Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 925, Going Through Customs.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 925.
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 and become a member of ESL Podcast.
This episode is about someone who is going through customs, and When you go into another country, the government officials of that country often want to look to see what you are bringing into the country.
Let's get started.
Los Angeles What is the purpose of your trip?
Who are you traveling with?
This is my wife, Ayse.
Are you bringing in any restricted items, any plants, fruits and vegetables, meats, or animals?
No.
Do you have anything to declare?
We bought some duty-free items in the airport.
Here's the receipt.
That's fine.
Step over to the exam station for baggage inspection.
We opened our bags for inspection and luckily the inspector found nothing to confiscate and we got off scot-free.
I'm really glad they didn't find that cat we're smuggling in as a gift for my favorite podcaster.
The topic of this episode is going through customs, C-O-S-T-O-M-S.
Customs refers to the office or the people who work for the office of the government that check the things that you are bringing into a country.
So when you go from one country to another and you have a suitcase, you have luggage with clothing and other things in it.
The customs official wants to make sure that you're not bringing anything into the country you're not supposed to.
Most countries have two people or two offices that handle new arrivals to the country, either at an airport or somewhere else.
That would be immigration and customs.
Immigration checks to make sure you have the legal right to come into the country and customs checks to make sure you're not bringing anything that you shouldn't bring into the country.
Our dialogue begins then with a customs officer.
Officer here just means employee, person who works for the customs office.
The customs officer says, your passports, please.
Your passport is the official government document from your government that allows you to travel to other countries.
In the US, you typically have to show your passport to an immigration official and then later to a customs official, because it's your official identification.
Customs officers will often ask you what your final destination is.
So if you fly to Boston but you are only going to arrive in Boston and stay there for a few hours and then you're going to drive down to New York City, you would say your final destination is New York City.
That's where you are going to go.
That's the place you're really going to go.
You're just here in Boston now. to rent a car and drive down to New York City.
That's what the customs officer is asking Ice Khan.
Ice Khan says, Los Angeles, that's his final destination.
The customs officer says, how long is your stay?
Your stay is the period of time when you're going to be in a certain place.
How long are you going to remain in Los Angeles?
Ice Khan says, we'll be there for a week.
The customs officer says, what is the purpose of your trip?
Why are you coming?
Usually they want to know if you're there for business or if you're there for pleasure.
That is just for fun.
Ice Khan says, I'm going there on business.
So his reason, his purpose is for something related to his job.
He says, my family is accompanying me on vacation.
To accompany someone is to go with someone else.
The other person needs to go somewhere and you decide to go with them, perhaps to keep them company.
We might say
That is to be their friend, to have someone for them to talk to.
That would be an example of accompanying someone.
In this case, the family is accompanying Ais Khan on vacation.
On vacation means they're there for pleasure.
They're there just to have fun, to relax.
The customs officer says, who are you traveling with?
Ais Khan answers, this is my wife, Aisheh.
And these are my children, Mustafa and Omer.
The customs officer says, are you bringing in any restricted items?
An item, I-T-E-M, is just a thing, something.
A restricted item is something that you are not supposed to bring in to that country, or that, if you bring it into that country, you need special permission or you might even have to pay money, like a tax, to bring it into the country.
That would be a restricted item.
The customs officer then lists or gives examples of some restricted items plants, fruits and vegetables, meats or animals.
In some countries they don't allow you to bring in plants, for example, because they're afraid that there may be plants that have diseases or have bugs or have things that might hurt the plants in that country.
Aiskan says, no, no, I don't have any of these restricted items.
The customs officer says then, do you have anything to declare?
To declare, D-E-C-L-A-R-E, means to make an official statement.
In this case it means to tell the customs officer that you have something that you are want to bring in the country but that you will probably have to pay tax on, or that you think the customs officer might want to know that you're bringing it in.
So, for example, if you're bringing in a lot of cigarettes, or if you're bringing in alcohol, You might have to declare that at customs.
You might have to say yes I am bringing in a bottle of alcohol and tell that to the customs officer.
You might have to pay some sort of tax however if you do that.
But you do not want to go through customs and say not declare things you're supposed to, because then if they search you and they find those things in your luggage, in your suitcase, you could get into more trouble.
They, in fact, could not allow you to come into the country, possibly.
Ice Khan says, we bought some duty-free items in the airport.
Here's the receipt.
In many places you can buy things without having to pay taxes on them, especially if you are about to leave the country and you're not going to remain in that country.
If you are from another country, you can sometimes buy things at the airport or even now on the airplane that you don't have to pay the local taxes on.
That's what...
Ice Khan is talking about.
He says we bought some duty-free items.
Duty, D-U-T-Y, is the tax.
It's another word for a tax you pay to bring something into a country.
Duty-free means that it is not taxable.
You don't have to pay tax on it.
The customs officer says that's fine.
Step over to the exam station for baggage inspection.
To step over means to move over to one side, to go to a particular place in a particular direction, usually to the side of where you are right now.
The customs officer wants the family to step over to the exam station.
Exam is short for examination.
The word station is sometimes used to describe one particular place within a larger place where something is done.
In this case It is a place at the airport, usually a big table, where they take your luggage or your baggage and they open it up and they inspect it.
That is, they look inside of it to see what you are bringing into the country.
When you come into the United States, you don't always have to go through baggage inspection.
Sometimes it's just random.
They just pick people who they think may be bringing something in or just because they need to show that they're working and they inspect the luggage.
They look inside of your luggage to make sure that you are not bringing in anything that you should not.
After the customs officer speaks to Ice Khan, he says We opened our bags for inspection and luckily fortunately, the inspector found nothing to confiscate and we got off scot-free.
The inspector is the person who works for the customs office, who looks, who inspects the baggage.
He found nothing to confiscate.
To confiscate C-O-N-F-I-S-C-A-T-E means to take something from you, because you are, in this case, bringing it in illegally.
To confiscate means to take away something from another person.
In this case, the inspector did not confiscate anything.
And so, Ice Khan says, we got off scot-free.
To get off scot-free means not to be punished for something you did wrong.
We only use this expression if you've done something wrong, but you are not punished for it.
You have no negative consequences for it.
That is to get off scot-free.
That's what Ice Khan says.
He says, we got off scot-free.
I'm really glad they didn't find that cat we're smuggling in as a gift for my favorite podcaster.
To smuggle S-M-U-G-G-L-E in something, or to smuggle something in is a phrasal verb meaning to bring something in that you are not allowed to.
To hide something so that the customs inspector doesn't see it, because it's illegal and you don't want to get caught or you don't want to pay the duty, to pay the tax you would have to.
This is not, by the way, a very good idea.
But Aiskan wants to give his favorite podcaster, I don't know who that is, a cat.
I assume it's not me.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Your passports please.
What is your final destination?
Los Angeles.
How long is your stay?
We'll be there for a week.
What is the purpose of your trip?
I'm going there on business and my family is accompanying me on vacation.
Who are you traveling with?
This is my wife Aisha and these are my children Mustafa and Omer.
Are you bringing in any restricted items?
Any plants, fruits and vegetables, meats, or animals?
No.
Do you have anything to declare?
We bought some duty-free items in the airport.
Here's the receipt.
That's fine.
Step over to the exam station for baggage inspection.
We opened our bags for inspection and luckily the inspector found nothing to confiscate and we got off scot-free.
I'm really glad they didn't find that cat we're smuggling in as a gift for my favorite podcaster.
She never seems to go on vacation.
She's always working hard.
I speak of our wonderful scriptwriter, 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.
