Close menu
18

Unit 18: English You Need
Exams, news, pronunciation, teachers' tips, learners' questions

Select a unit

  1. 1 English You Need
  2. 2 English You Need
  3. 3 English You Need
  4. 4 English You Need
  5. 5 English You Need
  6. 6 English You Need
  7. 7 English You Need
  8. 8 English You Need
  9. 9 English You Need
  10. 10 English You Need
  11. 11 English You Need
  12. 12 English You Need
  13. 13 English You Need
  14. 14 English You Need
  15. 15 English You Need
  16. 16 English You Need
  17. 17 English You Need
  18. 18 English You Need
  19. 19 English You Need
  20. 20 English You Need
  21. 21 English You Need
  22. 22 English You Need
  23. 23 English You Need
  24. 24 English You Need
  25. 25 English You Need
  26. 26 English You Need
  27. 27 English You Need
  28. 28 English You Need
  29. 29 English You Need
  30. 30 English You Need

Session 2

British Airways admits that one of their people made a mistake. Dan and Neil teach you the language the world's media is using to discuss this story.

Wayiitiwwan marii boqonnaa kana keessaa

12345

Wayitii marii qabxii 2

0 / 3

  • 0 / 3
    Activity 1
  1. Activity 1

Activity 1

News Review

British Airways' embarrassing mistake

British Airways says that the delays in its service over the weekend were because of a person making a mistake

Language challenge

British Airways have announced that the breakdown in their systems over the weekend was because someone made a mistake. Which of these phrasal verbs means to make a mistake?

a) to scrub up
b) to fowl up
c) to mess up

Vidiyoo daawwadhuuti shaakala kana xumuri

______________________________________________________________________________________

Did you like that? Why not try these? 

News_review_teaser News Review Teaser Lingohack: 31 May 2017: Image with headlines/Getty

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

The story

The head of British Airways' parent company has blamed human error for the computer problems that caused chaos for tens of thousands of passengers over the bank holiday weekend.

The chief executive of IAG, Willie Walsh, said an engineer had disconnected the power supply to a data centre, and then reconnected it without following the correct procedure.

Key words and phrases

human error
a mistake made by a person

meltdown
the complete failure of a system

fiasco
a complete and embarrassing failure

To do

Try our quiz to see how well you've learned today's language.

News Review quiz

3 Questions

Now you've watched the video, try to answer these questions about the language in the news.

Baga gammadde! Qormaata xumurteetta
Excellent! Great job! Carraa badaa! Qabxii argatte:
x / y

Downloads

You can download the audio and PDF document for this episode here. 

Language challenge - answer

c) to mess up

End of Session 2

Join us in Session 3 for Pronunciation in the News - our video which teaches you pronunciation using the latest BBC World News bulletins. 

Session Vocabulary

  • human error
    a mistake made by a person

    meltdown
    the complete failure of a system

    fiasco
    a complete and embarrassing failure

     

Wabii jechoota guutuu agarsiisi

Wiirtuu gadi-buufatan

Qabiyyee koorsiiwwan dhihoo kanaa