Calling 911

Hello everyone and welcome back to EnglishPod! My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and today we've got a great informative lesson for you.

That's right, we are going to talk about an emergency situation. So what do you do when you have an emergency?

You dial 911.

Exactly.

Alright, maybe not in your country. But today we're talking about emergencies in America and jobs, so people who can help you in an emergency. So before we get into those words and phrases let's take a listen to today's dialogue.

All right, we're back. So now we have a couple of different jobs for people that are working specifically in emergency situations, so let's take a look at those now in “language takeaway”. Voice: Language takeaway.

Alright, so we have a teacher in today's dialogue who's talking to her students about jobs. So probably these students are very young. And she says another word that means jobs. What's the word she uses?

Professions.

Professions. That's the plural, so profession is a job. Let's say, for example, a lawyer is a profession.

Uhu, or a doctor.

A doctor, a lawyer. So what's your profession is another way to ask what's your job.

Alright. So they were talking about professions and, uh, some of the kids dressed up as different, uh… as different people. The first one was a fireman.

A fireman. So you know the first word, fire. A fireman is a person who puts out a fire. That means he uses water to stop a fire.

Oh, very good. So a fireman puts out fires. Now, apart from a fireman, we also have a police officer.

A police officer. So an officer is someone who works in an official capacity, so in a job. So we could say he is a police officer, or a policeman or a policewoman.

Okay.

So three ways to say this.

So officer is for both genders, right? A man or a woman could be a police officer.

That's right. So you gonna hear this very often, because „policeman‟ doesn't explain a „woman police officer‟. So we use police officer to be general.

Okay. So we have a fireman, a police officer, a medic. Now what is this medic?

A medic is a kind of doctor. Someone who will look at your health or help you if you've hurt yourself, who usually works on the road like driving to an accident or driving to… to a fire with police officers.

Okay.

So these people help police officers and firemen when there's an emergency.

Okay. So a medic is not really a doctor, he's more of, uh… of a specific person that can help you. If you have maybe some cuts or bruises, they will help you out.

Right, so this person will stop your bleeding or will help take you to the hospital, and they‟ll make sure that you're healthy when you get to the hospital. But they are not really like a doctor where you work in a hospital or doctor's office.

Okay. And our last profession is a lifeguard.

Well, think about these two words. We have life, and we have guard. Guard is like protect.

So a person that protects your life.

Hm, interesting. Well this is someone who usually works at the beach or at a pool. They have a special chair, and usually they have a cross on their bathing suit or on their towel. And this means they're going to help protect people who are at the beach. So, if someone can't swim, the lifeguard will run or swim to get them and save them.

Okay, very good. So you have a lifeguard. Now, this is for men and women as well, right? A lifeguard.

Exactly.

Okay, so interesting professions. Why don't we listen to our dialogue again and we'll be back shortly?

Alright, we're back, so now let's start with “fluency builder”. Voice: Fluency builder.

Our first item in fluency builder, we've already talked about, the number in America to call when you have an emergency is 911. So we usually say: hey, dial 911!

Okay, so that's a verb there, to dial.

Exactly. To dial means to select the numbers for a phone call.

Okay.

To telephone someone.

To telephone someone, to dial. So you can dial 911, or dial my office number.

Or, I tried to dial your home number, but no one answered.

Okay. Now you can call 911 for many different situations or emergency. One of the kids said: well, if my grandpa had a heart attack.

Okay, so this is an example of an emergency. A heart attack is a medical problem. It's when your heart cannot receive oxygen.

Okay. So your heart stops beating sometimes.

That's right. Uh, sorry… It's when your heart does not receive enough blood or oxygen, so it's when your heart stops beating.

Okay, very good. So that's a heart attack. Now another possible emergency situation is if the fire alarm goes off.

This often happens in office buildings and schools. So you hear, uh, teeeee, deeee…

Alright.

Some kind of strange noise. Well that's because there's maybe a fire or some smoke in your building. Um, and so usually, when this sound goes off, it's… it automatically calls the police and the fire department.

Okay. Now there's an interesting phrasal verb that is used along with this word fire alarm. We say the fire alarm goes off, or the fire alarm went off. So that means, it started to sound, to emit a sound.

So the verb here, as you said it's a phrasal verb, is to go off. To go off. Um, we could say my alarm went off. Or, every morning at seven o'clock my alarm goes off.

Okay, that means your alarm begins to make a sound.

A very annoying sound.

Alright.

Teding, teding… y‟know, the… it‟s the worst sound ever…

Yeah.

But a lot of things can go off. We could talk about a bell, or an alarm or…

Fireworks.

Fireworks go off.

Uhu, okay. And, well, the last emergency that we were talking about is, if a robber broke into the house. So if a robber breaks in.

To break into. This means to enter, to go inside, uh, without permission or without a key.

Illegally.

Illegally. So, you don't have to break something, but usually you break a window, or a door.

Or a door, aha.

Um, But this means that someone comes into your house looking to steal something.

So usually you have to use force. For example, if I forget my keys inside my car and I have to break into my own car, that means maybe I have to force the door open or maybe break the window.

Yeah, it's not… not fun. I think it usually ends up being very expensive.

Yes, it does. All right, so those are all the phrases we have for today. Why we don't listen to the dialogue for the very last time?

So Marco, when you were kid and your teacher said what jobs are there, what professions are there, what profession would you like? What did you answer?

I always wanted to be a pilot.

Oh, pilot. So you wanted to fly airplanes.

Yeah, I wanted to be a jet-pilot. Actually I collected books about it, I read up about it, so, even till now, I probably still remember like, uh, the capacity of certain jets or what types of weapons they have. I was really, really into it.

Wow, I never knew this about you.

Hehe, yeah, what about you?

Oh, I… I could never decide as a kid. I remember we had to draw pictures, what I will look like in 20 years, and everyone had these pictures: I will be a doctor, I‟ll be a veterinarian, I will be the president. I never knew what to draw, so y‟know, I think I copied my friend, she wanted to be a lawyer. And I thought, okay, it sounds okay.

Hehe, yeah I think it's hard. And usually what… what you wanna be as a kid, um, you don't do it when you are older. I couldn't do it because of my vision. I didn't have twenty- twenty vision to actually join the air-force.

Yeah.

So…

Well, and a lot of kids don't know how many jobs there are out there.

Yeah.

They know the… the big ones: doctor, lawyer, fireman, policeman,

Astronaut.

Astronaut.

Hehe, right.

So I guess, uh, the question for you is, what's your profession, tell us about it, especially if it's one of the less famous professions out there.

Right.

Because there's a lot that I don't know about those. Our website isenglishpod.com , whe hope to see you there and until nex time…

Bye!

Bye everyone!