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Post by applecider on Oct 3, 2019 9:17:34 GMT 9
I was requested to do an eikaiwa type thing for the fire station and had a quick preliminary meeting about it, but it sounded like they didn't have any concrete ideas about what/how they want to do beyond a vague idea of "we want to do one". I think I basically have free reign over the structure, but I'm at a bit of a loss as for what exactly to tackle.
Do I give them a list of useful phrases for emergencies/questions to ask and have them practice saying it in English? Something about YASASHII NIHONGO? Do I make some kind of presentation? Do I try to have them roleplay a scenario? I didn't get the impression of a high level of English. Also during the meeting they said they really wanted to do something (practice?) with the government sponsored app 救急ボイストラ and I'm not sure how to incorporate it (unfortunately the guy showing me the app also wasn't very used to it in the first place hue).
I remember some CIRs do this kind of thing, so any advice appreciated!
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Post by 🍅™️ on Oct 3, 2019 12:54:23 GMT 9
I really recommend the YASASHII NIHONGO route as at least part of your presentation. At lot of people don't realize that words used in emergency situations are very difficult for most people to understand. (also not all foreigners speak English enough to understand the info in english either) Actually I have resourced the Saitama Prefectue site 100000x times about YASASHII NIHONGO, and it has examples, even some for emergency situations. www.pref.saitama.lg.jp/a0306/tabunkakyousei/yasasiinihongo.html(I've also done an activity where i just had employees first write a description of their job and then translate into YASASHII NIHONGO to give them a better idea of what it is too) You could also have them role-play? Or like explain a given scenario/paragraph to you in YASASHII NIHONGO? Sorry this probably isn't too much help. |
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Post by applecider on Oct 3, 2019 13:27:54 GMT 9
Thanks for the insight and link! I'm glad the thing on YASASHII NIHONGO makes sense to other people too and I do think it's important for Japanese people who work these kinds of situations/just want to know English in general to realize it's literally not the end of the world if they can't understand or be understood as long as you do a little critical thinking instead of just throwing their hands up and proclaiming MURI or something.
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Post by Aya Raincoat on Oct 3, 2019 13:38:37 GMT 9
We don't organize our things with the fire department, but we always participate. We teach about YASASII NIPPONGO, plus ENglish and Portuguese. We start with a thing where they have to react in an emergency situation and everything is in another language. First they have to choose an escape route, then they have to choose a water bottle (and we make them drink the water... we put salt or vinegar or something in one of them). Then we explain about foreigner demographics in that place with the Lake and NOTHING ELSE. We talk about how things are different in other countries (e.g. the ambulance having a cost, so people may not want to ride them). Then we introduce YASASII NIHOMGO, and explain that a lot of people don't speak English. They then have to explain stuff like how to use a fire extinguisher using simple Japanese. They usually are moderately successful (watch out for HOUGEM).
We still present a vocabulary list in both English and Portuguese. Then they group up and create short sketches in one of the languages and they present in front of everyone. We also do it with older fireSMACKDOWNers, but it's essentially the same content, only shorter. |
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Post by miscreative on Oct 3, 2019 14:11:03 GMT 9
isn't B.B.P. presenting about this at Mid-Year Chaos? |
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Post by 83tsu on Oct 3, 2019 14:57:40 GMT 9
I definitely agree on the YASASHII NIHONGO. I just had to participate in a (-cough cough- waste of time) BOUSAI KUNREN this Sunday. There was a part where they brought in real live foreigners™ for the volunteers to practice with, and despite the vast majority of them being people who 1) are not from EIGOKEN, or 2) have lived in Japan a long time and thus speak at least conversational level Japanese, the volunteers immediately resorted to broken ([soup]and frankly unintelligible[/soup]) English anytime they ran into a road bump, even though a major point of the exercise was to use YASASHII NIHONGO.
It would be useful for them to know basic emergency phrases in English (e.g. "Are you hurt?" "Do you need help?"), but I also think YASASHII NIHONGO should be the primary focus, English second. (Also teaching them how to use clear hand gestures appropriately would be helpful, too)
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Post by B.B.P. on Oct 4, 2019 13:57:32 GMT 9
isn't B.B.P. presenting about this at Mid-Year Chaos? Hello yes I am! Currently working on script and presentation slides (kill me ) Look forward to my one animated slide involving an ambulance. |
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Post by B.B.P. on Oct 4, 2019 14:09:02 GMT 9
I will prepare a response when I can use a computer and not my phone. I have a ton of resources and have used voicetra before.
Thanks for tagging me because now I can semi tailor my presentation a little better because was a little bit lost on what info to drop!
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Post by applecider on Oct 8, 2019 13:45:23 GMT 9
Thanks for everyone's input and advice so far! ( B.B.P. might bug you in a message later for some more details :0) Since nothing's still been decided yet, this is the flow I tentatively made up to present to the reps at our next meeting when we're ironing out details. 1. Pass out a 指差し sheet with some basic phrases 2. Go over simple emergency phrases accordingly and practice saying them 3. Presentation/Talk about using YASASHII NIHONGO and 外国人対応 in an emergency briefly 4. An activity like a roleplay or something using YASASHII NIHONGO 5. Whatever time is leftover for whatever they want to do with the voicetra app The eikaiwa seems to be a one-time thing for an afternoon so I don't think I can get too detailed on anything (my coworker was saying they were probably pressured into doing this kind of event hue), but I hope they don't shoot the YASASHII NIHONGO thing down considering it's not quite entirely an "eikaiwa"... |
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Post by applecider on Nov 22, 2019 9:50:32 GMT 9
Hi! Wanted to slide in with the results of my emergency services KOUZA thing which I think was a resounding success! No idea if any of it will stick for long but I think we definitely brought a new perspective to a lot of them. My English coworker and I put together a PowerPoint and also an entire YUBISASHI sheet with the common stuff in emergencies (she did all the work but it looks super cool and professional waaa). The flow of the presentation went like this:
-Self intro
-State of the number/residency status of foreigners in our KEN
-Point out how the majority of foreigners in the KEN, and Japan while we're at it, are't actually EIGOKEN people so it's not good to just try and focus on English
-Introduce three strategies you can use to talk to the GAIKOKUJIN at a KINKYUGENBA: Trying to speak directly/through the phone (and introduce YASAHII NIHONGO as a concept to help with it), using a YUBISASHI sheet at the GENBA, and then the ボイストラ application but also mention that incorporating YASASHII NIHONGO can make it more effective
-Did "repeat this English phrase after me" for the eikaiwa part that they desired initially
-Introduced YASASHII NIHONGO with some examples and short exercises (eg: here is a regular first responder dialogue, draw a line under any phrases you think can be rewritten in YASASHII NIHONGO and think of how to phrase it)
-Introduce our YUBISASHI sheet, forced gently encouraged some volunteers to come and try it with us
-The other side had wanted to let some people conduct simulations with the ボイストラ so we got to play the hapless foreigner (both of us were subjected to having a neck brace and oxygen mask put on hue)
-Had the audience break up into groups to try out a few roleplay scenarios we thought up while incorporating the strategies while we walked around and did it with them
-Profit???
General notes/observations/funny things
-A lot of them were visibly sweating when I'd approach them and do the scenario with them hue (I mean the room was pretty hot but still)
-So much "MUZUKASHII" about YASASHII NIHONGO hue
-I think it did look like a good number of them had fun
-It got really funny when I tried to play the part of a foreigner who doesn't understand English, only simple Japanese, I would be like "BYOUIN WA NAN DESUKA, KYUKYUSHA WA NAN DESUKA" and watch with amusement as they tried to describe those things
-Coming up with ridiculous accident scenarios was fun
-At one point I told them (car accident roleplay) "I can't feel my legs" and they thought of "feel" as 思う so they were confused for several minutes ("足が見えない？足はなにもない??")
-In the same group as above, after they realized what I was really trying to say, one of them looked at their reference sheet and said out loud "Paralyzed?" at which point I dramatically gasped and started to fake-cry, and the others were like "LOOK YOU SCARED HER
-For some roleplays involving a fire, they would be frantically scanning their papers for several seconds and I'd point out "while you've been looking at that, the house is still burning though??"
-Someone brought up as a comment that they feel like they're being rude for not using keigo/teineigo the way you're supposed to drop them in YASASHII NIHONGO, which is a point I didn't think about but I realized it made sense - told them that foreigners really aren't going to care Overall it was a lot of fun! I hope they found it interesting. Special thanks to B.B.P. for all her materials!! ARIGATOGOZAIMUCH!!! I directly copy-pasted a lot of info right into the slides and it saved me so much haha. |
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Post by dr. pussy popper on Nov 22, 2019 11:46:54 GMT 9
oh hue i didnt realize that this thread existed!!
i am also currently working on my KOUZA for next month. fireSMACKDOWNer dude stopped by yesterday and i gave him the YUBISASHISHILYO to approve
drat i got to email the digital copy. i should get on that.
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Post by no yark shark on Nov 25, 2019 9:52:03 GMT 9
Thanks for the writeup applecider. I'm also doing a lecture in January and this was a big help. Would love to see B.B.P.'s 資料 if someone can share them with me. |
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Post by applecider on Nov 26, 2019 14:14:29 GMT 9
You're welcome, no yark shark, hope your presentation goes well! I could pass along your message to B.B.P. and see if she'll put the documents up publicly or email them to you. Also mini miff: a news article about our presentation came out and neither me nor my English coworker are mentioned by name :'D Which I'm not as bothered about as I am about the fact that they made the whole focus of the article the dumb ボイストラ app as if that's the only thing we did RIP. At the very least, I wished they'd mentioned that we introduced YASAHII NIHONGO as a way to more effectively use the app! At the very very least! There's also a dumb picture of me in a neck brace but at least it's from the back and I'm kind of out of focus so you can't really tell it's me unless you knew hue. |
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Post by Springjay on Nov 2, 2022 14:58:16 GMT 9
Thanks for this thread!
I'm getting asked by the tourism division to do a one off English seminar for some taxi drivers (so not emergency services workers), but I think the same kinds of activities mentioned above will be useful too!
If anyone else has other activity ideas pls sharing :3
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