Simon先生の英語ブログで学ぶ使える英語表現ーWe gave it a shot「やってみた」

※Simon先生のシリーズ前回の記事「Simon先生の英語ブログで学ぶ使える英語表現ーOur First Family Camp「初めての家族キャンプ」」を見逃した方はこちらからどうぞ！

今回のブログは、先生のお子さんとのプールでのエピソード、We gave it a shot「やってみた」をお届けします。

英語ブログを読もう！We gave it a shot「やってみた」

Hello, this is Simon.

This summer has been an exceptionally hot one. It’s been hard on the kids, because we have pretty much confined ourselves to the house. My daughter in particular finds it difficult because she needs lots of physical activity. There’s only so much hide and seek or tag that you can play in a small house like ours. It soon wears pretty thin.

Last Saturday she was complaining that she wanted to go somewhere. I offered to take her to the local park which has a huge fountain that kids love to play in, but she wasn’t at all interested. She wanted to go to the large park that was quite far away, but I told her it was too late in the day and also it was too hot.

After a bit of toing and froing, we settled on our local indoor pool, which has a lazy river and also a couple of waterslides. She was particularly interested in the waterslides because she wasn’t able to go on them last time because of her height. A year had passed since then, and she was now 120 cm tall, which I thought was the minimum height to slide.

We headed off for the pool, but I told her not to get her hopes up too high.

When we got there we first hit the lazy river. She seemed a lot more adept in the water this time. Actually she was completely at home in it. It looked like the swimming lessons had paid off. After several loops of that (while playing tag at her insistence) we had a try for the waterslide.

There was an attendant checking the heights. My daughter lined up, and when it was her turn, she stood against the wall with the height marker. The attendant held a block of wood against the marker, but she was about 1 cm short of it. Disappointed, she hopped into another pool and started swimming. I followed, only to be told off for swimming in a walking pool. “Great parenting,” I thought, “just following my kid’s lead without thinking.” We played tag in another part of the pool for a while, and then I noticed the attendant at the slide changed.

I told her to try again, but this time to stand up very straight. We lined up, and I noticed that the girl in front was standing on tiptoes (ever so slightly), and she got in. My daughter stood at the marker again as straight as possible, and this time her head touched the block of wood. However, the attendant still said she was not quite tall enough. Oh well, back to the pool.

My daughter wanted to give it one more try, but I told her we’d have to wait for the attendant to change again. I was thinking about telling her to stand on tiptoes a little, but noticed that they were checking the feet of kids. When the attendant changed we gave it one more try. This time the kid in front didn’t make it, but the father seemed to be pushing to have his son let on. Another attendant came and checked, but the boy still came up short. He left looking pretty dejected. We gave it one more shot, but unfortunately she was about 1 cm short again.

I told her not to worry and that we gave it our best. Also, in another year she would definitely be able go on the slides. She seemed to accept it, and appeared to have completely forgotten by the time we were sitting outside eating ice creams together.

The expression to “wear thin” means to become no longer interesting, fun, acceptable etc.

(e.g. My patience is starting to wear thin./His jokes are wearing thin.)

To “get ones hopes up” means to become hopeful about something. If they are up “too high” means to be unrealistically hopeful or optimistic

(e.g. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high about the promotion, just in case it doesn’t happen.)

To be “adopt” means to be “very skilled or proficient at something”

(e.g. She has become very adept at dealing with customers./I’m not very adept at using new software.)

To be “at home” means to be comfortable and confident in something

(e.g. He’s very at home in the kitchen./She’s quite at home when it comes to public speaking.)

To be a certain amount “short of” something means to have/be that amount less than the required or expected amount

(e.g. “We are $50 short of the goal./She was two points short of passing the exam.)

Do stand “on tiptoes” means to stand on the tips or ends of your toes it is what we do when we want to make ourselves as tall as possible, often to see something or reach something

(e.g. At the concert there were some tall people standing in front of me, so I couldn’t see the band unless I stood on tiptoes.)

The expression to “come up short” means to result in not having enough of something for a particular purpose

(e.g. I counted all my coins, but I came up short, so I couldn’t buy the drink./We gave it our best effort, but we came up short in the final minutes of the game.)

“Give (something) a shot” means to attempt to do that thing

(e.g. I wasn’t sure I could upgrade my computer myself, but I decided to give it a shot./I thought I’d give golfing a shot this year.)