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Stephen Brivati 講師のコラム

Are you a ‘Beach Person’ or a ‘Mountain Person’?

2021年10月25日

Are you a ‘beach person’ or a ‘mountain person'?'

This week’s topic is much easier to answer than it has been recently.  I really don’t enjoy going to the beach that much although it does depend on who you go with. For example, if I am accompanied by my wife I really don’t give two hoots about where I am.

When I was a child my family would basically go on two types of vacation.  Either we would go to the beach or we would go walking and driving around the countryside. At that time beaches were fun for me simply because I enjoyed building sand castles and swimming in the sea. As time went by I became less interested in these activities and the whole ‘beach thing’ became rather boring.  On the other hand, when we went hiking in scenic areas (we often went to Derbyshire) I could both enjoy the challenge of the walking and continually meet up with new things and interesting people.  I don’t think we talk to other families so much when we go to the beach!  I was interested in fossils and geology so we not only walked ‘on’ the mountains, but also went down deep into the earth in the Derbyshire caverns which are famous for their beautiful stalactites and stalagmites :). -

On the other hand, my best friend, who was born and raised in California, is a die-hard surfer who is unhappy if he cannot go to the beach at least once a week. His long suffering Japanese wife always goes with him even though she is also a ‘mountain person,' with little or no empathy with the waves. Rather, she is irritated by the sand between her toes and in her beachwear!

 

(Pay attention to this use of ‘would!’ It is not typically found in textbooks but, it is -very- common in English conversation when talking about a repeated action in one’s childhood:  ‘Either we would go to the beach or we would go walking and driving around the countryside.’

本コラムは、講師個人の立場で掲載されたものです。
コラムに記載されている意見は、講師個人のものであり、カフェトークを代表する見解ではありません。

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