このページはフレーム対応ブラウザ用に作成されています。下のリンクは非フレーム使用ページですのでそちらをご覧ください。
この記事をプリントする
ニューヨークは観光客だらけ
夏は観光客のシーズン。N.Y. は、おのぼりさんであふれかえります。カメラ片手にのろのろ歩く彼らに、地元のニューヨーカーたちはうんざりで、ジョークのネタにして溜飲を下げています。筆者も、観光客に間違えられたことがありますがーー。
New Yorker Faces the Summer Tourist Rush
By BOB YAMPOLSKY
A couple of years back, when I started taking my camera out on walks in the city, my father said to me, "But people will think that you're a tourist."
He had a pained look on his face and he spoke in such a way that suggested that I was about to bring everlasting shame to the family name.
My father was born in New York and lived most of his life here, and like most New Yorkers he had a native aversion to tourists. I don't really have one's good reason why New Yorkers dislike tourists. I guess it's that they're just annoying in a number of little ways. They come in big groups that move slowly and block the sidewalks. They ride tour buses that move slowly and block the streets. They gawk and take pictures of stupid things. They buy tacky souvenirs from the overpriced stores. They just . . . well, they're just annoying, that's all.
For New Yorkers who think this way, summer is the most annoying season, because while New York has tourists year round, it is in summer that they actually take over parts of the city. As the first of our signs for today ― an ad for a July issue of an entertainment magazine — warns, it's summertime, and "Here come the tourists!"
This ad shows a typical caricature of a tourist visiting New York: an obvious hick, with his straw hat and plaid polyester pants, armed with a video camera, camera, binoculars and fanny pack, and a "Gosh, Emma, look, a genuine homeless person" look of astonishment on his face.
This is the country bumpkin, a familiar character in New York City folklore — the old story is of the con man "selling" the Brooklyn Bridge to some greenhorn. (Strictly speaking, "country bumpkin" and "greenhorn" mean folks from the real country, but to New Yorkers, anyone who doesn't live in New York is in some sense a hick.)
Our second sign for today, which is an ad for a line of clothes by a designer named Kenneth Cole, mocks tourists for their ignorance of New York: "4 OUT OF 5 TOURISTS LOOKING FOR SOHO ARE IN IT." (Then underneath it gives a quote from Mr. Cole, who apparently is something of a philosopher-poet: "To be aware is more important than what you wear.")
If you ask me, it's a rather odd and mean-spirited way to try to sell clothes, but I think I understand the psychology behind it. There are an awful lot of young people in New York who have just moved here, and these people are insecure about their status as New Yorkers. So this ad appeals to them because they know that, compared to tourists at least, they are long-time New Yorkers.
New York has grown more tourist-friendly in recent years. Part of it is just that the city has become safer and cleaner. Times Square, which used to be the sleaze center of New York, is now the site of such tourist spots as the Disney Store and the Hard Rock Cafe, and is a virtual tourist mall. The other part of it is the result of a conscious effort to attract tourists and their dollars. There was a campaign a couple of years back to teach taxi drivers and others who deal directly with tourists to be polite to them. There are new signs up all over the city just for tourists, directing them to places like the Empire State Building. And the tourists are coming here in droves.
I was in my 20s before I first went up the Empire State Building (I was taking around some tourists from Japan), and it had always been a matter of pride to me that I had never set foot on Liberty Island, where the Statue of Liberty stands. (I went for the first time last year, on the insistence of my non-native New Yorker wife.) I guess my most embarrassing tourist-related experience came when I was taking my Japanese cousin around Central Park, and she stopped to take pictures of squirrels. Squirrels! I had to distance myself from her, lest anyone think that I was involved.
I remember another joke: If a flying saucer came and hovered over New York, a real New Yorker wouldn't look up, for fear of being mistaken for a tourist gawking at all the tall buildings. I'll admit that as I go around the city with my camera, I worry about being mistaken for a tourist.
Last Christmas, as I was taking pictures like a tourist, two fellows came up to me and said, mockingly, "So, do you speak English?"
I looked at them and sized them up for a second or two. In an unexpected New York encounter the first calculation is whether the other party is in any way dangerous. These two did not seem to be. From my guess they were recent transplants to the city. If they were tourists, they would not go around mocking others, and if they were long-time New Yorkers, they would not have bothered. I was about to walk away, but in a flash of inspiration, I felt my tongue speak in an exaggerated New York accent: "Better than you ever will, buddy." Then I folded up my camera and went home.
A couple of years back, when I started taking my camera out on walks in the city, my father said to me, "But people will think that you're a tourist."
He had a pained look on his face and he spoke in such a way that suggested that I was about to bring everlasting shame to the family name.
My father was born in New York and lived most of his life here, and like most New Yorkers he had a native aversion to tourists. I don't really have one's good reason why New Yorkers dislike tourists. I guess it's that they're just annoying in a number of little ways. They come in big groups that move slowly and block the sidewalks. They ride tour buses that move slowly and block the streets. They gawk and take pictures of stupid things. They buy tacky souvenirs from the overpriced stores. They just . . . well, they're just annoying, that's all.
For New Yorkers who think this way, summer is the most annoying season, because while New York has tourists year round, it is in summer that they actually take over parts of the city. As the first of our signs for today ― an ad for a July issue of an entertainment magazine — warns, it's summertime, and "Here come the tourists!"
This ad shows a typical caricature of a tourist visiting New York: an obvious hick, with his straw hat and plaid polyester pants, armed with a video camera, camera, binoculars and fanny pack, and a "Gosh, Emma, look, a genuine homeless person" look of astonishment on his face.
This is the country bumpkin, a familiar character in New York City folklore — the old story is of the con man "selling" the Brooklyn Bridge to some greenhorn. (Strictly speaking, "country bumpkin" and "greenhorn" mean folks from the real country, but to New Yorkers, anyone who doesn't live in New York is in some sense a hick.)
Our second sign for today, which is an ad for a line of clothes by a designer named Kenneth Cole, mocks tourists for their ignorance of New York: "4 OUT OF 5 TOURISTS LOOKING FOR SOHO ARE IN IT." (Then underneath it gives a quote from Mr. Cole, who apparently is something of a philosopher-poet: "To be aware is more important than what you wear.")
If you ask me, it's a rather odd and mean-spirited way to try to sell clothes, but I think I understand the psychology behind it. There are an awful lot of young people in New York who have just moved here, and these people are insecure about their status as New Yorkers. So this ad appeals to them because they know that, compared to tourists at least, they are long-time New Yorkers.
New York has grown more tourist-friendly in recent years. Part of it is just that the city has become safer and cleaner. Times Square, which used to be the sleaze center of New York, is now the site of such tourist spots as the Disney Store and the Hard Rock Cafe, and is a virtual tourist mall. The other part of it is the result of a conscious effort to attract tourists and their dollars. There was a campaign a couple of years back to teach taxi drivers and others who deal directly with tourists to be polite to them. There are new signs up all over the city just for tourists, directing them to places like the Empire State Building. And the tourists are coming here in droves.
I was in my 20s before I first went up the Empire State Building (I was taking around some tourists from Japan), and it had always been a matter of pride to me that I had never set foot on Liberty Island, where the Statue of Liberty stands. (I went for the first time last year, on the insistence of my non-native New Yorker wife.) I guess my most embarrassing tourist-related experience came when I was taking my Japanese cousin around Central Park, and she stopped to take pictures of squirrels. Squirrels! I had to distance myself from her, lest anyone think that I was involved.
I remember another joke: If a flying saucer came and hovered over New York, a real New Yorker wouldn't look up, for fear of being mistaken for a tourist gawking at all the tall buildings. I'll admit that as I go around the city with my camera, I worry about being mistaken for a tourist.
Last Christmas, as I was taking pictures like a tourist, two fellows came up to me and said, mockingly, "So, do you speak English?"
I looked at them and sized them up for a second or two. In an unexpected New York encounter the first calculation is whether the other party is in any way dangerous. These two did not seem to be. From my guess they were recent transplants to the city. If they were tourists, they would not go around mocking others, and if they were long-time New Yorkers, they would not have bothered. I was about to walk away, but in a flash of inspiration, I felt my tongue speak in an exaggerated New York accent: "Better than you ever will, buddy." Then I folded up my camera and went home.
Shukan ST: Aug. 28, 1998
(C) All rights reserved
- walks
- 散歩
- pained look
- しかめっ面
- everlasting shame
- 永遠の恥
- aversion
- 嫌悪感
- (are)annoying
- いらだたせる
- a number of 〜
- たくさんの 〜
- block
- ふさぐ
- gawk
- ぽかんと見つめる
- tacky souvenirs
- 悪趣味な土産物
- overpriced
- 高すぎる値段で売っている
- take over parts of 〜
- 〜 の一部を乗っ取る
- ad
- 広告( = advertisement)
- Here come the tourists
- 観光客がやって来たぞ
- caricature
- 風刺画
- obvious
- 明かな
- hick
- 田舎者
- straw hat
- 麦わら帽子
- plaid polyester pants
- 格子縞の化繊のズボン
- binoculars
- 双眼鏡
- fanny pack
- 腰のすぐ上に背負うカバン
- genuine
- 本物の
- country bumpkin
- 野暮な田舎者
- folklore
- 民間伝承
- old story
- よくある話
- con man
- 詐欺師
- greenhorn
- まぬけ
- a line of 〜
- 〜 のコレクション
- mocks
- あざける
- ignorance
- 無知
- 4 OUT OF 5 TOURISTS LOOKING FOR SOHO ARE IN IT
- ソーホーを探している観光客5人のうち4人は、自分たちがソーホーの中にいることに気付かない
- apparently 〜
- 〜 らしい
- mean-spirited
- 意地悪な
- psychology
- 心理学
- are insecure about 〜
- 〜 に不安である
- sleaze
- いかがわしい
- virtual tourist mall
- 事実上の観光客用ショッピングセンター
- in droves
- 群れをなして
- on the insistence of 〜
- 〜 が主張したため
- embarrassing
- 当惑した
- squirrels
- リス
- lest 〜
- 〜 しないように
- flying saucer
- 空飛ぶ円盤
- hovered over 〜
- 〜 の上を飛ぶ
- sized 〜 up
- 〜 の品定めをした
- In an unexpected New York encounter
- ニューヨークで不測の出会いがあった場合
- calculation
- 計算
- guess
- 判断
- transplants
- 移住者
- would not have bothered
- わざわざそんなことはしなかっただろう
- flash of inspiration
- ひらめき
- exaggerated
- 大げさな
- Better than you ever will, buddy
- あんたは俺ほど英語がうまくなれっこないよ
- folded up
- 片付けた