やさしい英語会話 (265) British Superstitions

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今回は「迷信」（superstition）のお話。



日本と同様に、英米にも様々な迷信が存在します。それらの中には、常識的に考えて危険を招く行為を戒める効用をもつものもあるようです。



例えば「部屋の中で傘を開く」ことや「梯子の下を歩く」ことは、イギリスでは災いを招くことと考えられています。これらの迷信は、何を戒めたものなのでしょうか。



（初級〜中級）



*** It's a Good Expression ***

（今回の重要表現）



(to) head out

出発する、出かける



Better take an umbrella.

=You had better take an umbrella.

※had betterは、そうしないと悪いことが起こるという「警告」を表す。



Woah!

=Stop!



Common sense in the form of superstitions!

迷信の形を取った良識というわけだ。



(to) be supposed to do

〜と信じられている



*** Script ***



British Superstitions



M: Do you want anything from the shop, Katie? I'm just heading out.



W: I'm OK. Better take an umbrella, though, Yushi. It's raining pretty hard!



M: Oh, yeah. Hmm… Where's my umbrella? Oh, here it is. (Opens the umbrella)



W: Woah, stop! What are you doing!?



M: Um… Just putting up my umbrella!



W: You CAN'T open an umbrella inside. It's bad luck! Didn't you know?



M: No, I've never heard that before!



W: Well, it's common knowledge in England. Everyone waits till they're outside to open it. If you open it indoors something bad will happen to you!



M: Hmmm, well, I've opened my umbrella inside before lots of times, and nothing particularly bad has happened to me. But now that I think about it, what if the umbrella doesn't fit through the door?



W: You know, that's probably where it came from! Maybe people would open their umbrellas inside, and then it would get caught on the doorframe as they were leaving and they had an accident!



M: Ha ha. That's quite smart then! Common sense in the form of superstitions! What other superstitions do you have in England?



W: Well, it's also bad luck to walk under a ladder, or to break a mirror.



M: That makes sense too -- you could get hurt doing either of those things!



W: And it's supposed to be bad luck if a black cat crosses your path!



M: What? That doesn't make any sense -- I love cats!



W: Me too! I'd be far too busy playing with the cat to think about whether it's unlucky!



M: I wonder why that's considered bad luck?



W: It could be from the old days, when people believed there were witches, and black cats worked for the witches.



M: Black cats worked with the witches? Well, that WOULD be dangerous!



(Written by Anna Mace)