Transcription
Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson about safety. We live in a world where sometimes things are nice and easy and safe, but sometimes there are things that are dangerous. And so, as humans, we've designed and invented a number of things to keep us safe. Things that keep us safe when we're driving. Things that keep us safe in the workplace. Things that keep us safe as we go through our routine each and every day.
So, in this English lesson, I'm going to talk about all of those things that humans have invented in order to keep ourselves safe as we go through our day, everyday, in this world. And some of them are pretty cool. I find that human beings are very inventive people. We have come up with some really cool solutions for different types of dangerous situations. So, thank you so much for being here. Uh, we'll get started now on this lesson about safety.
So, one of the first things that people say in the workplace, and there's often signs in the workplace. If you work somewhere where there's the potential to be injured. Maybe you work in a factory. Maybe you work somewhere where heavy machinery is driving around. Um, a lot of times there will be a sign that says, "Safety first." We say this in English because when people work in those types of jobs, we want them to think about safety. In the chat earlier, someone mentioned that at their place of work, they have a safety meeting every morning. And the first thing that gets said is, "Safety first," to everybody. So, if you work in a job where there is the potential to get injured, often you will have a safety meeting, and there will definitely be signs that say, "Safety first," which means always think about safety, um, when you are working in a dangerous place.
So, one of the things that is the most recognizable in terms of safety is what we call a seatbelt. A seatbelt is something that you put on when you get in your car. I have been wearing my seatbelt diligently ever since I have started driving a car. Before that, when I was really young, we had a car that didn't have seatbelts in the backseat when I was a kid. That just seems really dangerous to me now. But a seatbelt is something you wear in order to stay safe in case you have an accident. Okay? So, if you bump into someone, or go in the ditch, or if you get hit by someone, if you are in a car accident, the seatbelt will keep you safe.
And we've also added something called an airbag. An airbag is something that deploys. We always usually just say the airbags popped out, but the airbag, airbag will deploy when the car senses that you are in an accident. Very rapidly, the computer decides that the car is in an accident, and the airbags will deploy, and then you will have this cushion, this big airbag full of air, as a cushion as you go forward. Now, they help keep you safe. But I hear that when they go off, it's not exactly pleasant. It's just better than not having one.
We also have something called first aid. You saw me in the thumbnail wearing a a hard hat that said, I think, "First Aid Officer," or something like that on it. First aid is training that you get in order to help people who are injured. It doesn't make you a doctor or a nurse. In fact, you can get first aid training just on the weekend. But it helps you with cuts or scratches. Um, it helps you if someone has, let's say, someone is choking. You can do the Heimlich maneuver. That's where you press here in order to get something out of their throat. So, first aid is training that you get in order to give a little bit of help to someone who has injured themselves or who has been injured.
We have something called CPR as well. Let me make this a bit bigger. CPR is short for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. So, many people who have their first aid certificate will also have training in CPR. So, CPR is the ability to do chest compressions if someone's having a heart attack. You're trained on how to put, I don't know the name of the machine. Maybe Brent in the chat does, the machine where they put two little pads on and then it shocks you and it starts your heart again. Um, they know how to do mouth-to-mouth, which is a way to get someone to start breathing again. But CPR is what we normally call it. And I actually had to look up the real meaning of cardiopulmonary resuscitation because I didn't know what CPR meant. Because we just call it CPR. We just say the letters.
And a lot of people will have a first aid kit. Even if you're not trained in first aid, you will most likely have a first aid kit somewhere in your house or at work. A first aid kit has some bandages in it. It has a variety of things that you can use in case someone gets injured. So, there will be gauze, which is like a type of bandage, and maybe actual bandages, and those types of things. So, Brett says, "G, I don't know the name of that machine." It's a defibrillator. Yes, that's definitely what it is. I don't know if I pronounced it right. Defibrillator. There we go. Uh, no, you're correct. We have one at our school, I think. Um, it's in a box. And on the wall. They're more common now in athletic venues.
We also have what are called guardrails. When you drive along the road, there are places where the ditch is very deep. Or where it would be bad if you went off the road because maybe there's a lot of rocks or something. So, someone decided many years ago to invent something called a guardrail. Um, a guardrail, it's not nice to hit the guardrail, but it's better to hit the guardrail than go and hit the rocks or go in the ditch behind it. So, these you will see in a variety of places along roads in many countries. Whenever there is something hazardous or a hazard beside the road, they will often put up what's called a guardrail to prevent you from going off the road. It still dents your car, and you still need to get your car fixed if you hit a guardrail, but it's better than the alternative.
And we also have decided that going up and downstairs can be dangerous. So, we've added what's called a handrail along the side. So, a handrail is something you can grab on your way up the stairs, or on your way down the stairs, uh, in order to kind of keep your balance, in order to stop yourself from tripping or falling down the stairs. You can grab the handrail and use that as you go up and down.
So, this is a bit of a repeat. I did a lesson a while ago on construction, and one of the things I talked about was hearing protection. Uh, it's important when you work in a job, excuse me. It's important when you work in a job where it's very, very loud that you wear hearing protection. Now, this can be just little earplugs that you put in your ears. But it can also be these larger hearing protectors, which you would put over your ears. If you worked, let's say, at an airport, if you were a baggage handler at an airport, you would probably wear hearing protection. If you ran a jackhammer on a construction site, you would wear hearing protection to protect your ears because if you hear noises that are too loud, too often, you can start to go a little bit deaf. So, it's always good to wear hearing protection.
We've decided that learning to swim is important, but sometimes, even if you learn, if you know how to swim, you can get in trouble when you're in deep water. And so, a lot of times, there will be a lifeguard. When we go to the pool in our local town, there are usually two or three lifeguards who watch the kids and the adults to make sure that everyone is doing okay, that no one is struggling to swim or sinking under the water. So, often, if you go to the beach, there might be a lifeguard, or there might be a sign that says, "No lifeguards on duty. Swim at your own risk." But most of the places where we go to swim, there are lifeguards to help keep us safe.
I think you'll recognize this hat. I did talk about this in a previous lesson as well. Um, if you work somewhere where there is the potential for something to fall on your head, or the potential for you to hit your head against something hard, you will most likely wear a hard hat. A hard hat is made out of very, very strong plastic, and it, if, if a, if something fell on your head, it just wouldn't hurt as much. It'll hurt a little bit. So, instead of getting injured, it'll bounce off the hard hat, and you might be like, "Oh wow. Don't drop your hammer, Joe." Um, Joe's back, by the way, today. Um, and if you work at heights, in Ontario, Canada, if you work, I think, higher than eight or 10 feet in the air, if you're working higher than three meters, I think you're required to wear a harness and to have that harness hooked up to a safety rope. So, the harness is what you wear on your body. And then the safety rope is connected to some part of a building. Like, if you're working on a building and you're cleaning windows, or if you're putting a roof on a house, you will be wearing a harness. So, that's the part you put on your body. And you will be connected to a safety rope. So, that if you slip, or if you accidentally step the wrong way and you trip, the safety rope will prevent you from falling. The harness and the safety rope will keep you from falling.
If you play sports, or even if you work certain jobs, you might have elbow pads, or knee pads, or shin pads. I know I wear knee pads when I do certain kinds of work on the farm. If I need to go down on my knees and work on my knees for a long time, I will wear knee pads. I know Jen, when she plays volleyball, will wear knee pads. When you ride a roller, when you ride a roll, when you ride a skateboard, you will probably benefit from wearing elbow pads and knee pads in case you fall. And even wrist guards. They have special wrist guards. And then the helmet. We had a question earlier about bike helmets. Um, there are motorcycle helmets. People wear helmets when they go skiing. People wear a bike helmet. Um, so definitely a helmet is a great way to protect your head when you do something where there is the potential to get injured.
And gloves. Now, gloves, there's a lot of reasons to wear gloves. Doctors and nurses wear gloves at the hospital to stay safe. Um, when they examine a patient who is maybe sick and has a really bad disease, they might wear gloves so that they are protected. Um, I wear gloves when I work on the farm. So, I have work gloves that I wear when I work on the farm. If you go outside in the cold, you'll wear gloves so your hands don't get cold. Um, maybe, and even in certain sports, you'll wear gloves. Baseball players often wear batting gloves when they are up to bat so that they have a glove on their hands. So, gloves are a great way to protect your hands and to keep your hands safe.
And then there's the literal safety net. If you've ever gone and watched what we would call a high wire act or a tightrope walker, sometimes they do it without a net, but mostly they will have a safety net or a net below them. Now, the word "safety net" in English, we use in a lot of ways. You could say this: "I have $1,000 in the bank and I never spend it because it's a safety net." So, you can use it to talk about anytime you're keeping yourself safe in life. Um, you know, maybe you could say, "I have two jobs," um, "because I have the one job. It's just a safety net in case I lose my other job." So, a safety net can literally be a net, but it can also be anything in life that protects you. Sorry. I'm just laughing at Ty's comment. Um, it's an inappropriate comment, but I'm laughing anyways.
We have created signs. Signs are one of the things we have created in order to have safety in the world. Uh, especially things like street signs. But you'll also have signs that say things like, "Watch your step," if there's an uneven surface. We have stop signs. Uh, we have signs that say the road ahead is going to be curved. Um, we have signs at school that say, "Please stay two meters apart." We have signs now that say, "Please wear a mask." So, we have decided that one of the ways to keep everyone safe is to inform people of things that are dangerous. So, we have stop signs and all kinds of street signs to do that.
We've also created what are called barriers. A barrier is something that we put up in order to stop people from going in a certain direction. Let's say the road was impossible because of the snow. Um, not impossible, but impassable. You could not go down the road. The police would put up a barrier. So, they would put up a barrier that says, "Road closed ahead." Sometimes when you go to a concert, there's a barrier at the front of the crowd so they can't get to the stage. So, we've decided that barriers are a good way to keep people safe, to prevent people from going places they should not go.
Uh, and in addition to that, we have decided that flashing lights. A flashing light almost always means pay attention, or warning, or watch out. So, when you see a flashing light when you're driving, in the distance, you see a flashing light, you know that it's, if it's a blue flashing light, it's a snow removal vehicle. If it's a red flashing and blue flashing light, it's probably a police officer. If it's an orange flashing light in Canada, it's probably construction. We have decided that flashing lights are a good way to let people know that they need to pay attention. Something up ahead, or something needs their attention.
And then, I don't know. I didn't know what this was called. I call it the backup beep alarm, or the backup beep. But many machines and trucks and tractors in Canada and around the world now beep when they back up. So, when I'm in my classroom, sometimes the garbage truck comes to our school. And you can hear the garbage truck coming because the garbage truck backs in and it goes, "Beep, beep, beep, beep." I'm not very good at making beeps. But a beep, or a backup alarm, is something that we decided was a good idea. It warns people that a vehicle is driving in reverse because the driver maybe can't see everything behind them. So, the beeping alarm helps warn people that a truck, or tractor, or something is coming. We don't have them on cars, by the way. Just trucks and tractors and small equipment and backhoes and excavators and those kinds of things.
We also have the universal symbol or warning that you should pay attention to what you're doing, and it's called a pylon. Normally, they're orange. I don't know why I picked a red one. Almost all the pylons in Canada are orange. But pylons are sometimes placed on the street, and it's to prevent people from going where they shouldn't, but also to guide people to go where it's safe to go. So, sometimes when there's an accident, they will put up pylons. But a pylon is just a handy way to warn people, especially when they're driving.
And we also have flares. So, I've never actually put out flares. But Jen and I were driving home the other day, and it was very, very snowy. It was a very, very bad snowstorm. And all of a sudden, up ahead, we saw two fire trucks, three police cars, and there were cars in the ditch. And the firemen was, firemen, by the way, go to car accidents in Canada. I don't know if they do in your country. The firemen was putting flares on the road so that there was something very bright that people could see as they approached the accident.
We have crossing guards. So, crossing guards are people who, in Canada, I think they get paid. And they go to schools, usually in the morning and in the afternoon. That's how it works in Ontario, Canada. And they basically have a stop sign that they hold up to stop traffic so that children can safely cross the road. Um, and then they go home, and they come back at the end of the school day and do the same thing again. So, a crossing guard can walk right into the middle of the street, and all traffic needs to stop when the crossing guard is there. So, that's, that's, that's something that we have in Ontario, Canada, and I think in many other parts of the world as well.
When you are approaching construction on the road, we have what's called a flag person. But they don't have a flag. They actually have a sign, and on one side it says "Stop," and on the other side it says "Slow." And basically, it's because traffic can't go in two directions because they're fixing part of the road, but there is one lane. So, they let cars go one way for a little bit, and then at each end, they flip the signs and they let cars go the other way. So, that is called a flag person.
If you have kids, if you have small children, you'll probably be familiar with these. Um, these are called electrical outlet covers, or outlet covers, because it's dangerous to stick things into an electrical outlet. Now, we have more modern outlets now where they're always closed, you can't push things in, but a lot of the older outlets look like this, and if a child was to put something metal into those holes, they might get electric. As we mentioned, electricity is very, very dangerous. So, we have outlet covers that you can buy, and they're plastic, and you stick them in all your outlets when you have very, very small children who are starting to walk and starting to explore your house.
We also have what's called a baby gate. Uh, we had several baby gates when our kids were really, really little. Sometimes parts of your house are safe, but other parts of your house might be dangerous. There might be stairs. There might be, we have a wood stove in our house, and we didn't want our kids to go by the wood stove. Um, so often parents will buy what are called baby gates, and they will put them in doorways, and it will stop children from getting from one part of the house to another part of the house that's not as safe.
Pillars and posts. So, you can see here that around the gas pump, there are white pillars, or white posts. You can use both words. I think I would use "safety pillar" or "safety post." And I'm sure in England and maybe in the United States, they have different names. But we put these white posts, and sometimes they're yellow. Actually, they're more commonly yellow here. So that you can't accidentally drive into something. So, you'll see these at gas stations. You'll see these in places where there's something they don't want people to accidentally drive into, they'll put posts around it in order to protect it. And you.
At night, many cities have streetlights. Streetlights bring a level of safety as well because the darker it is, the more likely people are to do things that are illegal. I don't have any data on that whether that's true, but in my mind, when a city is well-lit, there is less, I think there's less crime. I think that's how it works. So, a streetlight is another thing we use in order to create safety.
We also have alarm systems or security alarms. Um, so people in their houses sometimes will have an alarm. But mostly people have these at work. So, your work, probably when you go to work, if you're the first one there, you probably have to punch in a code in order to get into your place of work. Um, and then that is a way to keep the building safe at night. So, you have an alarm system to keep the building safe.
And we also have car alarms. Now, car alarms have two functions. If someone tries to break into your car, the car alarm will go off. But if you, oh, I don't have my keys with me. Um, if you look at a key fob, there's also a button that will make your car alarm go off. So, if you were walking in a parking lot and someone tried to take your wallet, you could push that button, and your car alarm would go off and maybe scare the person away.
In our houses, we have smoke alarms. Uh, we also call these smoke detectors, or fire, well, I'm going to say smoke alarm or smoke detector. We also have CO2 detectors to detect carbon monoxide. CO2, carbon dioxide. Yeah, interesting. Carbon monoxide detector. CO2 detector. Now, I'm pretty sure it's a carbon monoxide detector. Don't quote me on it. But we have alarms in our house to warn us if there is fire or if there is smoke. Um, and some buildings, not homes, but some large buildings also have a sprinkler system. So that if there is a fire, water will simply start to shoot out of the nozzles in the ceiling, and it will put the fire out. A good way to keep you safe, but if you're in the building, you will be safe and soaking wet at the same time.
And of course, we have fire extinguishers. On our farm, we have three fire extinguishers. Um, in our school, I think there's a fire extinguisher in every hallway. Um, we have a fire extinguisher in our kitchen. It's just a good idea to have a fire extinguisher, at least one, even if you live in a small apartment, just in case you have a small fire, you have a way to put it out very, very easily.
Sunglasses. So, the sun doesn't necessarily damage your eyes, but certainly sunglasses are great because they help you see better when it's really, really sunny out. So, hopefully, you have a nice pair of sunglasses to wear when the sun is high to kind of keep you protected a little bit from the sun. Um, it's not a big deal if you don't have them. But certainly, if you are driving on a sunny day in the winter, when the sun is coming into your car and the sun is bouncing off the snow, it's a good idea to wear sunglasses to stay safe.
And of course, if you're doing anything where you want to protect your eyes, you will wear safety goggles or eye protection. This is a very common thing to wear if you are building something in a wood shop out of wood, or if you're working somewhere where things could fly and hit your eye. You will definitely wear eye protection.
And then we have yellow vests and orange vests. Although these mean something else in France now when people are upset, they protest wearing these vests, but often if you work somewhere where you need to be highly visible, when you work somewhere where you want people to be able to see you, you will most likely wear a yellow vest or an orange vest. And it will have reflective tape on it as well. When I drive by a construction site, when they are doing road work or road construction, everyone is wearing a yellow or orange vest because they want to be very, very visible. So, it keeps them safe by making them highly visible.
And of course, when you cook something in the oven, you can't take it out with your bare hands. You have to wear an oven mitt. The oven mitt keeps your hands safe when you are taking something hot out of the oven.
Sometimes when you go to the vet, when we take Oscar to the vet, he has to wear a muzzle. Oscar does not bite people, but Oscar doesn't like the veterinarian. Oscar doesn't like getting needles. So, when he goes to the vet, we put a muzzle on him so that he can't bite people. So, definitely a muzzle is something that sometimes you put on a dog to prevent that dog from biting people.
Sometimes on your phone, you get an alert. I actually got an alert last night. Um, we have something in Canada called Amber Alert. Sometimes when a child goes missing, all of our phones will buzz and ring, and it will say, "Amber Alert. Looking for a car fitting this description. Child missing." Sometimes you get a weather alert on your phone, and it says, "Dangerous weather in the area." So, sometimes you'll get an alert, which is kind of a warning telling you that something is happening or going to happen that might be dangerous, or that you need to know about.
And then of course, masks. Masks, we all wear masks now when we go out in public. But a long time ago, before the pandemic, masks were something you wore in order to filter the air if you were working somewhere that was dangerous. So, you would wear a mask in order to protect your lungs so that you could filter the air when it came in and breathe a little more easily.