¥é¥¤¥ó¤ä¤Ã¤Æ¤ë£¿ (Rain yatteru?, Do you [use] Line?) ¥é¥¤¥ó¤ò½»“Q¤·¤Þ¤·¤ç¤¦£¡(Rain o k¨­kan shimash¨­!, Let¡¯s exchange Line contacts!)

With more than a reported 95 million active users, the messaging app Line is by far the most popular for texting with others in Japan. I don¡¯t just use it for friends and family, I share my Line information with the students I teach. They¡¯ll often use it to send notifications such as, ëŠÜ‡¤¬ßW¤ì¤Æ¤¤¤Þ¤¹¡£¤¢¤È10·Ö¤Ç׍­¤Þ¤¹ (Densha ga okurete-imasu. Ato juppun de tsukimasu, The train is delayed. I¡¯ll arrive in 10 minutes) or ÏÈÉú¡¢ÇÞ·»¤·¤Æ¤·¤Þ¤¤¤Þ¤·¤¿¡£ßW¿Ì¤·¤Þ¤¹ (Sensei, neb¨­ shite shimaimashita. Chikoku shimasu, Teacher, I overslept. I will be late). I find this form of communication convenient when I have no time to check my email on a computer.

The service is so widespread that it¡¯s inevitable you will be asked by your ͬÁÅ (»å¨­°ù²â¨­, work colleagues) to swap contact information or join a šˆö¥é¥¤¥ó¥°¥ë©`¥× (shokuba Rain gur¨±pu, workplace Line group), and this is where things can get tricky.