Back to: Reunion
When a woman has an unplanned pregnancy, she may face difficult choices – choices that will affect people’s lives for years to come.
In 1980 Carol, a young, unmarried woman, chose to give her baby boy up for adoption. Twenty years later her son, now a young man, decided to try and find her.
Keep these questions in mind as you listen:
- Why did Carol give her baby up for adoption?
- Why did Joel decide to find her?
- How might one try to find one’s biological parents?
- How might a mother react to meeting her adult child for the first time?
- What might they say and what might they do at their first meeting?
Joel and Carol tell us about their first meeting in a style that’s typical for telling stories in American English. Listen for these “filler expressions” that often don’t add to the meaning, but are very common in conversation:
- sort of (often pronounced “sorta”)
- kind of (often pronounced “kinda”)
- like
Native speakers try to avoid these expressions in formal situations. Students of English should not try to use them too much, but it’s important to recognize and understand them.