近日，日本政府解除了口罩令，但很多日本人發現，自己已經忘記了如何微笑。于是，他們求助于專家，通過微笑培訓來重新展露自然笑容。

After wearing masks in public for three long years, many Japanese are signing up for smiling classes to learn how to smile again without looking awkward.

在公共場合戴了長達三年的口罩后，許多日本人都報了微笑培訓班，學習如何看起來自然地微笑。

Smiling used to be a natural response, but apparently, three years of hiding behind a mask have left many Japanese unable to smile naturally. Some of them are now paying so-called smiling educators to teach them how to display their pearly whites again without looking awkward. They participate in specialized classes where they are taught how to stretch and flex various parts of their faces and even their neck muscles to smile properly and actually convey happiness without looking weird.

微笑原本是自然反應，但顯然在戴了三年口罩后，許多日本人已經不會自然地微笑了。有些人現在付費給所謂的微笑培訓師，讓他們來教自己如何再次展露看上去自然的笑顏。他們參加專業課程來學習如何伸展和繃緊臉部的不同部位甚至頸部肌肉來綻放自然的笑容，看上去快樂又不會顯得奇怪。

"A smile is only a smile if it’s conveyed,” Keiko Kawano, a radio personality-turned-entrepreneur, told The Japan Times. “Even if you’re thinking about smiling or that you’re happy, if you have no expression, it won’t reach the audience.”

曾是廣播名人的企業家川野惠子告訴《日本時報》：“笑容只有表現在臉上才能算是笑容。即使你心里想微笑或你很快樂，如果你面無表情，觀眾也不會知道你在笑。”

Kawano said that she has taught smiling classes to around 4,000 people so far and has also helped train around 700 certified “smile specialists” since she started her work in 2017. However, demand for her services has skyrocketed recently after people started giving up the medical masks they have been wearing for the last 3 years.

川野說，迄今為止她已經給約4000人上了微笑培訓課，而且自從2017年開始從事微笑培訓以來，已經幫助培訓了約700名獲得認證的“微笑專家”。然而，自從人們開始摘下戴了三年的醫用口罩后，最近她的這一服務需求量暴增。

"I’ve heard from people who say that even if they’re able to remove their masks, they don’t want to show the bottom half of their faces, or that they don’t know how to smile anymore,” smile trainer Miho Kitano said. “Some say that they see more wrinkles around their eyes after using them more to smile, or they feel like their face is drooping because they haven’t been using it as much as before.”

微笑培訓師北野美穗說：“我聽人們說，他們即使能摘下口罩，也不愿意露出自己的下半張臉，因為他們已經不知道怎么笑了。有些人說，他們在笑的時候會更多地用到眼部肌肉，結果在眼角看見了更多皺紋，還有人說，因為他們不像以前那樣經常笑，所以覺得自己的臉部肌肉開始下垂。”

Smiling instructors like Kitano claim that exercising one’s smile is just like training other parts of the body. It’s all about the muscles, so exercising the expressive facial muscles is the most important thing.

北野和其他微笑培訓師表示，訓練如何微笑就和訓練身體其他部位一樣。微笑就是肌肉運動，因此訓練富于表現力的面部肌肉是最重要的。

A standard smiling education class begins with a stretching session, after which participants are asked to pick up small handheld mirrors and observe themselves as they follow the instructions of a trainer who teaches them how to flex their facial muscles to convey the warmest and brightest expression of happiness possible.

一節標準的微笑培訓課是以伸展運動開始的，然后培訓師會讓參與者拿起一把手持小鏡子一邊觀察自己，一邊按照培訓師的指令來伸展面部肌肉，盡可能呈現出最溫暖最明亮的快樂笑容。

Interestingly, instructional smiling classes have been a part of Japanese culture for several decades, because of the people’s notorious difficulty to convey their feelings through facial expressions, but they’ve once again risen in popularity after the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted.

有趣的是，微笑培訓課作為日本文化的一部分已經有幾十年的歷史了，因為眾所周知日本人難以通過面部表情來傳達自己的感受。在新冠疫情限制措施解除后，微笑培訓課又再次流行了起來。

英文來源：Oddity Central

翻譯&編輯：丹妮