英会話プライベートレッスン

Have you ever heard the story “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse?”? It’s one of Aesop’s fables.? I used to read this story when I was in elementary school.? Not only that, when I lived in Katsuura, I taught?two students this story for a speech contest.? We won first prize in the region!

There are many versions, but here is the basic story:

A mouse from the town visits his cousin in the country.? The country mouse offers the town mouse some dinner, but the town mouse thinks that his cousin’s food is too simple and his life is too boring.? He then invites the country mouse to his home in the town.? The town mouse and the country mouse enjoy the food and sights of the town, but suddenly they are attacked by dogs and have to run away.? The town mouse prefers the town, but the country mouse decides he prefers his simple, safe life and goes back to the country.

You can read the full story at this link (I recommend the Aesop version): http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0112.html#aesop

So what made me think of this story???Well, I just moved to?Yokohama from Katsuura.? Katsuura, which is?in the southern part of Chiba, is definitely the countryside.??But Yokohama?is definitely a big city.

Where I used to live. This was 10 minutes from my home!

Just a little further, there were rice fields upon rice fields!

As you can see, Katsuura had a lot of beautiful scenery.? But it was missing a lot of things, too.? For instance, it didn’t have a single department store!? In fact, it didn’t even have a McDonald’s!? Hard to believe, right?? When I taught in public schools, some classes would only have?five students!? But even though it didn’t have many things, I really miss the kind people and the wonderful bike rides in the country.? I will definitely write more about Katsuura in other blogs.

But now I live in Yokohama, right in the middle of the city.? It’s quite a shock!? All my favorite shops are close together.? In Katsuura I wanted to join a dance class, but there wasn’t a single one.? I must have found six or seven in Yokohama just walking around randomly.? I feel like I can buy anything here, as long as I have the money.? But life here is also quite busy.? There are many people and they seem to always be in a rush.

So which one am I?? Am I a country mouse or a town mouse??I guess now, because I work in Yokohama, I must become a town mouse.? But sometimes, when I think of the cool beach and beautiful hills I think that I am still just a little bit of a country mouse too.

Until next time,

Anand Mohan