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よいスタートを切った学校生活
筆者の息子が9月から新しい学校に通うことになり、転校先のスクールカウンセラーが事前に三者面談をセッティングしてくれた。
猛烈な暑さの中、普通の靴ではなくサンダルを履いて出掛けた筆者だが、これが思わぬ騒動の発端に——。
Starting school on the right foot
My son switched schools this September. Knowing the adjustment to a whole new academic system takes time for both child and parents, the school counselor set up a meeting with us to review class choices, help us learn about school policies and procedures, and to get to know us. The meeting was a killer.
Of course, a certain amount of tension is built into such initial encounters. As a parent, I was naturally hoping to make a good impression. My son, however, is at the age where walking with your parents on campus is less cool than wearing underwear on your head. Finally, it was a whopping 37 degrees outside. Though ordinarily I would have chosen closed shoes, I wore sandals to the meeting. This last detail held consequences.
Ten minutes into the meeting, things were proceeding nicely. My son was articulate. The counselor was open and friendly, plus, I was happy to note, she too was wearing sandals. I relaxed. But then, I felt something. A teeny tickling on my big toe. I flicked my toe, and tried to focus on the meeting. It tickled again. I looked down, then shrieked, kicked up my leg, and sent my sandal flying into the air. "A cockroach was on my foot," I explained, now perched on my chair. The counselor peered at me as though I were suffering hallucinations, and my son shook his head, mortified. They both checked the room, but could find no trace of the insect. "I've never seen a cockroach in these offices," said the counselor. "Yeah," my son said, nodding in agreement, and shooting me a warning glance.
We continued the conference. I pretended to compose myself, but I kept my sandaled feet hovering about an inch off the floor and was barely able to concentrate. I am (perhaps unreasonably) terrified of cockroaches, and even if the counselor and my son thought otherwise, I couldn't shake a creepy feeling that the roach was there, somewhere.
Suddenly the counselor catapulted out of her chair, screaming, "Oh, oh, oh, it got me! It just ran half up my leg!" She and I fled to the office door, ready to abandon my son in the room with the insect. Seizing the opportunity, and thanks to long training as our household exterminator, my son heroically got down on his hands and knees to locate the bug. It promptly charged him, causing him to scramble backwards, and gasp. "It's a feisty one, not afraid of anything," he said.
I briefly thought of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, in which hapless protagonist Gregor Samsa wakes up to find himself transformed into a bug, detested and misunderstood by all. But the counselor and I could not spend all day on the threshold of her office, and literature, I reminded myself, has limited application in the real world. "Just get it," I urged my son, and with a rolled up class roster, he did. It was not the ideal scenario, I suppose, but I think my son made a solid impression, at least on the cockroach.
- start on the right foot
- で「よいスタートを切る」
- academic system
- 学校の制度
- review
- 〜の概要を説明する
- class choices
- 授業の履修の仕方
- (school) procedures
- (学校の)手続き事項
- killer
- とても大変なこと
- is less cool than 〜
- 〜よりかっこ悪い
- whopping
- 実に〜もの
- closed shoes
- つま先が覆われた靴
- held consequences
- それにまつわる結果を招いた
- articulate
- はきはきとした
- note
- 〜に気が付く
- teeny tickling
- かすかなくすぐったい感じ
- big toe
- 足の親指
- flicked
- 〜を振った
- shrieked
- 悲鳴を上げた
- cockroach
- ゴキブリ
- perched on 〜
- 〜の上に乗って
- peered at 〜
- 〜をまじまじと見た
- hallucinations
- 幻覚
- mortified
- ばつの悪い思いをして
- shooting 〜 a warning glance
- 〜にとがめる視線を送って
- compose myself
- 心を静める
- hovering about an inch off 〜
- 〜から1インチほど浮かせて
- barely〜
- かろうじて〜する
- creepy feeling
- ゾッとするような感じ
- catapulted out of 〜
- 〜から飛び上がった
- Seizing the opportunity
- この機に乗じて
- exterminator
- 害虫駆除業者
- got down on his hands and knees
- 四つんばいになった
- feisty
- 根性のある
- Metamorphosis
- 『変身』
- hapless
- 不運な
- protagonist
- 主人公
- detested
- 忌み嫌われた
- threshold
- 入り口
- application
- 有効性
- roster
- 名簿