Listening

Warm Up

Helpful Words and Phrases

Listen and repeat.

  1. a flight attendant
    • ex. If you want to be an international flight attendant, you should study English.
  2. unruly
    • ex. Jack yelled at the children because they were being unruly.
  3. an incident
    • ex. I read about the incident in the newspaper.
  4. a victim
    • ex. The fire victims were taken to the hospital.
  5. a criminal charge
    • ex. When Brian stole a soda from a convenience store, the manager pushed for a criminal charge against him.

Article

Read the article below and answer your tutor's questions.

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According to a survey of more than 5,000 flight attendants, airline passengers are becoming more aggressive. Over 85 percent of flight attendants said that they had trouble with unruly passengers in 2021, and more than half experienced at least 5 incidents. Almost 20 percent said that they were the victim of physical violence from passengers.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) fines passengers who physically hurt flight attendants. In 2021, some unruly passengers were fined as much as $32,750 (about ¥3.8 million). However, many flight attendants feel that they aren’t being supported enough by airlines and the government, and their union is pushing for more criminal charges against aggressive passengers.

According to the FAA, there were almost 6,000 incidents in 2021. More than 4,000 were because of Covid-related mask policies, but alcohol, safety reminders, flight delays, and cancellations were other common causes. Two US airlines actually banned alcohol on their flights last year to try to decrease incidents with aggressive passengers.

Discussion

Choose a topic and discuss the questions with your tutor.

Unruly Passengers

  • In your opinion, why did unruly passengers become such a major problem in 2021? Discuss.
  • Do you agree that unruly passengers should have criminal charges? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Do you agree that alcohol should be banned on flights in order to decrease incidents with aggressive passengers? Why or why not? Discuss.

Flying

  • In your opinion, is flying an enjoyable experience? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • In your opinion, what are good activities to do on long flights (ex. watch a movie, read a book)? Why? Discuss.
  • Many people dream of becoming a flight attendant. Do you think it will continue to be a popular job? Why or why not? Discuss.