使い方はこちら!
カスタム検索
 

Letter from Boston

Learning To Create a Home

By MASAKO YAMADA


「家庭」作りを学ぶ

ルームメートも難なく見つかり、引っ越しも無事済ませ、新しい生活を始めた雅子さん。今回はそんな雅子さんが、アメリカの大学の住宅事情について教えてくれます。日本人には、少々受け入れ難いような暮らし方もあるようですが…。

One of my friends who recently graduated is a guy who lived in the Co-op at Harvard. This is not to be mistaken with the Harvard Coop: the Coop (rhymes with scoop) is the official Harvard bookstore; the Co-op (as in cooperate) is a special kind of dorm. My undergraduate college, Wellesley, also had a co-op. Co-op is the shortened form of the word cooperative. Co-ops are basically houses in which residents share the kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms and other public spaces (they also distribute chores), but have separate bedrooms, which enables them to maintain privacy. Typical dorm features such as dining halls, formal dorm parties and floor meetings do not exist. Co-ops are usually a part of the official college housing system, but they are considered alternative to living in the dorms. The people in co-ops live more like real people do.

Undergraduates who live in co-ops are quite independent-minded. Not only do they not need to have three meals served to them every day, they also do not feel compelled to follow old dorm traditions. However, they also like being around other people; after all, they are not living in apartments by themselves. It seems that they don't need to have entertainment provided by a dorm because they can entertain themselves. Co-op members have rich social lives that reach beyond the boundaries of the co-op, often beyond normal student life itself. I asked my friend whether he felt that he had missed out on anything by living in the Co-op. He replied, "Yeah," so I asked whether he would have liked going to dorm-sponsored parties. He looked startled and said, "No, I feel I missed out on a lot of things outside Harvard."

A co-op may be hard to envision from a Japanese perspective, but my current housing situation is analogous to a college co-op. My roommates and I share objects like dishes, sofas and TVs. We occasionally plan events together on weekends and we hang out with each other on weekdays. However for the most part, we lead independent lives. Indeed, it's a very rare moment in which all of us are in the apartment at the same time. It's not unusual for me not to see some of my roommates for days on end. We each have our own bedroom, and although the door is often left open so that we can talk to each other freely, when it is closed that housemate's privacy is honored by the others.

I wrote a few weeks ago that my future roommates are all male. This may seem scandalous to some conservative readers, but it's actually very natural for grad students to form their own coed residences. (Actually, almost all regular college dorms in the States are coed. Some even have coed bathrooms.) This is especially true when the gender ratio in a particular department is skewed, as is the case in most science departments. Many of the women within my department share an apartment with male students. One of my Wellesley friends who's been accepted to the computer science department at Carnegie-Mellon is living with five guys from her department. For graduate students, who tend to be more serious about their studies than undergraduates, having common interests seems to override gender as a criterion for selecting roommates. Selecting roommates is a big deal and many things can go wrong; however, I have yet to see a case in which a co-op has degenerated simply because it was coed.

This kind of self-reliant, yet warm and communal, mode of living is very popular among young singles who live away from school or home but who can't afford or don't want to live by themselves. Sharing common resources certainly cuts down on the cost of living. I think a balance of public and private space is necessary in order to make such arrangements work, especially when there is a mix of men and women in one apartment. What makes it the most fun and rewarding for me is that my roommates feel like family: If we want to throw a big party, we can all invite our particular friends and revel in the variety. If we run into each other in the bathroom early in the morning, we can say, "Good morning," with sleepy faces; if we're in a bad mood, we can complain out loud. If we're tired, we can simply shut our doors and shut out everything else.


Shukan ST: June 27, 1997

(C) All rights reserved



英語のニュース |  英語とエンタメ |  リスニング・発音 |  ことわざ・フレーズ |  英語とお仕事 |  キッズ英語 |  クイズ・パズル
留学・海外就職 |  英語のものがたり |  会話・文法 |  執筆者リスト |  読者の声 |  広告掲載
お問い合わせ |  会社概要 |  プライバシーポリシー |  リンクポリシー |  著作権 |  サイトマップ