To Oxford

　　I forgot to write a topic about British English in the previous entry. I don't have opportunities to write or talk in English in my daily life, and it's why I keep writing this blog. If I didn't do that, I wouldn't be able to keep my English skills, nor improve it. I sometimes listen to the news program from the BBC as a listening lesson and I can understand more than half of what the casters say. Therefore, I didn't have any concern about communication with local people. However, I wasn't able to understand the words of the front desk person of the hotel. It was a huge discouragement to me.
　　My daughter often kiddingly tells me that she forgot English during learning German, but she was better at least at listening to the front desk person. She was surprised at the fact more than I. She was in Freiburg in southern Germany when she was about 20 years old. Was that helpful? Anyway, I was often annoyed at communications in the U.K..
　　The breakfast was included in the hotel fee. It looked gorgeous at first glance, but the variety of vegetables was poor. I felt that the breakfast was so simple, but it would be the standard in the U.K.. The content was the same as other hotels which I stayed at later, Best Western in Oxford and Conrad London St. James. I was a little sorry about breakfast. I remembered that my wife had put retort bags of rice and miso soup into suitcases which we brought to the daughter who lives in Oxford. It might be a good choice.
　　I asked a concierge to calculate how long it would take from the hotel to Oxford by bus. It was considerably longer than we had expected and we didn't want to move to the bus stop with four suitcases on the reverse route of what we moved the previous night. Then we decided to take a taxi to Oxford. This concierge and the taxi driver were nice and friendly. The first impression of the U.K. recovered, which had gotten worse by the English of the front desk person last night. Surprisingly, the receipt of the taxi fare came to me by an e-mail. I'll show you that below.
　　These are the ideas which I thought after coming back Japan: we should have put up at a hotel near Paddington station, which is one of the principal stations in London. It would take about an hour from Paddington to Oxford by train. One thing, however, it was a first time visit to the U.K., the first time on the tube and the national railway of the Great Western Railway. It's doubtful if we were able to successfully use that transportation, but it wasn't so hard to utilize transportation like above. On the other hand, I think it's hard for the first-time visitors to Tokyo to use public transportation. I believe that the authorities should improve this situation before the Olympics.

昨日の投稿で書き忘れたこと。それはフロントスタッフの英語。聞き取れず。日頃ＢＢＣのキャスターの英語を半分くらいは聞き取れるので英語に何ら心配していなかったのだが。まだ娘の方が理解していた。１０年くらい前に英語圏ではないドイツに留学していたことが役に立ったのだろうか？「なぜ聞き取れるのかわからない」と、僕よりも本人がビックリしていた。このイギリスの英語にはこの後、あちこちで悩まされた。

ホテルの朝食。一見豪華に見えるのだが、日本のホテルに比べて野菜が極めて貧弱。非常にシンプルに感じたがこれがイギリスの一般的な朝食なのだろう。この朝食の内容はこの後泊まったベストウエスタン、ロンドンのコンラッドでもほぼ同様。イギリスの朝食の定番なのだろうが、毎日これだったので少し辛かった。カミさんが留学中の娘にレトルトの米や味噌汁を詰めていたが正解だったかもしれない。

ヒースロー空港からバス移動した場合のオックスフォードのバスターミナルまでの所要時間を計算してもらった。さらにそのバスターミナルからホテルまでタクシーを必要とするので、費用と時間を考慮して、ホテルからタクシーを頼んでもらった。このコンシュルジュの英語は比較的わかりやすく、感じの良い人だった。タクシードライバーも感じよく、ホテルのフロントの話す英語で悪くなった初イギリスの印象が改善された。（笑）タクシーの領収書は、なんとメールで送られてきた。参考になるかなと思い、ＵＰする。

帰国してからの考えだが、前夜のうちにパディントン駅まで移動しておけば良かった。電車ならオックスフォードまで１時間だったし。ただ、初めてのイギリス、初めての地下鉄、はじめての国鉄。スムーズに切符を買って移動できたかどうかはあやしい。あくまで帰国してからの考えとしてそう思った。また一方で日本の国鉄、地下鉄は多分外国からの旅行者にとって使いこなすのはかなり難しいと思う。オリンピックまでに改善すべきと感じた。