Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 735, Getting a Visa to Travel.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 735.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
We provide for all of our current episodes.
That will give you some additional help in improving your English.
This episode is a dialogue between Yesenia and Julian.
It's going to be about traveling to another country and getting special permission what we call a visa to go there.
Let's get started.
I have a great idea.
Let's plan a big party for your mother's 70th birthday.
We'll invite all of your relatives from all over the world.
I don't think very many of them can afford to travel halfway around the world for a party.
I've already spoken to your rich brother and he's already offered to pay for your family's airfare and hotel.
If we plan it, he'll pay for it.
Julio offered to do that?
Well, if he's on board, then we can give it a shot.
But here's another hitch.
My extended family lives in a lot of different countries and I'm not sure they'll get visas to visit the US, especially on short notice.
Let's try anyway.
Your cousins in Canada don't need a visa, because most Canadian citizens don't need one to cross the border.
What about your uncle in Korea?
He's already in the U.S. on an exchange visitor visa until June.
He should be able to come.
What about your aunt in Greece?
She won't need a visa because Greece is one of the countries in the visa waiver program.
Do you think your nephews in South Africa will want to come?
I'm not sure what the visa situation is there.
We'll have to check with the State Department.
I'll get on the horn first thing in the morning to see what I can find out.
I might email them and ask them to check with the embassy or consulate there to be sure.
This party is really shaping up.
You seem to have it all under control.
Haven't you always said that party planning is my middle name?
Our dialogue begins with Yesenia saying, I have a great idea.
Let's plan a big party for your mother's 70th birthday.
Will invite all of your relatives from all over the world.
Your relatives are the people who are related to you, either because you are their uncle cousin niece nephew brother sister, any sort of relation that is by blood or by marriage.
That is, because...
They are somehow connected to you biologically genetically, or because you married someone that is related to them.
So Yesenia wants to invite all of Julian's relatives.
Julian says I don't think very many of them can afford to travel, have the money to travel halfway around the world for a party.
We say halfway around the world.
We often use that to indicate on another continent, in another part of the world.
Yesenia says I've already spoken with your rich brother and he's already offered to pay for your family's airfare and hotel.
Julian says, Well, if he's on board, then we can give it a shot.
To be on board means to be in agreement with something, to support some project or to be involved in it.
Julian says, We can give it a shot.
To give something a shot.
S-H-O-T means to try something even when you are not sure if you are going to succeed.
If you are going to be successful.
He says, but here's another hitch, H-I-T-C-H.
A hitch is a minor problem, something that makes it more difficult for you to do what you want to do.
He says, are the relatives that are not your brother, your sister, your son or daughter or your parents.
Everyone else is your extended family, uncles, aunts, cousins, great-grandfathers, and so forth.
We call the people who are closest to you parents brothers, sisters and children your immediate family.
Julian says that his extended family lives in a lot of different countries and I'm not sure if they'll get visas to visit the US, especially on short notice.
A visa V-I-S-A is official permission that a country gives you to visit and stay for a.
So if you are coming to the United States from many countries, you need a tourist visa or a student visa or a work visa to come here, depending on what you are going to do.
The expression on short notice is means without a lot of time to do something, without very much advance warning or advance notice.
Julian is saying there isn't a lot of time to get perhaps some of these visas and since it can sometimes take a long time to get a visa to come to the united states, this may be a problem.
Yesenia says let's try anyway.
Your cousins in Canada don't need a visa, because most Canadian citizens don't need one to cross the border.
To be a citizen means to be someone who is officially part of a certain country.
You have certain rights, like voting.
You may have certain responsibilities, like paying taxes.
That's to be a citizen.
I'm a citizen of the United States.
Some people are dual citizens, that is, they are citizens of more than one country.
The border B-O-R-D-E-R is the line that the imaginary line that separates two countries or two different parts of property.
It could be two states, it could be two cities.
Here it refers to two countries, the United States and the country of Canada.
Yesenia says most Canadian citizens don't need a visa to cross the border to come to the United States, to go from one side to the other.
What about your uncle in Korea?
Julian says he's already in the U.S. on an exchange visitor visa until June.
An exchange visitor visa until is permission to enter the United States in some sort of exchange program where some people from your country come here, some people from our country go to your country.
Usually it's to study or to work for a certain amount of time.
By the way, I am not an expert on visas and coming to the United States.
So unfortunately, if you email me questions, I probably won't be able to answer them.
If you have real questions about visas. you should talk to the U.S.
Embassy or a representative of the US government in your country or, even easier, go on the Internet and go to the website for that.
Anyway, back to our story.
Julian has an uncle in Korea who's on an exchange visitor visa.
Notice we say on a visa, not just has a visa, although you could say that.
Yesenia says, what about your aunt in Greece?
Julian says she won't need a visa because Greece is one of the countries in the visa waiver program.
The visa waiver program is a special program that the US has that allows citizens of 36 countries to enter the United States for up to 90 days that is, from 1 to 90 days without having to get a visa.
There are many countries in this program.
The Czech Republic, Malta, and Brunei are three countries in the visa waiver program.
And no, I don't know what the other ones are.
Yesenia says, do you think your nephews in South Africa will want to come?
Your nephews are, of course, the sons of your brother or sister.
Julian says, I'm not sure what the visa situation is there.
We'll have to check with the State Department.
The State Department is the oldest US government department, I believe.
It deals with international relations, with passports, with visas.
As I record this, Hillary Clinton is the head of the State Department, the head of the departments we call secretaries.
She is the Secretary of State.
The State Department is the organization that operates all of the US embassies and consulates throughout the world.
If you go to their website, you will find information about visas.
And they have their website in many different languages as well.
Julian says we have to check with the State Department.
Yesenia says, I'll get on the horn first thing in the morning to see what I can find out.
To get on the horn means to call someone on a telephone.
It's a kind of an old expression, but you'll still hear it.
Get on the horn and ask my brother when he's coming over for dinner.
Yesenia says I might email them and ask them to check with the embassy or consulate there to be sure.
An embassy is the official building where one country is represented in another country, usually in the capital city of that country.
So the embassies from all the different countries of the world that have embassies in the United States are in Washington DC.
The consulate is the office or building where a foreign government has representatives, but it's not in the main city of the country.
It's something other than the embassy.
So, for example, here in Los Angeles, we have a consulate for many different governments.
The Mexican government.
Several Latin American and Asian governments have consulates here in the United States in different cities and specifically here in Los Angeles.
If you want to get a visa to come to the United States, you often have to go to an embassy or a consulate in your country.
Yesenia says this party is really shaping up.
To shape up is a two-word phrasal verb.
That here means to begin to progress, to advance, to begin to start to take form.
The word shape has several meanings in English, however.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Julian says to Yesenia you seem to have it all under control, meaning you seem to have everything worked out.
You know what you're doing.
Yesenia says haven't you always said, haven't you always told me that party planning is my middle name?
Party planning is just what it sounds like making plans, making arrangements for a celebration a party.
We have this expression, something is my middle name, or something is your middle name.
It means that you are very good at what you do, and you like to do it.
So we might say podcasting is my middle name, meaning I am so interested and so enjoy doing podcasting that it is as if it were part of my own name, part of my own identity.
Whatever you love to do skiing or going on Facebook, or walking or reading you could say any of those activities are your middle name, if you are good at them and or if you really enjoy doing them.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I have a great idea.
Let's plan a big party for your mother's 70th birthday.
We'll invite all of your relatives from all over the world.
I don't think very many of them can afford to travel halfway around the world for a party.
I've already spoken with your rich brother and he's already offered to pay for your family's airfare and hotel.
If we plan it, he'll pay for it.
Julio offered to do that.
Well, if he's on board, then we can give it a shot.
But here's another hitch.
My extended family lives in a lot of different countries and I'm not sure they'll get visas to visit the US, especially on short notice.
Let's try anyway.
Your cousins in Canada don't need a visa, because most Canadian citizens don't need one to cross the border.
What about your uncle in Korea?
He's already in the U.S. on an exchange visitor visa until June.
He should be able to come.
What about your aunt in Greece?
She won't need a visa because Greece is one of the countries in the visa waiver program.
Do you think your nephews in South Africa will want to come?
I'm not sure what the visa situation is there.
We'll have to check with the State Department.
I'll get on the horn first thing in the morning to see what I can find out.
I might email them and ask them to check with the embassy or consulate there to be sure This party is really shaping up.
You seem to have it all under control.
Haven't you always said that party planning is my middle name?
Scriptwriting is Dr. Lucy Say's middle name.
Lucy Scriptwriting Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
