Sentence 1

来週の土曜日、町内祭りが公民館の前で開かれることになりました。

Next Saturday, it was decided that the neighborhood festival would be held in front of the community center.

Sentence 2

あやは学生ボランティアとして、入口の近くに置く案内板を作る係になりました。

Aya became the person in charge of making the information board to place near the entrance as a student volunteer.

Sentence 3

案内板には会場の地図だけでなく、店の時間やトイレの場所も書かなければなりません。

On the information board, not only the map of the venue but also the shop times and the place of the toilets must be written.

Sentence 4

まずあやは去年の案内板を倉庫から出して、どこが分かりにくかったかを確かめました。

First Aya took out last year's information board from the storage room and checked what had been hard to understand.

Sentence 5

地図の線は細く、遠くから見ると曲がり角が見えにくくなっていました。

The lines on the map were thin, and when you looked from far away, the corners were becoming hard to see.

Sentence 6

そこであやは色の違うペンを使って、通路と店の場所を分けて書き直すことにしました。

So Aya used pens of different colors and decided to rewrite the walkway and shop locations separately.

Sentence 7

しばらくすると、みかが大きい紙と新しいテープを持ってきました。

After a little while, Mika brought a large sheet of paper and new tape.

Sentence 8

みかは「去年は雨で会場が少し変わったから、その場合の矢印もあったほうがいい」と言いました。

Mika said, “Last year the venue changed a little because of rain, so it would be better to have arrows for that case too.”

Sentence 9

あやもそう思ったので、雨のときの入口を青い色で足しておきました。

Aya thought so too, so she added the entrance for rainy weather in blue beforehand.

Sentence 10

二人は人がよく集まる焼きそばの店と休けい所の文字を少し大きくしました。

The two made the letters for the yakisoba stand and the rest area, where people gather a lot, a little larger.

Sentence 11

しかし、紙の上に情報を入れすぎると、かえって読みにくくなります。

However, if you put too much information on the paper, it instead becomes hard to read.

Sentence 12

そのため、使う言葉は短くして、同じ意味の説明は一つにまとめました。

For that reason, they made the words they used short and gathered explanations with the same meaning into one.

Sentence 13

午後になると、担当の山口さんが来て、入口から会場まで実際に歩いてみようと言いました。

When it became afternoon, Yamaguchi-san, who was in charge, came and said that they should actually try walking from the entrance to the venue.

Sentence 14

二人は案内板を持たずに外へ出て、初めて来た人のつもりで通りを見ました。

The two went outside without carrying the information board and looked at the street as if they were people who had come for the first time.

Sentence 15

すると、角の八百屋の前に自転車が並ぶと、矢印の向きが見えにくくなると分かりました。

Then they realized that when bicycles lined up in front of the greengrocer on the corner, the direction of the arrows became hard to see.

Sentence 16

山口さんは「矢印は上にも一つあったほうが、立ったままでも見つけやすいですね」と助言しました。

Yamaguchi-san advised, “If there is one arrow higher up too, it is easier to find even while standing.”

Sentence 17

公民館に戻ってから、あやは上の空いた場所に大きい矢印を足しました。

After returning to the community center, Aya added a large arrow in the open space at the top.

Sentence 18

みかは時間表の横に、雨の場合は中止ではなく、会場を変更しますと書き加えました。

Mika added beside the timetable that in the case of rain, it would not be canceled, but the venue would be changed.

Sentence 19

その文を入れたおかげで、予定の変化もすぐに伝わるようになりました。

Because they added that sentence, changes in the schedule also came to be conveyed immediately.

Sentence 20

夕方、近所の人が試しに案内板を見て、「これなら子どもでも分かりそうだね」と言ってくれました。

In the evening, a local person looked at the information board as a trial and said, “If it is like this, even children seem able to understand it.”

Sentence 21

ただ、一人のお年寄りは文字が少し下にありすぎて、かがまないと読めないと教えてくれました。

However, one elderly person told them that the letters were a little too low, and if you did not bend down, you could not read them.

Sentence 22

そこで二人は台の高さを変えて、案内板の中心が目の高さに来るようにしました。

So the two changed the height of the stand and made it so that the center of the information board would come to eye level.

Sentence 23

作業が終わるころには、最初よりずっと見やすくて、安心して使える案内板になっていました。

By the time the work ended, it had become an information board that was much easier to see than at first and could be used with peace of mind.

Sentence 24

あやは、案内板はただ置けばいいのではなく、見る人の動きまで考えて作るものだと感じました。

Aya felt that an information board is not something for which it is enough just to place it there, but something made while thinking even about the movements of the people who look at it.

Sentence 25

祭りの当日、たくさんの人が迷わず歩けるように、あやは朝もう一度入口を確かめるつもりです。

On the day of the festival, so that many people can walk without getting lost, Aya plans to check the entrance once more in the morning.