国際結婚 イギリス人妻と日本の主人

子供について書いていますが、
これから国際結婚についてもちょっと書きます。

日本の文化に結構慣れて来ましたかな。だから私達の結婚は他人と同じように普通だと思っていますが、たまに、あっ、これ違うなと思う時もあります。一つ違うのは：我慢。
我慢を英語に訳すと、be patient か to put up with something, と思います。毎日聴く事ありますよね。だけど、英語にはこの言葉、そんなに使わないと思います。"我慢"は人のために自分のしたい事か言いたい事を隠すか遠慮するかな。
主人は笑いながら、あなたには我慢できませんとよく言われる。我慢はいい意味と悪い意味両方あると思います。他人の気持ちを優先するのはすばらしい事だけど自分の気持ちを無視する場合はストレスを溜まるだけと思います。
だけど、イギリス人は一つの我慢を知っています。クリスマス・プレゼントをクリスマス・デイの前に絶対開けません。プレゼントは十二月ずっとクリスマス・ツリーの下に置いてありますけど、皆開けません。誕生日プレゼントも同じように、その日になると、プレゼントを開けます。それはイギリス人の一つの我慢。
その我慢私の主人はできません：）
I've often been writing about my bilingual kids and teaching English in this blog, and so I thought I'd have a go at writing about our cross cultural marriage.
I've become quite used to life in Japan so I don't often think that our marriage is so different to any others. There are times though when we think, oh yes that's certainly different. One of these differences I often come across is the Japanese "gaman" spirit.
Translating "gaman" into English is hard. I'd say it means to be patient or to put up with something. We often here it mentioned everyday. However, I think we don't often use those phrases as much in English. "Gaman" includes hiding or putting off saying or doing something you want to do, often for the good of others.
My husband often jokingly says, You can't be patient, you can't do "gaman". I think there are good and bad sides to gaman. Considering others' needs first before your own is very admirable but ignoring your own needs is just too stressful.
There is one thing British people are good at being patient for: we always wait to open our Christmas presents until Christmas Day. It's one of the few times I can think of when we are good at being patient. The presents are under the tree during December but we don't open them. The same goes for our birthday presents, we only open them on the day. That is one example I know of British "gaman".
Oh and my husband is not good at that type of "gaman"!!