お茶の間留学

 When I start a lesson, I often introduce myself by saying “Hello! My name is Ali. I'm from Boston, but I live in Osaka.” Almost everyone has heard of Boston – it's a famous city with a rich, academic history. It's famous for sports like baseball with the Boston Red Sox, and has numerous well-known universities such as Harvard. But the truth is that I'm not from Boston, exactly. My hometown is actually the city of Concord, which is on the east side of Massachusetts.

Concord is famous for a number of reasons. In the American Revolutionary War, it was the site of the  Battle of Lexington and Concord, which was a crucial battle that helped America become an independent nation. In the 19^th century, it was the hometown of many famous writers in the United States, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau. The houses and places where these writers lived were kept intact through the years, and now people can go visit them if they ever travel there. Even today, many famous modern writers have decided to make their home in Concord.

  When I was an elementary school student, we would take a trip to Walden Pond every year. Walden Pond was made famous by the writer Henry David Thoreau, where he spent his time living in a cabin by the pond and writing about his experiences there. One of his books, Walden, is famous amongst philosophers and environmentalists alike. Every year, we would visit the cabin where Thoreau lived – which is still by the pond to this day – and then explore the woods. We would often write journals about the  animals and plants we found. We would always visit Walden Pond in April or May, when the weather in Massachusetts was getting warmer. If it was warm enough, we went swimming.

If you're a fan of nature, history or traditional architecture, why not travel to Concord? The buildings and homes are likely as old as the United States itself, and in many cases have not been modified from their original state (save for renovations and safety checks). If you enjoy horror, you can take a ghost tour in an old graveyard like Sleepy Hollow cemetery. If you love American literature, you can visit the Orchard House – the home of Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women – or Walden Pond. If you want to try something local, go to the town center and try wine made from Concord grapes!

academic: 学問的な

numerous:多数の

well-known:よく知られた

the American Revolutionary War:アメリカ独立戦争

crucial:(きわめて)重要な

independent:独立した

intact:(そっくり)そのままで

modern:現代の

Henry David Thoreau：ヘンリー・デイヴィッド・ソロー

cabin:木造の小屋

philosophers:哲学者

environmentalists:環境問題研究家

journals:日記

architecture:建物

modified:修正される

graveyard:墓地