英語検定ライティング準１級（第88回）

タイトル「通信障害で困ったことあります？」

近年キャッシュレスが推奨されていて、スマホさえあれば便利だと気づく。たまに通信障害があって支払いに困ることもある。だがたまになので許せる範囲だ。
Japan’s government has recommended that people in Japan should utilize a cashless payment system these days, which has various advantages when we have our own smartphone, but sometimes a communication disorder occurs, which brings us into a critical situation.
However, we could allow such an accident to happen because it seldom takes place.

国民からすれば政治資金会計もキャッシュレスにしろよと思ってしまうが、それは自民党からすると無理みたい。裏金を誰がくれたのかバレちゃうからね。
Many ordinary citizens want to require the LDP Diet members to use the same payment system when they release their political donation money, which is something sensitive from the LDP Diet members.
It is because they are compelled to make who donated them “secret money” exposed to the public : it is a bribe absolutely, which everyone knows.

全国チェーン店で昼ご飯を食べようと思ってレジのところでスマホを出したら、そこは通信状態が良くなくて、戸惑っていたら後ろに長い行列ができていた。
One day, we tried to make payment with a smartphone at the cash register, however, the shop had a terrible communication disorder at that time when we wanted to have lunch, what was worse, we felt extremely hungry.
Naturally, we were upset or confused there because we couldn’t use the cashless system, so that a long queue was formed behind us.

駐車場に1000円を取りに行って問題は解決したけど、待たされた人からすると大迷惑だ。早く食べたいのもあるし、仕事の合間に食べにきた人もいたはず。
We fetched a 1000 yen bill from my car to solve such a crucial issue and escape from such a critical situation.
Only now, people who were forced to waste precious time in a long queue never failed to feel frustrated or irritated because they hoped to eat lunch early or they wished to return to their workplace soon.

いろんな「ペイ」があるけど、依存しすぎるのもよくないんだろう。だから一応は現金も持ってはいる。しかしほとんどの支払いはスマホ決済にしている。
There are many “payment applications” we can use with our smartphone, but it seems a little dangerous for us to depend on them too much, so there is always several 1000 yen bills in my car.
But we frequently use a cashless system when we make payment at the shops or stores, but not always.

月に使った金額が計算しやすいからだ。スマホ決済とクレジットカードと銀行の引き落としだ。この３つを足し算したら、いくら使ったが分かるようになっている。
This system has an advantage to save us troublesome time when we calculate how much we spend in a month.
We use a smartphone payment, a credit card and other payments are withdrawn automatically from my bank account, which is extremely convenient for us.
We can be informed of how much we spend in this month when we add or plus these three kinds of payments.

しかもそれは使い過ぎないように歯止めもかかる。今月は外食し過ぎてるなあとか。ただし気にしすぎると、昼ご飯がカロリーメイトだけになることもある。
In addition, this system prevents us from spending too much money on something trifle or trivial : too much money has been spent in this month and so on.
Only a snack like food, however, enters my stomach at lunchtime when we care about an accounting too much.

This reason makes the question titled above favorable.