Listening

Warm Up

Helpful Words and Phrases

Listen and repeat.

  1. accidentally
    • ex. I accidentally wore one white sock and one black sock because I got dressed really quickly.
  2. a typo
    • ex. I was so embarrassed because there was a typo on my presentation.
  3. a stranger
    • ex. My mom told me to never talk to strangers.
  4. a mix-up
    • ex. There was a mix-up with the songs, so the wrong music played during my wedding.
  5. hear back from (someone)
    • ex. I’m so happy because I finally heard back from my old friend.

Article

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

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Hollywood actress Jenny Slate accidentally sent a wedding invitation to a person that she had never met before. Instead of sending paper invitations in the mail, Slate decided to send out her wedding invitations to friends and family via email. Because of a typo, the actress accidentally included a stranger in her email list. The email invitations included the date of Slate’s wedding, her photo, and her home address.

Slate didn’t discover the mix-up until much later. After she didn’t hear back from a friend, the actress asked the friend to confirm if she could come to the wedding. Her friend told her that she never received an invitation and thought that she wasn’t invited. When Slate checked the email, she discovered the typo.

Slate’s wedding was supposed to be in June, but she and her fiancé decided to move it to a later date. The actress sent out an email to announce this. However, she didn’t send another email to the stranger, she said, because it felt uncomfortable.

Discussion

Choose a topic and discuss the questions with your tutor.

Invitations

  • Do you think sending invitations by email is better than sending them by mail? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Do you think it's necessary to always reply to an invitation? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Do you think couples should invite a lot of people to their wedding, or only their closest friends and family? Why? Discuss.

Email Mistakes

  • Do you think that Slate should have emailed the stranger to explain that the invitation was a mistake? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Imagine that you accidentally received an email for someone else. Do you think it's a good idea to reply to the sender and tell him/her about the mistake? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • If an employee accidentally sends an important work email to the wrong person, what should happen to him/her (ex. be given a warning, be fired)? Why? Discuss.