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The Strange Honesty of Children

子供の率直さを大人が眩しく思うのは、忘れたものを思い出すから。

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Spend an hour with a five-year-old and you will hear at least one truth no adult would say out loud. "Your hair is messy today." "That food smells weird." "I do not want to hug you." These observations land with the awkward force of facts that everyone in the room had agreed not to mention. We tend to laugh, sometimes nervously, and then quietly teach the child to soften, to omit, to lie a little. We call this development. From the inside, it is exactly that: children acquire something genuinely useful, the social grammar that lets people live together without bruising one another constantly. From the outside, though, something is also lost. The adult version of honesty involves a hundred small filters: how the listener will feel, what the relationship can absorb, whether the truth will help anyone. By the time we are thirty, our most honest thoughts are often the ones we have decided not to share. None of this is an argument for raising rude children. It is closer to an observation about the trade. The honesty of a five-year-old is not better than the tact of a forty-year-old; it is different, and we do not always notice the cost of the trade until much later, when we find ourselves wishing we could say one true sentence the way we used to.

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  • Spend an hour with a five-year-old and you will hear文法

    5歳児と1時間過ごせば、〜を聞くことになる

    命令形 + and + 結果文。『〜すれば〜する』を簡潔に表す英語独特の構文。

  • land with the awkward force of facts語彙

    事実の気まずい威力で着地する

    〈land〉= 『着地する/効果を与える』、比喩用法。

  • everyone in the room had agreed not to mention文法

    その部屋にいる全員が触れないことに合意した

    過去完了 + 〈agree not to + 動詞〉。否定不定詞は to の後ろに not。

  • to soften, to omit, to lie a little文法

    和らげること、省くこと、少しだけ嘘をつくこと

    並列の3つの to不定詞。エッセイのリズム。

  • We call this development.表現

    それを『成長』と呼ぶ。

    〈call + O + 補語〉。短文で立ち止まらせる効果。

  • the social grammar that lets people live together without bruising one another constantly文法

    人が互いを絶えず傷つけずに共に暮らすための『社会の文法』

    〈let + O + 動詞原形〉= 使役。〈one another〉= 『お互い』(3人以上)。

  • By the time we are thirty, our most honest thoughts are often the ones we have decided not to share.文法

    30歳になるころには、私たちの最も率直な思いは、共有しないと決めたものであることが多い。

    〈by the time + 現在〉+ 現在完了。

  • It is closer to an observation about the trade.表現

    これは『取引』についての観察に近い。

    〈be closer to X〉= 『X に近い』、対比による定義。

  • wishing we could say one true sentence the way we used to文法

    昔のように真実の一文を言えたらと願う

    〈wish + 過去仮定法 (could)〉= 『〜できたらと願う』。〈the way + 主語 + used to〉= 『〜していたように』。

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