Today I'd like to tell about what almost every student who will study in Czech Republic will definitely encounter - loud sirens at the beginning of the month.
It so happened that we first heard this siren back in October - at first we were even afraid to ask what it was. Of course, every (most likely) Czech knows the answer to this question - this is a monthly check of the warning system.
So that readers can generally understand what I'm talking about, turn on the video below and imagine that this is sounding outside your window right in the middle of an interesting class (in the photo above, by the way, is the view directly from the classroom window)
Scary? :) Nothing, everyone has already gotten used to it. Over time it's even for the better - with the siren you understand that a new month has come.
You can read about this, for example, here.
This paragraph is important to us:
V Česku provozuje sirény Hasičský záchranný sbor České republiky a jejich zkouška probíhá každou první středu v měsíci ve 12 hodin vysíláním 140 sekund dlouhého nekolísavého zkušebního tónu (skutečná varování jsou vyhlašována tónem kolísavým).
In my free translation - "In Czech Republic sirens are operated by firefighters, the test takes place every first Wednesday of the month at 12 o'clock. The test lasts 140 seconds, during which you'll hear an unchanging sound (in real danger a changing signal sounds)"
By the way, some sirens are also equipped with voice warning. Interesting, really, doubly so.
Such caution is pleasing, especially after the famous training alarms at home, which more often were more like a theatrical performance. Although there's also a minus in such caution - Czechs themselves joke on the internet that if someone wants to attack the country - it definitely needs to be done at 12:00 on the first Wednesday of the month - then no one will notice.