Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 456, Sending Business Packages.
This is English as a Second Language podcast number 456.
I am your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Transcription by CastingWords.
The learning guides contain all of the vocabulary definitions, sample sentences, additional definitions, cultural notes, comprehension questions and a complete transcript of everything I say on this episode, so you can follow along as you listen.
This episode is called Sending Business Packages.
It's a dialogue between Sam and Maria.
Using some common vocabulary, you would hear if you were going to send a package, a large box, for example, for your business.
Let's get started.
I need this package to arrive in Tulsa by next Wednesday.
Sure.
I'll send it UPS or FedEx using their ground service.
It'll be cheaper than sending it using their overnight service, and we can still track it.
Is it going to a business?
Yes, it is.
OK.
I'll mark that it's going to a commercial address.
That's fine.
I'll also need these contracts to get to Tokyo by Friday.
Send it to the home of the president of the company.
I'll send it DHL and use the residential delivery service.
This seems like a large package for just contracts.
I'm also including a gift for the president's wife.
If it's breakable, I'll pack it really well and then get it insured.
What's the declared value?
It's about $700.
Oh, and I want this box to go to Olten Switzerland, but just send it regular mail through the post office.
Make sure I get delivery confirmation, though.
No problem.
I'll just need to fill out a customs declaration form.
What are the contents?
They're books.
Okay.
I'll take care of it.
Thanks.
What would I do without you?
The real question is, what would the mail services do without you?
Our dialogue begins with Maria saying to Sam Tulsa is a city in the state of Oklahoma which is right in the middle central part of the United States.
A package describes any sort of box or perhaps a large envelope that you are sending to someone.
Sam says, sure, I'll send it UPS or FedEx using their ground service.
UPS stands for United Parcel Service.
FedEx stands for Federal Express.
Those are two private mail companies in the United States that you can use to send packages if you need them to get there quickly.
Ground service, or simply, we often just say sending it.
Ground means that it is going to go into a truck or a train in order to be delivered.
It is not going on a boat or on a plane.
Ground service is the slowest service usually.
If you send a package from Los Angeles ground or UPS ground To New York, it'll probably take four days to get there, maybe five.
Sam says it'll be cheaper than sending it using their overnight service, and we can still track it.
Overnight service means that the package will arrive the next morning or the next afternoon, taking 24 hours or so to get to where you are sending it.
If you have a very important letter or document that someone needs by tomorrow, you would have to send it overnight.
Sometimes that's called express service, both private companies such as UPS and FedEx, as well as the public mail service in the United States, the US.
Postal Service.
All of them offer overnight service.
Sam says that they will be able to track the package.
That can be done when you send something overnight or if you send it ground.
To track means to know where something is, to follow something.
Nowadays you can go online and you can put the number of the package in there and it will tell you where that package is as it travels from your city to the place where you are sending it.
Sam asks, is it going to a business?
You could send a package to a business or a house.
Maria says, yes, it is.
Sam says, okay, I'll mark that it's going to a commercial address.
To mark something means to write or indicate on a form, some piece of information, something that is different about that particular thing.
For example, you could mark your house with orange balloons.
You would put orange balloons to indicate, to show that it is a particular place where people would want to come for a party, for example.
I don't know why you would put orange balloons on your house.
Maybe you're crazy.
In any case, Sam is going to mark or indicate on the form that that it is going to a commercial address.
Commercial is just another word for a business address.
Maria says that's fine.
I'll also need these contracts to get to Tokyo by Friday.
Contracts are legal agreements between two people.
Maria wants to send these contracts to Tokyo, Japan, by Friday.
Maria says, send it to the home of the president of the company.
Sam says, I'll send it DHL and use the residential delivery service.
DHL is another international mail company that delivers packages.
Residential is just another word for home.
So sending something to a residential address means you are sending it to a home address.
Maria says, I'm also including a gift for the president's wife.
Sam says, If the gift is breakable...
That means that it can break easily.
We might also use the word fragile.
Sometimes, if you are sending a package that has something that could break easily, you put the word fragile F-R-A-G-I-L-E on the outside of the package.
That won't actually make any difference, but you'll feel better by doing it, thinking that you're doing something.
Sam says he's going to pack it real well.
To pack something means to put something in a container, an envelope, a box and then send it somewhere.
We also use the verb to pack for other meanings in English.
Take a look at the learning guide for some additional explanations.
Here, Sam is packing this gift in the package, and then he's going to get it insured.
To insure something means to have some sort of financial protection, often offered by an insurance company.
So if something bad happens, the company will give you money for what was lost or damaged.
Most of the private mail services have insurance that you can buy in case the package gets lost or something happens to it.
Sam then asks Maria what the declared value is of the gift.
The value is what it is worth, the amount of money.
To declare something means to say or to state something, usually on a form or a piece of paper, something official.
So declared value is the amount of money that you are saying this is worth and you put that down on the package so that you have enough insurance.
So if the package gets lost and you declared the value you said it was worth 400 then you will get 400 back.
That's what declared value is.
Maria says it's about $700.
Wow, a pretty nice gift.
Maria says oh, and I want this box to go to Olten Switzerland, but just send it regular mail through the post office, meaning through the public mail system.
Maria says, make sure I get delivery confirmation, though.
Delivery confirmation is a service where the sender can use his or her phone or the Internet to find out exactly when the package arrived and where it was delivered if it was delivered to the right place.
To confirm something means, in this case, to inform you to make sure that something happened.
Sam says, no problem, of course.
I'll just need to fill out a customs declaration form.
Customs is the government office that makes sure that you are not bringing something into the country that is illegal or not allowed.
A customs declaration form is a form, a piece of paper, that says this is what is in this package.
If you are sending something to another country, the mail service may have to inspect what you are sending.
You would put a customs declaration form to tell the customs office that this is what I am sending, so they know it is nothing illegal or nothing that you have to pay a tax on.
Sam says what are the contents, meaning what is inside the box or the package that she is sending to Olten Switzerland?
And Maria says, they're books.
Sam says, okay, I'll take care of it.
I'll handle it.
Maria says, thanks.
What would I do without you, which is a question, an expression that people say when the person has been so helpful to them, so valuable to them.
What would I do without you?
Sam says the real question is, what would the mail services do without you?
Because, of course, she's giving these companies so much business by sending so many packages.
Now let's listen to the dialogue again, this time at a normal speed.
Sure, I'll send it UPS or FedEx using their ground service.
It'll be cheaper than sending it using their overnight service, and we can still track it.
Is it going to a business?
Yes, it is.
Okay, I'll mark that it's going to a commercial address.
That's fine.
I'll also need these contracts to get to Tokyo by Friday.
Send it to the home of the president of the company.
I'll send it DHL and use their residential delivery service.
This seems like a large package for just contracts.
I'm also including a gift for the president's wife.
If it's breakable, I'll pack it really well and then get it insured.
What's the declared value?
It's about $700.
Oh, and I want this box to go to Olten, Switzerland.
But just send it regular mail through the post office.
Make sure I get delivery confirmation, though.
No problem.
I'll just need to fill out a customs declaration form.
What are the contents?
They're books.
Okay, I'll take care of it.
Thanks.
What would I do without you?
The real question is, what would the mail services do without you?
What would we do without our script writer, Dr. Lucy Say?
I don't know.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
