Context #1:

Akiko: Guess what! Next week I’m going to go to my first American Baseball game.

Shuhei: Really? That’s great!

Akiko: Yeah! I hope I get a chance to see someone hit a homerun!

Context #2:

Shane: Last Saturday I went to my 20-year high school reunion.

Tony: Wow! Did you have a good time?

Shane: I had a great time! I got a chance to hang out with a lot of my old friends.

Meaning: to get a chance is an American idiom that means you have a special opportunity to experience something. This idiom is followed by infinitive verbs, as you can see in the examples above. It is also commonly used with the definite article “the” instead of “a.” You can say, “I hope I get the chance to… + verb.”

This idiom is taken from the LSI textbook “Speaking Savvy.” LSI teachers use this book to teach the Level 5 Speaking class. For more information please visit www.languagesystems.com