スピーキングチャレンジ自粛疲れ？パンデミックがもたらした時間への影響

[Transcript]

Intro:
Hello VoiceTubers! How is your day going so far?

Have you ever experienced the feeling that time passes faster or slower than you’re used to? For example, when I am with my friends and we are having a good time, it feels like time passes really quickly. But then when I’m waiting in line at the bank it seems like time is ticking by so slowly. This kind of feeling is described as ‘time distortion’ – as our perception of time is affected by the way we feel and the different circumstances we’re in.
This feeling of time distortion is experienced by many people around the world who are currently living under the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions. Many people cannot leave their homes and cannot keep their regular schedules. In this situation, it is easy to get confused about time and lose control of daily tasks. I was already used to working from home even before the pandemic started so it was not a big adjustment for me. However, some friends have told me that they really don’t enjoy working from home because it is hard to stay focused and sometimes they lose track of time.

Our video talks about how the pandemic distorted time. If you haven’t watched it already, maybe you can do that after finishing our challenge today.
But now, let’s have a listen to our sentence of the day:

Sentence:

Flowers bloomed and wilted and babies learned to crawl and grey hairs grew in, but the larger story of time felt interrupted —
花開花謝、嬰兒學會了爬行、長了白髮，但時間的大概念感覺被打斷——
(Sentence read once again)

Pronunciation Tips:
Grew in (linking)
But the (linking)
Story of /story-uv/
Interrupted /ˌɪn.t̬əˈrʌpt/


Vocabulary:

Vocabulary:
1. bloom (V.) KK[blum] IPA/bluːm/
When it’s used as a verb, it means to produce flowers, or it can mean to grow or develop successfully.

Example sentences:
These flowers will bloom all through the summer.
We should encourage children to bloom in every stage of life.

wilt (V.) KK[wɪlt] IPA/wɪlt/
to become weak and begin to bend towards the ground
Example:
Looks like the plants in my garden have wilted away in the heat wave.

2. crawl (V.) KK[krɔl] IPA/krɔːl/
to move slowly or with difficulty, especially with your body stretched out along the ground or on hands and knees
Example:
I felt something crawl up my arm.

3. interrupt (V.) KK[͵ɪntəˋrʌpt] IPA/ˌɪntəˈrʌpt/
to stop something from happening for a short period
Example:
Sorry to interrupt you, may I please take these plates away?


Outro:

And that’s it for this episode. I hope you’ve learned some new ideas – especially about the fluidity of time – how different emotions can alter time perception. Time of course doesn’t change, only the way we experience it is different.

When do you feel like time flies? And when do minutes feel like hours and hours feel like days? Let me know if you have a good example of this.

Thanks for listening. My name is Jenny and I’ll see you next time!