My Japanese class recently had some special guests. The Kyoto City Fire Department came by to tell us (in Japanese) about fire prevention, the leading causes of fire in Japan, and what to do if you have a fire or other emergency.
Most importantly, we were taught how to make a 119 call. 1-1-9 is Japan's emergency number, like 9-1-1 in the US. They highlighted the fact that in an actual emergency we would likely panic and want to resort to our native languages, so we had a fun practice activity.
Using two connected telephones, they had each member of the class call 119 and explain their situation to the 119 operator (AKA one of the firemen wearing a headset). We were asked to report either a fire or emergency situation. Throughout the call the "operator" asked us for things like our names, our addresses, descriptions of nearby landmarks to help them find us, our phone numbers and a brief description of the emergency. It was fun to make up crazy answers to the questions (ie: What is burning? My entire house is burning, thanks.) Most of all, it was neat to realize that we know enough Japanese to be able to do this. :)
1 comment:
Awesome! I mean, that you could tell them in Japanese that your house was on fire. It would really suck if in fact your house was on fire. That would be the opposite of awesome. Unless the fire were really big, or something... then it might be awesome, but not in a good way.
Still, way to go with your language studies! Sugoi!
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