Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1079.
Receiving letters and packages in the mail.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1079.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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On this episode, we have a dialogue between Celeste and Anwar about getting things in the mail.
The old kind of mail, you know, not email.
Let's get started.
Did the mail come?
Yes, you've got some letters and a package.
Oh, I hope that one of those envelopes has the photos Naomi promised us.
Did you notice the postmark?
No, but they're sitting in the hall.
Those photos are overdue and should have been delivered days ago.
Naomi thought she might not have put enough postage on the envelope, but I thought it must have been misdelivered.
You can look at it yourself.
The package you received was sent using overnight delivery.
I don't know.
Why don't you go look?
I have no idea.
There's also a letter that's been forwarded from our old address that has delivery confirmation.
You know what?
All those mysteries can be solved if you just go and open your mail.
I know, but isn't it more fun to speculate?
Celeste begins our dialogue by asking Anwar, Did the mail come?
Celeste is asking if the mail has arrived, if it has been delivered.
Anwar says, yes, you got some letters and packages.
A letter is usually a piece of paper or several pieces of paper put in an envelope and then is given to the local post office to be delivered to another location, another house or a business.
An envelope.
E-N-V-E-L-O-P-E is basically a folded piece of paper that is glued together so that you can put another piece of paper your letter inside of it.
You can put other things other than letters, pieces of paper with writing on them, in an envelope.
You could also put a photograph in an envelope.
Anwar says that Celeste got some letters and a package.
The word package, P-A-C-K-A-G-E, is usually used to describe a box.
It could be a small box.
It could be a very large box that is sent again through the mail given to the post office or some other delivery service.
Here in the United States, in addition to the post office, we also have other private companies that will deliver your packages and letters.
You have to pay more money, of course, for that to happen.
Celeste says, oh, I hope one of those envelopes has the photos Naomi promised us.
Here we see the word envelope again, and in this case the envelope has photos in it, or at least that's what Celeste hopes is in the envelope.
Celeste says, Did you notice the postmark?
A postmark P-O-S-T-M-A-R-K is a little mark, usually made with ink, that is put on the package or the envelope when it is mailed.
You put a little piece of paper called a stamp on the envelope or the package and then the post office puts ink on that stamp so that You don't use the stamp again and so that you know what day the letter or the envelope was processed by the post office in order to be delivered, when they took it in and started the process of delivering it.
That's a postmark.
In the United States.
Many times official documents have to be mailed by a certain date, especially things you're sending to the government.
The government doesn't require that the envelope arrive by a certain date, but rather that it be postmarked by a certain date.
So To pay your income taxes each year, you have to make sure that the envelope is given to the post office and that the post office puts a postmark on it no later than April 15th.
We would say the envelope has to be postmarked by the 15th of April.
So postmark can be used as a verb or as a noun to refer to the actual mark of ink on the envelope or package.
Celeste is asking Anwar if he noticed the postmark, meaning if he looked at it.
Anwar says no, but they're sitting in the hall.
I should mention also that a postmarker also usually contains the location of where the letter or package was mailed from, the location of the post office.
Celeste says those photos are overdue and should have been delivered days ago.
If something is overdue, O-V-E-R-D-U-E, it is past the deadline.
It is something that should have been submitted or should have arrived earlier.
To be delivered means to be given to the person for whom the envelope or the package is intended.
Celeste says Naomi thought she might not have put enough postage on the envelope, but I thought it must have been misdelivered.
Postage P-O-S-T-A-G-E is the amount of money that you have to pay in order to send an envelope or a package.
Usually, this is done with what are called postage stamps S-T-A-M-P-S, which are those little pieces of paper with usually a picture on them of a famous person or of a famous place in your country that are then placed on the envelope or the package.
Celeste thought the package might have been misdelivered, meaning it might have been given to the wrong person by the post office.
That happens, of course, sometimes.
Anwar says, you can look at it yourself.
The package you received was sent using overnight delivery.
Overnight delivery is when you give a letter or a package to the post office or to another private delivery service and that package or envelope is delivered the next day.
In fact, another word for, or term for, overnight delivery is next day delivery, which is now the more common term.
Celeste says, I wonder who sent it and why they sent it using expedited service.
The word expedite, E-X-P-E-D-I-T-E, means to make something go faster.
So expedited service would be delivery service that is faster than normal, faster than usual.
Anwar is clearly not interested in answering all of Celeste's questions.
He says, Why don't you go look?
Meaning, stop bothering me and go look at the package yourself.
It's almost certain that Anwar and Celeste are married.
Celeste says, I wonder if there's anything perishable in it or that's time sensitive in some way.
Sometimes you'll use expedited service or overnight delivery because you're sending food that is perishable.
P-E-R-I-S-H-A-B-L-E.
Perishable food is food that has to be put in a refrigerator or a freezer.
Otherwise, it will go bad.
It will rot.
Some people send food that is perishable in special packages that have ice in them or some other material that keeps them cold.
But, of course...
They need to be placed in a refrigerator or freezer as soon as possible.
That's perishable food.
Anything that has to be refrigerated or frozen.
The opposite would be non-perishable food.
Food that comes in cans, for example.
Celeste also wonders whether the contents of the package... is something that is time sensitive.
If something is time sensitive, it is required to be acted upon or to arrive within a very short period of time.
Something that's time sensitive is something that has to be done right away, or very soon, or by a certain deadline.
Again, Anwar isn't interested in answering Celeste's questions.
He says, I have no idea.
There's also a letter that's been forwarded from our old address that has delivery confirmation.
When mail is forwarded F-O-W-A-R-D-E-D, It is sent to a different address, usually because someone has moved.
If you move from one house or apartment to another house or apartment, usually the post office will forward your mail to your new address, even though the address on the envelope or package is to your old address, to the house where you used to live.
Usually they'll do that for three or six months.
After that, they may or may not, depending on how nice of a post office you have.
Delivery confirmation is a special service that the post office provides, as well as other private delivery companies, where
The person who is sending the package can check to see if the package has in fact arrived, if it has been delivered.
Celeste says, oh, I wonder what that could be, meaning the other letter that had been forwarded.
Anwar says, you know what?
And Celeste responds, what?
Anwar says, all of those mysteries can be solved if you just go and open your mail.
Anwar is getting impatient now with Celeste.
He's telling her to just go and open the mail so she doesn't have to keep asking questions, wondering what's in the package and the letter.
A mystery, M-Y-S-T-E-R-Y, is something that you don't know.
Something that you want to know, but you don't have an answer for.
We can talk about a murder mystery, where you don't know who killed a certain person.
Celeste says, I know, but isn't it more fun to speculate?
She realizes she can have her questions answered by just going and opening these letters and packages, but she thinks it's fun to speculate.
To speculate S-P-E-C-U-L-A-T-E means to wonder or guess about something without having any real evidence or proof.
The noun form would be speculation.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Did the mail come?
Yes, you got some letters in a package.
Oh, I hope that one of those envelopes has the photos Naomi promised us.
Did you notice the postmark?
No, but they're sitting in the hall.
Those photos are overdue and should have been delivered days ago.
Naomi thought she might not have put enough postage on the envelope, but I thought it must have been misdelivered.
You can look at it yourself.
The package you received was sent using overnight delivery.
I wonder who sent it and why they sent it using expedited service.
I don't know.
Why don't you go look?
I wonder if there's anything perishable in it, or that's time-sensitive in some way.
I have no idea.
There's also a letter that's been forwarded from our old address that has delivery confirmation.
Oh, I wonder what that could be.
You know what?
What?
All of those mysteries can be solved if you just go and open your mail.
I know, but isn't it more fun to speculate?
It's no mystery who writes the wonderful scripts here at ESL Podcast.
It's Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
