Letter from Happy English School　　 April 29th, 2020

Letter from Happy English School 　April 29th, 2020

How are you spending your time at home? Do you play video games? I do not know much about video games, but I hear there are young professional gamers who win e-game tournaments and make a lot of money. Those young people are even encouraged to play TV games by their parents. They play for five to six hours or more a day for practice. Aren’t they addicted to games?

WHO warns not to play games for a long time because of their addictive nature and identifies game indulgence as a diagnosable disorder. I read an article about video game addiction. It says that video game addiction is compulsive or uncontrolled use of video games, which causes problems in other areas of the person’s life.

Often considered a form of computer addiction or internet addiction, video game addiction has been an increasing concern for parents as video games have become more commonplace and are often targeted at children. Video games include computer games, console games, arcade machine games, and even cell phone and advanced calculator games. Games can be embedded in social networking sites, such as Facebook.

Taking the definition of video game addiction into consideration, children, who haven’t developed enough self-discipline, should learn to control themselves, suppressing their irresistible craving for playing video games in one way or another. They should complete first what they should give priority to over gaming.

They need set their attainable goals, which are not necessarily aggressive, such as finishing a drill book, reading through a book, tidying up their rooms and so on. In order to achieve them, they need to have good planning and good time management. For example, children have ten days to complete some tasks they decided to take up, and thereby each task has to be divided into ten parts, and then their day is scheduled by allocating each part of each task in a time slot. Parents sometimes need to help their children make plans, manage time and guide them through the process to acquire self-discipline. This process will also turn out to be very useful in their later lives. Indeed, children can obtain essential skills to cope with their lives through this process.

Children should get into the habit of getting things done on a first- things -first basis. When they have to do their homework, study and help their parents with housework, they need to make good workable plans to prioritize these things, and then, the things they had better do, such as reading a book and a newspaper, and finally, the things they can do, such as watching TV and YouTube, listening to music, reading comic books and playing video games.

The plans can be flexible, but bearing the priority in mind is the most important. Young children mustn’t put a top priority on gaming. It has to be a reward and an incentive to do other prior things so that they can enjoy playing video games to the full without worrying about other unfinished tasks, and, what is more, they can appreciate game-playing with a sense of achievement obtained from completing prior missions.

However, if young people (but not children) are really talented in gaming, it is natural that practicing video games should take precedence over others in the pursuit of their careers, which require a lot of training, communication skills, and after all self-discipline.

It is also difficult for adults to decide what is prioritized over others. Our life depends on what our priority is. Amid the coronavirus turmoil, I am sure that playing pachinko at a pachinko parlor should not take priority over other things. It may destroy not only the personal life but also other people’s lives.

このコロナ休みの間、多分ゲームをして過ごしている人も多いでしょう。家ではゲームばかりしてと疎まれ、ゲーム時間の制約を受けている人が大半でしょう。　しかし、ゲームを５，６時間いやもっとしているプロのゲーマーがいます。　WHOがビデオゲームは中毒性があり、ゲーム中毒を病気として警告しています。では、プロゲーマーはどのようにしてプロになったのでしょうか。ゲーム中毒とプロのゲーマーの違いは何でしょうか。

それはself-discipline(自制や規律、自己修養、自戒)です。高校生で‘Fortnight’

などのプロがいます。そして多額の賞金を稼いでいる人もいるようです。e-sportsも実際のスポーツリーグと同様に人気があり、これも賞金額が何億にもなり、e-sportで大学の推薦があったり、スポンサーがついたりするようです。しかしそういうキャリアを積んでいる人たちは、自分をしっかり管理し、体力づくりし、トレーニングし、コミュニケーション能力を養い、チーワークを高め試合に臨んでいます。目標を設定し、目標を達成するための計画をし、時間を管理することができるのです。まさにself-disciplineができているのです。

self-disciplineは自分のための優先事項をしっかり決め、それを実行できるかということにかかってくることでしょう。学生なら、勉強することが優先事項になるでしょう。運動も必要です、家事も必要です、本、新聞を読む、音楽を聴く、テレビ・YouTubeを見る、漫画を読む、Lineする、ゲームする。いろいろあるでしょう。自分で目標を決め、例えば、ドリル、問題集を一冊する、本を一冊読む（英語だったらいいな）、ちょっとchallenging(難しいけどやりがいがある)ものを選び、優先し、取り組むということが自分の成長になります。そして楽しみに自分の好きなこと気楽にできるものを後に取っておくとよいと思います。何々が食べれるでもいいでしょう。

その目標設定をしたり計画したり、実行するための毎日のスケジュールを決めたり、実行することができなければ、保護者に手伝ってもらってください。自分でそれができてこそ、自由に自分の時間をやりくりできることになるでしょう。やるべきことにしっかり取り組んで、楽しみにすることにゲームを置いておくと、ゲームを心置きなく、２倍も３倍も楽しめます。

子供ばかりでなく、大人も実はself-disciplineは難しいものです。しかし、これは人生を送っていくのに大切なことです。Our life depends on what our priority is.ということはがあります。私たちの人生は、私たちが何を優先させるかということで決まるのです。パチンコ店でパチンコすることは、このコロナ災禍の中、優先されることではないですね。