Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

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.

Comments

Hide