Hiroko’s Diary

My son got out of hospital the day before yesterday.   I want to talk about the surgery.  It was harder than I expected. 

 After the surgery, he kept screaming due to the eye pain.  I coundn’t do anything but to hold him in my arms.   I couldn’t stop crying.  He kept vomitting all day long.  I just felt sorry for him. 

He is only 4 years old.  It would be the most painful experience.   I felt as if my heart was stabbed, watching the situation that his right eye was covered with an eyepatch and a syringe was put into his left back.   I wanted to take his place if I could.   I couldn’t sleep at all.  The only thing I could do was to pray to God. 

Next morning, when he woke up, he smiled and uttered a few words.  How much I was relieved!  I appreciated everyone who had involved in the surgery and supported us including my parents and friends.  He is now as fine as he was before the surgery.   Thank you so much!   

今日から息子が斜視の手術のため入院します。

My son is going to take a surgery tommorow.  He has a squint in the right eye. 

2泊3日の入院で、金曜日には帰ってくるのですがやっぱり母としては心配です。

He’s going to stay at the hospital for 3days and 2nights.  It’s relativily a shorter period than I anticipated.  However, I’m worried about him.

 今通っている眼科に初めて行ったのが1年半程前になります。

One and a half year have passed since he went to the opthalmological clinic for the first time.

斜視は赤ちゃんの時から気にはなっていたものの、本当に息子の視力が悪いのかどうか普段の生活の中で判断することは出来ませんでした。 ベランダから見える遠くの飛行機も赤ちゃんの時からよく見えていて言葉が出ない時から指差ししていましたし、それほど心配していませんでした。

I’ve noticed he’s had a squint in his right eye since he was a baby, but I wasn’t sure whether his eyesight was bad or not.   We used to watch an airplane that would flew far away from the balcony at my house.   The airplane was very small and looked like a dot in the sky, but he would recognize and point to it with his little forefinger.   Therefore, I didn’t worry about his eyes that much.

でも、斜視は気になるので小児眼科に通い始めました。

But still, as I worried about his squint, I took him to a opthalmological clinic.

1年半の間、毎回同じ検査をしました。私たちがよくする視力検査だけでなく、立体把握を検査するものやその他数種類。

For 1 and a half year, he had the same eye inspections each time he went to the clinic.   Not only the ordinal eyesight test, but also the test that measure whether he can grasp a three-dimensional shape.

息子は立体を把握する検査にいつもひっかかっていました。

My son hasn’t been able to pass the inspection about grasping a three-dimensional shape.

最初の頃私は、息子がその検査にひっかかるのは見えていないのではなく見えていてもそれを表現できないだけだと思っていました。

At first, I’d thouhgt that he just couldn’t be able to answer properly though he could see the subject in a test.

でも、何回しても出来ないということと息子の年齢（視力は小学校入学までに確定するので）を考えると手術をしたほうがいいという結論に達しました。

Considering his age and the fact that he couldn’t pass the test for 1 and a half year, the doctor suggested he should have a surgery.

今となっては明日の手術の成功と、術後の回復を祈るばかりです。

Now I just hope his surgery go well and his satisfactory recovery.

6月22日（日）の毎日新聞、5面のオピニオン欄に気になる記事を見つけました。

An article in the Mainichi Newspapaer drew my attention.  It’s an opinion on the 5th page on the 22nd of June.  

「石油ピーク」後、というタイトルの東京大学名誉教授、石井吉徳氏による記事です。

Mr. Yoshinori Ishii, a professor emeritus of Tokyo University, wrote the article titled “After Fuel Peak” .

石井氏曰く、「“地球温暖化が大変だから二酸化炭素を減らす”のでなく、“化石燃料の浪費が問題”と考えるべきである・・・“脱浪費こそが、最も合理的な温暖化対策である。・・・脱石油には、“無駄をしない”“もったいない”と考えることが先決である・・・」

He said “we should decrease the CO2 emission not because of global warming, the problem is a waste of fossil fuel・・・・the elimination of waste is the most rational measure to deal with global warming・・・・The first consideration is to try not to waste and economize on things and resources.

これを読んで、全くその通りと思いました。石油の増産を考えるより今あるものの中で工夫して、少しぐらい不便でも時間をかけてもこれまでとは違う生活様式に変えていくほうがよっぽど地球の為にやさしいのではないでしょうか。

After I read the article, I completely agree with his idea.  Instead of increasing fuel production, we should look for another way of life even if it takes a lot of time and inconvenient.   I think that’s more eco-friendly.

5月からCEPIOという英語の発音矯正クラスに通っています。

I started to go to an English school called CEPIO where people can work on pronounciation.   I had a class yesterday.

発音矯正という学校があるなんて全然知りませんでした。

I didn’t know that there was a school like that.

英語を勉強する上で一番難しいのはいかにnaturalな英語を発話するかではないでしょうか？

The most difficult thing in learning English for Japanese might be speaking and pronounciation plays a big role in it.

CEPIOでは毎回一つの発音記号を口の形、舌の位置を教えてもらいながら勉強していきます。

I learn the exact shape of mouth and the location of tongue in my mouth to pronouce each sound.

日本語を話すときはあまり口を縦に大きく開けたり、口角を上にあげて横に引っ張ったまま発音したりということはないのでこのトレーニングは意識して練習しないとなかなか難しいです。

When we speak Japanese, we don’t open our mouths so big as native English speakers do, therefore we need to intentionally  move our mouths and tongues according to the instruction by a teacher.

これがなかなか面白くて家でも鏡を持ちながら自分の口と舌の形を見ながら発音練習しています。

The lessons at CEPIO are very stimulating and I practice a lot watching my mouth and tongue in a hand glass.

I haven’t logged into my blog for more than a month.   I’ve been so busy that I can’t even remember how I’ve spent the days between the last day I put an article on my page and today.

Two things I remember are the ballet recital my children appeared in and the Eiken 1st grade test.

Regarding the ballet recital, it was just fantastic.  I was deeply moved by everyone’s performance.  At the end of  the recital, looking at my children’s contented smile, I was very proud of my children.   They did their best performance.    

As for Eiken, I couldn’t do well.  As I wrote in my blog before, I attended an intensive class for Eiken.  During the course, I studied a lot.  But once the class finished in the middle of April, I stopped studying.  I’m ashamed to say that I don’t study if I’m not forced to.   Since I didn’t do what I should have done, the result of the test was miserable.   One thing that I felt relieved about was I got a perfect score in the reading part.  When I try next time, I will concentrate on writing.