実践ビジネス英語 ディクテーション (1/19,20)

こんにちは。NHKラジオ「実践ビジネス英語」”Talk the Talk”のディクテーションです。

Lesson 19のテーマは、’Age-Friendly Environment’（高齢者に優しい環境）でした。Vignetteでは、高齢者の運転、退職後のライフスタイルなどが話題になりました。“Talk the Talk”では、Heatherさんが高齢のお父さんの変化について、また高齢者向けのアパートでの居住体験についてなど話されています。高齢者のペット飼育についても少し触れられていました。

Age-Friendly Environment

（S: 杉田敏先生　H: Heather Howardさん）

S: Our current vignette starts off with Lydia Grace desctibing how she had to take away his father’s car keys.

Now back in 2013, Heather, you said you haven’t had that experience with your father yet.

What’s the situation now?

H: He is still driving.

But he’s in his 70s and he’s finally starting to realize that he’s reached some limits.

He took a trip to Oregon and Montana in October last year, and emailed me afterward that he had driven nearly 1,800 kilometers in three days.

As he put it, “I think those days are over for me. Much too tiring.”

Yes, dad, I think you need to back off there.

He’s also having to reduce his physical exercise, and I know that’s hard for him emotionally.

Vigorous exercise was a big part of his life for a long time, but we visited Okinawa together last summer, and he didn’t move around nearly as much as he used to.

We went snorkeling at one point, for example.

In earlier years he would have literally swum circles around me and teased me how much more physically fit he was.

But last year he swam far less and spent a lot more time sitting under an umbrella on the beach.

S: You have never driven. Is that right?

H: It is. I’ve never had a license here or in America.

So I guess I’ll never have that specific problem.

I may have to curb other activities, but my daughter will never have to wrestle away my car keys thirty years from now.

S: Does your father have any pets?

H: No. He travels a great deal and having a pet would put a definite crimp in that activity.

I think a pet can be a great support to an elderly person, but you also have to consider the animal’s lifespan.

If the owner is likely to pass away before the pet, people need to think about who will care for the animal after that happens.

And if the animal is likely to pass away first, that can be a heavy emotional blow.

A friend of mine, her elderly mother lost her dog last year and it was very difficult for her.

She ultimately decided to get another dog, and it’s basically understood that her family will eventually take care of this new pet, which is likely to outlive her.

S: The vignette also discusses the various ways a home or a community can be adapted for the needs of elderly residents.

H: Yes. I lived in an apartment building like that once, back in my high school days.

All the residents except my mother and me were elderly, so the elevator doors were set to move very slowly.

It was safer that way for them, there was less chance of the doors closing on an elderly person and maybe throwing them off balance.

It was a small building, and many or the other tenants used to say that they knew immediately when I came home from school because I would take the stairs from the lobby to my second floor apartment, and I was the only person in the building who could dash up the stairs that fast.

S: Was it a particularly walkable neighborhood?

H: I think so.

It’s so important for elderly people to be able to walk about.

And my mother in law is in her eighties now and she still walks a great deal and often takes the stairs instead of the elevator.

I’m sure that’s a big reason why she’s still in very good health.

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