English for Cabin Crew Trainer's Guide - Heinle

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UNIT LEAD IN Speaking 8 Case study Write the following words on the board: abuse; assault; intimidation; drunkenness. Ask students to say what the words mean and say which are the most serious. Ask, Which of these have you experienced? Which are most common? What procedure do you follow in these situations? EXERCISE 1 Reading Give students time to read the task and the questions, and check any unknown words. Then ask students to read the text and make notes. Let students discuss their answers in pairs before getting feedback in open class. Answers 1 interfering with external doors on the aircraft during fl ight (5) physically attacking the cabin crew (4) being abusive to cabin crew (3) drunken and unruly passengers fi ghting and disturbing other passengers (2) passenger becoming abusive before take-off (1) 2 The main cause seems to be too much alcohol. Other causes could be psychologically unbalanced passengers, personal stress, over-assertive behaviour. Vocabulary in context Write the following defi nitions on the board and ask students to match them to synonyms in the text: opposing and competing (rival); rude and out of control (unruly); unfastened (unbuckled); took hold of violently (grabbed). EXERCISE 2 Speaking The aim here is to get students talking about their personal experiences. Give students time to read through the questions and think of responses. Ask them to discuss their responses in pairs or small groups. After a few minutes, get one student from each pair or group to briefl y summarize the main points of their discussion. Pre-teaching vocabulary Check the following words: get more serious (escalate); an annoying passenger or problem (a headache/a nuisance); not nice (nasty); annoyed (miffed). You could also check the expression the fi nal straw that broke the camel’s back, which means the last in a series of bad things to happen which fi nally made someone lose their temper, get upset or give up. EXERCISE 3 Listening Give students time to read the situation and questions in exercise 3. Play the recording. Students listen, take notes and then discuss their answers in pairs. Get feedback in open class at the end. EXERCISE 4 Listening Play the recording again. Students listen and complete their answers. Let them check their answers in pairs before getting feedback in open class. In feedback, encourage individuals to tell the story of Shon’s worst experience. Answers 1 Diffi cult passengers are frustrating because some problems can’t be solved on board in spite of the goodwill and desire of the cabin crew to do their best for them. Shon always worked with the passenger, tried to do the best for them and send them away feeling positive. 2 He complained about everything – the seat, the menu, the towels, the wine, the meal, the blanket, even the bad breath of the fl ight attendant. But Shon took a positive attitude, never disagreed with him and got him extras and lots of small gifts for his wife. She was exceedingly kind to him, so much so that when he left the plane, he thanked her and said that although he would never fl y with the airline again, his attitude towards its fl ight attendant (Shon) had changed because she had been so professional. 3 He said he wanted to move because he was very tall and needed more leg-room and he was close to crying babies. Business class was full, so Shon found him a row of seats where he could stretch out. But he wasn’t happy because what he had really wanted was an upgrade. CD2 Track 8.13 1 Why are diffi cult passengers the fl ight attendant’s biggest headache? S: I think diffi cult passengers can be a bit of a headache for fl ight attendants, mainly because some of the problems that passengers have can’t be solved on board and that gives a fl ight attendant a real headache because if they are passionate about their role on board and they want to do the best for the customer, that inability to solve the problem can be quite frustrating, so that in itself is a headache for the fl ight attendant. Another headache, of course, is that, you know, passengers, it can have what we call the halo effect, so once a passenger starts complaining, people around them, around that person complaining, also start to possibly think negatively and – so the whole thing can escalate, so when passengers complain it’s a headache not because the passenger’s a nuisance but partly because if it’s not solvable that’s frustrating. It certainly was for me. My theory and my ethos when fl ying as a fl ight attendant was always to do the best for the customer. I wanted every single passenger to get off that fl ight having said they’d had the most amazing experience. I never saw a passenger as a headache – annoying problems that I couldn’t solve, but I would always try to work with the customer or the passenger to see what could be done and usually I was able to leave them with a sweet taste in their mouth about the airline even if the problem wasn’t solved at the time. 2 What was the worst experience you had? S: I remember one particular incident that was the worst complaint that I have ever had to deal with. The man in question was fl ying to Tokyo via our airline, and from the minute he boarded the aircraft, took his seat in Business class, he had complaints. He didn’t like the seat, he didn’t like the menus. He thought the towels that we were handing out were awful. He thought our wine choice was disgraceful and so on and this was all before we’d even taken off and of course my junior crew were coming to me and telling me about this problem that the passenger was having, and each time I was going out and addressing the problem and sorting the problem out for the passenger. However, things escalated with this passenger in his complaints. He was so unhappy with our fl ight that I had to actually call the captain because even the meal that we offered him wasn’t good enough. The wine was rubbish and then when he tried to put his table away he complained that the seat in front of him was invading his space. This was in Business class. There was just no way of pleasing this passenger and I recognized that he was just, you know, very, very unhappy. I went over to him actually and I sat and listened to him and then he threw his last complaint at me and it was just awful. He handed me this blanket that he had been given and it smelt really bad. It was really damp and there was no excuse, you know, and he had a genuine complaint and it was just the fi nal straw for him. He was so unhappy, and although most of his complaints were manageable I felt that this was the one that broke the camel’s back. On top of that he then complained to me that the stewardesses that had been serving him – their breath was so bad it had knocked him back twenty paces, and there was nothing I could do and I said to him, you know, he said he hated our airline and he wouldn’t normally travel with us, so I said, why did you travel today, just out of interest? And he said well my wife booked the fl ight and I said I do understand how you feel and I’m really sorry you weren’t able to get your fl ight with the airline of your choice and 36
UNIT 8 Case study I said I’m sorry that you have had so many poor experiences as you see it, but I would like you to take something home for your wife so that she feels she’s not going to be in trouble for giving you, you know, such a terrible experience with us, and I went into First class and I got her all the goodies that we give our First class passenger plus a lovely bottle of champagne. I got her a little lady’s wash bag which had all the top designer – you know, moisturizers and make-up and things like that and I got her a lady’s jump suit that the First class passenger has and I gave her a menu, and I fi lled this bag with goodies and I said to him, you know, give this to your wife and tell her I’m really sorry that you haven’t enjoyed this fl ight but that we’re not as bad as you feel you’ve experienced. He just hated our airline and I recognized that straight away and do you know, when he got off the fl ight he actually shook my hand and he said to me, you know you are absolutely right, he said, I will never travel with this airline again he said, but I can tell you now, he said, my attitude towards this airline’s fl ight attendant has been changed dramatically, he said, because you’ve been so professional, because I, kind of, you know, licked him to death with kindness, really. I was understanding and I – he knew that I understood that he wouldn’t travel with us again. There was no point in me upgrading him to First class because that’s what we would normally do but there was no point because all I could do was to look after him to the best of my ability within the cabin he was in, but also give him little treats for his wife and I think he liked that. 3 How do you deal with such diffi cult passengers? S: When I fi rst started fl ying if you had a nasty passenger you would kill them to death. Kill them with – give them upgrades, give them anything to make them happy. But during the late eighties and the early nineties passengers became so familiar with travel, it was almost like, you know, just getting on a bus that they would complain about everything, so suddenly it was the nice people that you would treat because so many people were so unpleasant that when you have a nice passenger, you actually say to each other as crew, oh that gentleman in 16D he’s so lovely. We look after people who complain, but some people, just, you know, this guy once, he wanted an upgrade – this was in the early nineties and he was sitting by some babies and I did sympathize with him because, when you are fl ying the last thing you need when you are on a ten-hour fl ight is the sound of a baby crying and so he came up to me and he said he needed an upgrade because he was very tall. That was his fi rst thing and I sympathized with that, and then I looked in Business class and we didn’t have any seats available, so I wasn’t able to move him into Business class. Then he started to get angry and then he said, well I’m not sitting on this fl ight next to these babies the whole fl ight and I started to think he’s just after an upgrade, but I could see his point, you know, tall – it’s horribly uncomfortable when you’re really tall and the seat pitch isn’t great, so I looked at the passenger list and I managed to fi nd him a row of seats where he could actually stretch out for the whole fl ight. I thought he would be really pleased with that because, you know, it’s great having – but actually he wasn’t because what he was after was an upgrade, but I couldn’t upgrade him because there were no space we had no seats available so I gave him what I thought would be really good and I could see that inside he was really miffed, you know, because he thought he was going to get a Business class seat and unfortunately I couldn’t do that but, you can’t please everybody. I think it is very diffi cult for fl ight attendants today. EXERCISE 5 Speaking Ask students to discuss the questions in pairs or small groups. Get feedback in open class and encourage students with interesting ideas to share with the class. ROUND UP Ask students to work in small groups to tell each other about their worst experience with a disruptive passenger. Then ask each group to turn the ‘worst’ story into a newspaper article like the ones in the Student’s book. They must think of a headline, then write a few sentences to tell the story. Encourage them to use vocabulary from the unit. You could pin the stories on the classroom wall so that students from other groups can read them. 37
Page 1 and 2: English for Cabin Crew Trainer’s
Page 3 and 4: Contents Introduction 4 Unit 1 The
Page 5 and 6: UNIT 1 The pre-fl ight briefi ng LE
Page 7 and 8: UNIT 1 Case study LEAD IN Speaking
Page 9 and 10: UNIT 2 Welcome on board LEAD IN Spe
Page 11 and 12: UNIT LEAD IN Speaking 2 Case study
Page 13 and 14: UNIT 3 After take-off and into the
Page 17 and 18: UNIT 4 Food and drinks LEAD IN Spea
Page 21 and 22: UNIT 5 Minor passenger problems LEA
Page 25 and 26: UNIT 6 Is there a doctor on board?
Page 27 and 28: UNIT LEAD IN Speaking 6 Case study
Page 29 and 30: UNIT 7 In-fl ight emergencies LEAD
Page 33 and 34: UNIT LEAD IN Speaking 8 Complaints
Page 35: UNIT 8 Complaints and disruptive pa
Page 39 and 40: UNIT 9 Preparing for landing LEAD I
Page 43 and 44: UNIT 10 Saying goodbye LEAD IN Spea
Page 45: UNIT 10 Case study LEAD IN Speaking

English for Cabin Crew Trainer's Guide - Heinle

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