Learn to navigate the customs counter when you arrive at the airport
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sadia: Hi, everyone. Sadia here. |
| Keith: Hey, and I’m Keith. “Don't Answer the English Questions Incorrectly!” |
| Sadia: In the last lesson, Lesson 6 - “Don't Miss Your Chance! How to Close the Deal in English,” you learned how to exchange personal information. |
| Keith: You also learned about possessive adjectives, such as, “my,” “his,” “her,” “its,” “ours. |
| Sadia: You learned about the conjunction, "and," |
| Keith: the demonstrative, "this" |
| Sadia: And you learned about informal imperatives. |
| Keith: OK, so in this lesson you’re going to learn how to get through immigration and customs. |
| Sadia: This conversation takes place at immigration in JFK airport. |
| Keith: And the conversation is between the main character, Zo, and an immigration official. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Customs Agent: Next. Passport, please. |
| Zo: Hello. Here you are. |
| Customs Agent: How long will you stay? |
| Zo: Once again, please. |
| Customs Agent: How long will you stay? |
| Zo: For 2 weeks. |
| Customs Agent: Where will you stay? |
| Zo: At the L Hotel. |
| Customs Agent: What’s the purpose of your stay? |
| Zo: Once again, please. Slowly please. |
| Customs Agent [annoyed but slowly]: What is the purpose of your stay? |
| Zo: I'm here on business, and to sightsee. |
| Customs Agent: Okay. Thank you. Welcome to the United States. |
| Keith: One more time slowly. |
| Customs Agent: Next. Passport, please. |
| Zo: Hello. Here you are. |
| Customs Agent: How long will you stay? |
| Zo: Once again, please. |
| Customs Agent: How long will you stay? |
| Zo: For 2 weeks. |
| Customs Agent: Where will you stay? |
| Zo: At the L Hotel. |
| Customs Agent: What’s the purpose of your stay? |
| Zo: Once again, please. Slowly please. |
| Customs Agent [annoyed but slowly]: What is the purpose of your stay? |
| Zo: I'm here on business, and to sightsee. |
| Customs Agent: Okay. Thank you. Welcome to the United States. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sadia: Okay. The most unloved part of travel-- passing |
| through customs. |
| Keith: Unloved? What do you mean by “unloved”? |
| Sadia: What I mean is that no one LIKES going through |
| customs! It is NOT loved. |
| Keith: Actually, every time I pass through customs, I get very, very nervous. |
| Sadia: Really? |
| Keith: Will they let me in? Will they let me in? Is there going to be a problem? And I think a lot of people experience that too. Well, you can see from the conversation that custom officials are pretty tough, like the one in our dialogue! |
| Sadia: Yeah, they’re all pretty tough. No small talk or polite |
| conversation! |
| Keith: Actually, what’s small talk? |
| Sadia: Small talk is... I guess it’s kind of a short and sweet conversation. It’s very nice and it’s very pleasant and it’s very brief. |
| Keith: And with customs officials, definitely no small talk. |
| Sadia: No small talk. Why do you think that is? |
| Keith: They have to be really serious. I don’t know. First of all, there’s a lot of people waiting. |
| Sadia: Mm-hm. |
| Keith: And secondly, you know, they’re protecting their country. |
| Sadia: Exactly. So this customs official, the one in the dialogue, is NOT interested in |
| friendly conversation! He's what you call, "a man of few words!" |
| Keith: Ah, definitely right. Alright let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Keith: The first word we shall see is... |
| Sadia: next [natural native speed] |
| Keith: immediately following, adjacent, future |
| Sadia: next [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sadia: next [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| passport [natural native speed] |
| Keith: document needed to leave and re-enter a country |
| passport [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| passport [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| Sadia: how long [natural native speed] |
| Keith: for what length of time? |
| Sadia: how long [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sadia: how long [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| to stay [natural native speed] |
| Keith: to remain somewhere |
| to stay [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| to stay [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| Sadia: for [natural native speed] |
| Keith: used as a function word to indicate purpose |
| Sadia: for [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sadia: for [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| week [natural native speed] |
| Keith: unit of seven days |
| week [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| week [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| Sadia: purpose [natural native speed] |
| Keith: reason |
| Sadia: purpose [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sadia: purpose [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| business [natural native speed] |
| Keith: activity of exchanging money by buying and selling |
| goods or services |
| business [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| business [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| Sadia: personal [natural native speed] |
| Keith: of or relating to a person |
| Sadia: personal [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sadia: personal [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| Sadia: sightseeing [natural native speed] |
| Keith: the act of seeing sights |
| Sadia: sightseeing [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sadia: sightseeing [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Keith: OK, so let’s take a look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Sadia: The first phrase we’ll look at is, "How long will you stay?" |
| Keith: The customs official asks Zo, "How long will |
| you stay?" What does he mean by that? |
| Sadia: He'd like to know the length of time that Zo plans to |
| be in New York. |
| Keith: OK, so what's the next phrase? |
| Sadia: The next phrase is "for two weeks." When asked |
| how long he'll stay in New York, Zo answers, "for 2 weeks." |
| Keith: Right. And that's just short for, "for a two week period." |
| Sadia: Or, "for a two week length of time." A two-week stay. |
| Keith: What do we have next? |
| Sadia: The next phrase is, "Where will you stay?" |
| Keith: The customs official asks Zo, "Where will you stay?" |
| Sadia: Yes. And "Where will you stay?" means, "Where will you sleep and keep your belongings during your trip?" |
| Keith: The next phrase is, "I'm staying at The L Hotel." |
| Sadia: Oh, nice hotel! |
| Keith: Indeed. But what does "at" mean? |
| Sadia: "At" simply indicates where Zo will stay during his trip. |
| Keith: Exactly. "At" is a preposition meaning place where. |
| Sadia: So Zo is staying AT the L Hotel. |
| Keith: Next the customs official asks, "What is the purpose of your stay?" |
| Sadia: The customs official is simply asking why Zo has come to the United States. In response, Zo says, "I'm here on business and to sightsee." |
| Keith: "On business and to sight see." |
| Sadia: There are a couple of important points in that phrase. First, "on business" and “to sight see.” First, “on business.” What's that mean? |
| Keith: "On business" just means. "for the purpose of business." Or “to do business.” What about the phrase, "to sight see?" |
| Sadia: "To sightsee" means, of course, to see the important sights in a place. I wonder where Zo will go sightseeing in New York. |
| Keith: If he’s in New York, he’s probably going to the Empire State Building. |
| Sadia: Mm-hmm. |
| Keith: Statue of Liberty. |
| Sadia: Right. |
| Keith: A lot of museums, but I guess we’ll have to wait and find out! |
| Sadia: I suppose so! |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Sadia: The focus points of this lesson are implied verbs and prepositions. |
| Keith: Okay. Well, let's start with implied verbs. I think a lot of people know what “verbs” mean, but what does “implied” mean? |
| Sadia: “Implied” means suggested or hinted at but NOT stated. So, the customs official says, "Passport please." |
| Keith: There he IMPLIES or suggests that he wants Zo to hand over his passport. Give me your passport. |
| Sadia: And Zo understands that this is what the official means, based on the situation. |
| Keith: Yeah, but why did he just say, "passport please?" and not a more friendly, informative phrase like, "Will you hand me your passport please?" |
| Sadia: Remember, there's no time to be polite! Both the customs official and Zo-- but especially the customs official-- wants to get the process over as quickly as possible. |
| Keith: Definitely true. So when the official asks Zo how long he'll stay |
| in New York, Zo says, "For two weeks." He didn’t say the full phrase, "I'm |
| staying for two weeks." |
| Sadia: And when the official asks where Zo is |
| staying, Zo says, "At The L Hotel." |
| Keith: Right. Again, the full phrase would be, "I'll stay at The L Hotel." But because he’s just using implied verbs, he’s just saying, “At the L Hotel.” . |
| Sadia: Also-- and finally-- when the customs |
| official asks Zo about the purpose of his stay-- |
| Keith: Zo's reason for visiting New York-- |
| Sadia: Yes-- Zo first responds by saying, "Once again, |
| please. Slowly, please." |
| Keith: Right. I don’t think there were any actual verbs in there, but what Zo means is, "Can you say that again? And can you say it slowly?" |
| Sadia: Precisely. So implied verbs-- or, suggested verbs-- |
| don't appear in a sentence. |
| Keith: But you'll know what is meant based on the situation. |
| Sadia: So Zo knows exactly what the customs official means when he says, “Passport please.” And the customs official understands what Zo means when he says, “At the L Hotel.” |
| Keith: How about we move on to the second focus of this |
| lesson, which is prepositions. |
| Sadia: Okay. Prepositions link nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence. Prepositions are everywhere! |
| Keith: It's very, very difficult to live your English-speaking life without prepositions |
| Sadia: Indeed-- so don't try it! What do prepositions do? |
| Keith: [SLOWLY] A preposition shows the relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence. |
| Sadia: OK, so, ON the table. OVER the moon. AGAINST my will. INTO the sunset. |
| Keith: You've got the idea. In this dialogue, Zo says he'll be in New York FOR two weeks. |
| Sadia: He’ll be IN New York FOR two weeks. And he says he's staying AT the L Hotel. |
| Keith: He also says, "I'm here ON business and TO sightsee." |
| Sadia: He likes his prepositions, this Zo! |
| Keith: [laughs] Well, everyone in English likes their prepositions. Actually, English learners probably don’t like prepositions. |
| Sadia: Mmm.. Yes, indeed. |
| Keith: But there are so many of them, you have to learn them. |
| Sadia: You have to learn them. So the prepositions in this dialogue, I think we heard-- FOR, AT, ON, TO-- they're not the only prepositions, are they? |
| Keith: They're not. Some of the most commonly used prepositions are "above," "after," "during," “but,” “by,” "in," "of," "on," "out," "up," "with." There’s so many more. So many more prepositions. |
| Sadia: Yeah, there are a lot of prepositions, and these are words we hear all the time. I could say um, “I got a card FROM my friend.” Or maybe uh, “I’m going TO the park.” Or “My shoes are UNDER my bed.” |
| Keith: Right, there’s tons of them, but you can use them all the time and it’s very good for practice if you do. |
| Sadia: Yep. So we should all become very good friends with prepositions-- much like we hope Zo becomes very good friends with Michelle! |
| Keith: You got it. |
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