Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 557, Applying for a Passport.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 557.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there today to support this podcast by becoming a member, which allows you to download an 8-10 page learning guide for all of our current episodes.
This episode is called Applying for a Passport.
It's a dialogue between Orlando and someone at the passport office.
It's going to be using a lot of vocabulary related to getting a passport, at least here in the United States.
Let's get started.
Yes, can I help you?
I want to get a passport.
Have you filled out the application?
No, I haven't.
Come back when you've filled it out.
Okay, I've completed the application.
Let me see it.
You need to fill in your social security number here and you need to provide evidence of your citizenship.
Have you ever had a passport before?
No, I haven't.
In that case, you'll need to submit a copy of your birth certificate or, if you were born outside of the country, a copy of your naturalization certificate or a consular report of birth abroad.
I don't have those documents with me.
Come back when you do.
Okay, I'm back.
I have a copy of my birth certificate.
All right.
Let me see some identification.
Identification?
Yes, I need to see a valid driver's license, a government ID, or a military ID.
I'll be right back.
Yes Here's my military ID Where are your passport photos?
Passport photos?
Yes, you need two identical passport photos.
I'll be right back.
Our dialogue begins with the clerk, the person who is working at the passport office, saying to Orlando yes, can I help you?
Can I help you or may I help you?
I should also point out that, although you can get a passport by going to the US government passport office, most people get their passports at the post office.
That's where you submit your applications.
Orlando says I want to get a passport which you probably know is a small official book that is given to you by your government that allows you to travel to other countries.
The clerk says have you filled out, have you completed the application, the form that requests all the information about you.
Orlando says, no, I haven't.
The clerk says, come back when you've filled it out, when you've completed it.
So Orlando goes away, he comes back, and he says, okay, I've completed the application.
The clerk isn't actually that polite.
She says, you need to fill in, to write in, your social security number here.
The Social Security number is a number that pretty much everyone in the United States has issued by the government.
The government gives you this number.
Usually, you get the number when you are a young child or even a baby.
It identifies you.
It is a number that is typically only given to people who have legal permission to be here in the United States.
Social Security is also the name of a program that provides money for those who need money to live on, especially those who are old.
It's sort of like our national retirement system, except they don't have very much money.
The Social Security number then, is one thing that you have to put on almost every official application that you fill out in the US.
The clerk tells Orlando he also needs evidence of his citizenship.
Evidence here means the same as proof.
Evidence would be a written document that supports what you are saying.
In this case, Orlando is saying I am a US citizen and the clerk is telling him he has to prove that.
He has to show that.
Citizenship means, of course, belonging to a particular country.
Some people have dual citizenship.
They are citizens of more than one country, two countries if it's dual citizenship.
I suppose you could have citizenship in more than two countries.
It would be a little unusual.
Orlando is asked if he has ever had a passport before.
Passports in the United States are typically issued or given to you, and they are good for 10 years.
Every 10 years you have to get a new passport.
Orlando says, no, I haven't.
I haven't had a passport before.
The clerk says, to submit S-U-B-M-I-T means to officially give or send something to someone or to some organization, especially if that organization has to review or approve whatever it is that you are sending in.
So, for example, you could submit a job application.
You could give the company an application.
They would look at it and see if they want to hire you, to have you work for them.
The word submit has a couple of different meanings in English.
Take a look at the learning guide for some more explanations.
Well, the clerk is asking Orlando for his birth certificate.
This is an official piece of paper that shows your complete name, when and where you were born, who your parents are and typically, the name of the hospital, although that isn't always on the birth certificate.
Every state has its own birth certificate system.
There is not a national birth certificate system in the U.S.
If I wanted to get my birth certificate, I would have to go back or write nowadays email the Minnesota government office that takes care of birth certificates.
Within a given state, mostly the birth certificates are arranged by county.
A county is a smaller division within a state.
Minnesota, for example, has 87 counties, 87 different regions.
In fact, it has more counties than any other state in the United States for some reason.
I would have to go back to the county I was born in, Ramsey County, which is where St.
Paul is, and ask for a copy of my birth certificate.
I actually did that when I was, I don't know, 12 years old, maybe.
And we discovered.
I discovered that my parents had not officially put a name in for me on the birth certificate.
They hadn't decided what they were going to call me.
Remember I'm the youngest of 11 children, so they had sort of gone through all of the names that they wanted.
Well, because they didn't know my name by the time my mother left the hospital.
The birth certificate simply said baby boy McQuillan.
I had to then officially prove to the county that my legal name was Jeffrey.
That's my full name.
And I had to provide them evidence that I have used this name all of my life.
But for the first 12 years of my existence on this earth, I was officially known as Baby Boy McQuillan, which is actually a good name, since I was the youngest in the family.
And we often call the youngest in the family the baby of the family, even if they're 46 years old.
I'm still the baby of the family.
Back to Orlando.
Orlando has to get a birth certificate or, if he was born outside of the United States, he needs a copy of either his naturalization certificate or something called a consular report of birth abroad.
A naturalization certificate is an official piece of paper showing that you were once a citizen of another country, but then you became a US citizen.
So if you move here after 20 years of living in say, Japan or France or Japan, South Africa wherever, and you want to become a US citizen, you have to get what is called naturalized.
You become a citizen and that process is called naturalization.
So a naturalization certificate is a certificate proving that you officially became a US citizen on this particular day.
It's not your birth certificate.
If you have an american mother or father or both, and you are born in another country, you're still an american citizen.
However, because you will not have a birth certificate from a?
U s hospital, You need to go to the local embassy or consulate and get a consular report of birth abroad.
An embassy is the main headquarters of representatives from your government in another country.
Usually the embassies are in the capital cities of the other countries.
Here in the United States they would be in Washington DC.
Many governments also have smaller offices, called consulates, that are in other cities in the United States or in a different country.
So, for example, here in Los Angeles, there is a consulate for the government of Mexico, a consulate for China, a consulate for China.
Spain.
Dozens of other countries have consulates in big US cities, especially cities that may have a lot of citizens from their country.
The US has consulates in other cities, in addition to embassies in other countries.
A counselor then refers to the notion of a representative.
Counsel here is more generally a representative of your government.
Counselor report of birth abroad.
Abroad simply means in another country.
So it's sort of like a birth certificate, but it comes from the U.S.
State Department, from either an embassy or a consulate, that shows that you are in fact an American citizen.
Well, Orlando says he doesn't have any of these things.
He says, I don't have those documents, those official pieces of paper with me.
A document can mean a couple of different things.
Once again, take a look at the learning guide for some more explanations.
So the clerk says to Orlando come back when you do meaning, come back here when you have one of these official documents.
So he goes and comes back again and gives his birth certificate to the clerk.
The clerk then says, let me see some identification.
Let me see something that proves that you are who you are.
Usually that means either a valid driver's license, a government ID, or a military ID.
A driver's license is issued or given by each state that says you have permission to drive in that state and in any other state, but you need at least one driver's license from one state.
A valid driver's license just means a driver's license that is current, that was issued recently.
A government ID is identification that is given by the government, perhaps another government agency besides the state where you live.
A military ID or identification is a card that says that you are a member of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force or the Marines and that you work in that organization.
So Orlando has to leave again.
He comes back.
He says, here's my military ID.
The clerk then asks, where are your passport photos?
In order to get a passport, you have to have two pictures taken of yourself and you need to bring them and give them with your application to the government representative in order to get a passport.
Passport photos are very small and are just of your head.
Well, of course, Orlando doesn't have the passport photos.
The clerk says, yes, you'll need two identical, or the same, photographs.
Orlando says, I'll be right back, and leaves again.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Yes, can I help you?
I want to get a passport.
Have you filled out the application?
No, I haven't.
Come back when you've filled it out.
Okay, I've completed the application.
Let me see it.
You need to fill in your social security number here and you need to provide evidence of your citizenship.
Have you ever had a passport before?
No, I haven't.
In that case, you'll need to submit a copy of your birth certificate or, if you were born outside of the country, a copy of your naturalization certificate or a consular report of birth abroad.
I don't have those documents with me.
Come back when you do.
Okay, I'm back.
I have a copy of my birth certificate.
All right.
Let me see some identification.
Identification?
Yes, I need to see a valid driver's license, a government ID, or a military ID.
I'll be right back.
Yes?
Here's my military ID.
Where are your passport photos?
Passport photos?
Yes, you need two identical passport photos.
I'll be right back.
The script for this episode was written by an American citizen who has a valid driver's license, Dr Lucy Say.
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 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
