英語を理解し話すことは、オーストラリアでの生活を向上させるのにとても役立ちます。ポッドキャストでは、日々のさまざまなシチュエーションで使えるとっさの英語や表現を、あらゆる例を取り入れて簡単に説明します。
学習ノート
視力について話す際に便利なフレーズ：
- I think my eyesight is getting worse.
- I’ve been squinting a lot lately.
- I feel like I’m going blind as a bat sometimes!
- My eyes feel really strained after reading.
- Have you considered getting your eyes checked?
- I had my eyes tested.
- I've been putting off getting my eyes tested.
- My optometrist gave me a prescription for glasses and now I see much more clearly.
- Are you long or short sighted?
今回のフォーカス：
英語には様々な自制がありますよね。
このポッドキャストには、次のような例がでてきます。
- I’ve been squinting a lot lately (have + been + verb + ing)
- Yeah, I’ve been putting it off (have + been + verb + ing)
- And it’s been happening a lot recently! (has + been + verb + ing)
自制を使うことによって、動詞が示す出来事だけでなく、それがいつ起こったのか、今も続いているのかなどを伝えることができます。
言い換れば、ある出来事がいつから続いているのかに焦点を置きたいときに自制を使います。
例えば：
- I have been waiting all my life for someone like you.
- I have been living in Australia a long time.
- I have been thinking that we should get a cat.
口語的な言い回し：
See eye to eye with someone - 意見があう。「見つめ合う」ではないですよ！
Blind as a bat - 目が見えない、視力が弱い。コウモリは目がほとんど見えないって言いますよね！
To put something off - 先延ばしにする
ボキャブラリー：
Optometrist - 検眼士。視力を測ってメガネやコンタクト処方をしてくれる専門家です。
Ophthalmologist - 眼科医。目の疾患を専門に扱うお医者さんです。
Optician - 検眼士からの処方箋を元にメガネ作ってくれる人のことです。
To squint - 見えにくいとき、眩しい時に目を細めること。
Eye strain - 眼精疲労。strainを動詞にして動詞にして「My eyes are strained.」というようにも使えます。
Prescription - 処方箋
Long sighted - 遠視
Short sighted - 近視
スクリプト：
(注：これは一字一句書き起こしたものではありません）
SBS acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country and their connections and continuous care for the skies, lands and waterways throughout Australia.
Imagine this: You're at the supermarket, buying groceries for the week. The place is busy, your trolley is almost full, and everything seems fine.
But as you reach for a jar of pesto sauce, you realise you can’t quite read the ingredients on the label. The words, that were once clear and easy to see, now look blurry and too small.
You can’t read them. So, you try to focus, but it doesn’t help. You wonder, ‘Is it time to get my eyes checked?’
Hi, my name is Josipa, and like many people of my age, I’ve noticed changes in my eyesight. It sneaks up on you, doesn’t it? Suddenly, reading isn’t as easy as it used to be.
And here’s something funny—I’m not even sure what to call an eye doctor in English. Is it an optometrist, an optician, or an ophthalmologist? What’s the difference between them?
In this episode, we’re going to find that out together—with a little help from Allan and Claire. Let’s listen to them as they chat about their eyesight.
Claire
I think my eyesight is getting worse. I’ve been squinting a lot lately.
Allan
I’m blind as a bat without my glasses. Have you considered getting your eyes checked?
Claire
Yeah, I’ve been putting it off, but I think it’s time. My eyes feel really strained after reading.
Allan
You should definitely go. I had my eyes tested last month, and it’s made a big difference. My optometrist gave me a prescription for glasses and now I see much clearer.
Claire
Are you long or short sighted?
I see eye to eye with Claire on many things, but delaying getting my eyes checked isn’t one of them.
By the way, if you see eye to eye with someone, it means you agree with them and think the same way about something.
Anyway, the day after I couldn’t read the ingredients on a pesto jar, I rushed to see an optometrist.
An optometrist is a healthcare professional who checks and treats vision problems. They can prescribe glasses or contact lenses and help with eye conditions.
So now we know what an optometrist does. But what about an optician or an ophthalmologist? We’ll find that out later. First, let’s look at some phrases for talking about eyesight that’s not as sharp as it used to be. Claire started by saying,
I think my eyesight is getting worse.
Claire first said that her eyesight is getting worse. This is a simple and direct way to say that your vision has changed.
She then said,
I’ve been squinting a lot lately.
Every time you look directly into the bright sun, you squint. People usually squint when something is blurry or hard to see. Squinting is to narrow your eyes in order to help you to see something more clearly.
So, when Claire says, ‘I’ve been squinting a lot lately,’ she’s saying that she has often had to narrow her eyes because her vision isn’t clear. It’s a sign that she might need glasses or that her eyesight is getting worse. And it’s been happening a lot recently!
Allan then said,
I’m blind as a bat without my glasses.
Here, Allan is exaggerating about his eyesight. Bats are believed to have poor vision, so saying ‘blind as a bat’ is a funny way of saying that he can’t see well, and we usually only say it when we can really hardly see at all.
Allan isn’t actually going blind—he’s just saying that he thinks that his vision is very poor sometimes.
And if someone says they feel like they’re ‘blind as a bat’, you might ask them,
Have you considered getting your eyes checked?
‘Have you considered’ means ‘Have you thought about’ doing something. And, when you say ‘getting your eyes checked,’ it means going to an optometrist to have your eyes examined and to make sure that your vision and your eyes are healthy.
Do you remember if Claire got her eyes checked? She said,
I’ve been putting it off, but I think it’s time.
She says that she has been putting off going to have her eyes checked. If you've been putting something off, you have been delaying or avoiding doing it.
You know you should do it, but you keep thinking to yourself that you will do it later. Me, for example, I’ve been putting off going to the gym lately because I’ve been so busy with work – but I really should go, shouldn’t I?
But let’s go back talking about eyesight.
My eyes feel really strained after reading.
If your eyes feel strained, they feel tired and uncomfortable. They may feel a lot of discomfort or pressure. When someone says that their eyes feel strained after reading, it means that their eyes have been so working hard to focus on the text, that they feel sore or tired.
But let’s say you’re not putting off seeing an eye doctor like Claire. Then, you could say, like Allan,
My optometrist gave me a prescription for glasses and now I see much clearer.
We’ve already heard that an optometrist is a healthcare professional who checks and treats vision problems.
They can prescribe glasses or contact lenses by giving you a prescription, which is a written assessment that tells you how well your eyes can see and what type of glasses you need.
Another person who can perform eye exams and write a prescription is an ophthalmologist.
An ophthalmologist is a medical doctor who specialises in eye care. They can perform eye exams, diagnose and treat eye diseases, prescribe glasses or contact lenses, and even perform eye surgeries. They have more medical training and can handle more complex eye issues and treatments than optometrists.
An optician is a professional who sells glasses or contact lenses, usually using a prescription from an optometrist.
And talking about the glasses, Claire asked Allan,
Are you long or short sighted?
Long sighted or short sighted. I’m long sighed, which means that I can see things clearly that are far away, but things up close, like reading a book, look blurry. So, I need my reading glasses.
And if you’re short sighted, it means you can see things clearly up close, like reading a book, but things far away, like road signs, may look blurry. People who are short-sighted usually need glasses to see distant objects more clearly.
A big thank you to our educational consultant, Professor Lynda Yates, and our guest Kalp Shah.
Paul Nicholson and Lily O'Sullivan voiced the characters of Allan and Claire.
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