Low Battery

RとLの発音を耳で区別するのが苦手な私は、元同時通訳者の村増氏から聞いたオペレッタ "Pirates of Penzance" は乳母がPilotをPirateと聞き違えて、若者を海賊に修行に出した物語と知り、英語のネイティブでもRとLを区別できない事があると安心した覚えがありますが、 Reader's Digest 11月号に出ていた "Voices in the Night" の話もRとLの発音を聞き違えています。
My mum is quite elderly and has a vivid imagination, so when she called me in the middle of the night to say she'd heard a voice speaking in her. I was sceptical.
"Something's wrong," she said. "Every so often I can hear someone saying, 'Hello Valerie."
I told her she must have been dreaming and to go back to sleep. But she called back a few minutes later, clearly worried.
"The voice is still speaking to me," she claimed. "It's saying, 'Hellow Valerie.'"
At this point my husband, who was quietly cursing at having been wakened, realised what it was - the automated voice in my mum's smoke detector saying, "Low battery.'"
あらあら、これはRとLだけではなくVとBも聞き違えていますね。いずれの話も聞き間違えたのは年配者であり、ネイティブでもRとLを区別できない事があると安心してどうなるの、と言われそうですね。私も年配者になったのでRとLを聞き違えても無理はないと胸をはって言えると思っていますが、やはりそれじゃダメじゃんですね。
注：　"Pirates of Penzance" の話題は2/26/2006に取り上げました。