実践ビジネス英語ディクテーション (8/11,12ほか)

こんにちは。NHKラジオ「実践ビジネス英語」”Talk the Talk”のディクテーションです。
Lesson9のテーマは、‘Genealogy Tourism’（ルーツをたどる旅）でした。Vignetteは日本のお盆の話に始まり、アメリカではテレビ番組の影響から祖先のゆかりの地をたどる旅が盛んになっていることが話題になりました。旅行業界で最も急成長している分野の1つがこの「ルーツをたどる旅」だそうです。タイトルのgenealogyは「家系、系統、家系図」などを意味する単語です。
“Talk the Talk”では、Heatherさんがご自身のルーツや「ルーツをたどる旅」の一例について話されています。

Genealogy Tourism
（S: 杉田敏先生　H: Heather Howardさん）

S: Our current vignette starts off with Ueda Shota talking about his upcoming trip to Japan for Obon.
Now, do you often attend big family reunions, Heather?

H: No, my family is quite small, actually.
None of the currently living generations had many children on either side.
I’ve always envied people with large families―hoards of brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles and cousins.
My family’s also quite scattered―we all seem to have wanderlust.
Each generation tends to move quite far away from the previous one, even to different continents.
When I left the United States or Japan after college, my father told me at the airport: “You’re carrying one the family tradition. Never live within 6,000 miles of your parents.”

S: You’ve mentioned that your heritage is Italian, Ukrainian, and Irish.
Do you know a lot about your family background in those parts of the world?

H: I have to admit I don’t, especially regarding my mother’s side of the family.
I’m only familiar with the basic facts back to my great-grandparents’ generation, like what parts of Europe they came from.
I would very much like to know more, especially whether there are any distant relatives that I never heard about.
A genealogy tour would be wonderful, if I could find the time to take one and the money.
Especially regarding the Ukrainian element of my family―my mother’s grandfather was from that part of the world and I believe immigrated to the United States in the 19th century.
I appear to take after the Ukrainian branch physically.
I once saw a woman on television who looked a great deal like me―which is something that almost never happens―and she turned out to be from Ukraine.

S: Have you looked into that possibility?

H: I did some internet searching about genealogy travel services and there’s quite an array available.
Many appear to specialize in certain parts of the world: Ireland, Norway, Poland etc., etc.

S: What kind of prices did they quote?

H: There was a distinct lack of prices on the sites that I visited at least prices for the overall packages.
It appeared to depend on a lot of factors, like how long you’re willing to pay their researchers to dig around, and how much travel and combing through documents the researchers would need to do in the process.
There were also group tours you could take with a number of people from the same general area, which of course would be cheaper than the private tours tailored specifically to your own family history.
I did see an article about people who had taken such trips, and one man spent over $16,000 for a heritage tour for two to Germany, including the research done to trace his family tree.

S: That is certainly a hefty chunk of change as the vignette says.

H: He did get to meet a fifth cousin once removed and tour the family winery.
One company I found offered truly deluxe packages; they’ll even put together a documentary film of the experience if you want.

S: Why do you think Americans are so interested in heritage travel these days?

H: A US professor quoted in one article I read said it’s a way to find “rootedness,” as he put it, in a confusing, fast-moving world.
And I think that would be true especially for Americans who are very young nationality.
Our youth as a country is often a source of energy and excitement for us, but I think it can also make us feel a bit untethered.

お読みくださり、ありがとうございました♪