Communicative Behavioural Patterns in the USA
Lecture 8
Miscellany
Plan
Customs and immigration regulations.
Communications.
Medical care.
Some other services.
Renting, importing, or purchasing a car.
Personal safety.
Some useful information: facts.
Some useful information: attitudes.
References:
1. Tarnopolsky O., Sklyarenko Lifestyle Communicative Behavioural Patterns in the USA. – Kyiv, 2003. – 207 [15] p.
2. Byram M. Cultural Studies in Foreign Language Education. – Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1989. – 245 p.
3. Damen L. Culture Learning: The Fifth Dimension in the Language Classroom. – Reading (MA): Addison Wesley, 1987. – 213 p.
4. Johnson F. Communicative Syllabus Design and Methodology. – Oxford: OUP, 1983. – 367 p.
5. Livingstone C. Role Play in Language Learning. – London: Longman, 1983. – 259 p.
Customs and immigration regulations
Customs and immigration regulations in the United States are in the main the same as the world over. But getting the entrance visa to the country is often more difficult. There are various types of visas depending on the purposes and conditions of entrance. When planning to visit the USA, on making inquiries, you will be informed what kind of visa you need and what are the conditions of getting it - so, it is not necessary to consider it here. But some specific facts concerning entering and leaving the country(when you have already got your visa) had better be remembered:
One should be ready to answer a lot of questions from the immigration officer on entering the USA. They concern the purposes of coming, the length of stay, the scheduled time of departure, whether housing in the USA is provided and what is the address of it, how much money is at the disposal of the person who has arrived, etc. The answers should be as precise as possible.
A visitor gets a so called “white card” at the port of entry (the official name for the city where a visitor enters the United States). It should be kept carefully until departure since it has to be returned on leaving. You will have problems if you lose it.
No foreigner (they are called aliens) has a right to work in the United States without a special permission. For a legal permanent resident of the country who is not its citizen this right is given by the so called “green card”. For a non-resident alien only certain types of visas give this right. If you do not have an official permission to work, you had better not attempt to find a job.
When entering the country, you are not allowed to take any foodstuffs in.
Remember that if you have anything eatable in your baggage, it will be confiscated by the customs officers.
On the other hand, it is recommended to have your regularly taken medicines with you, as well as a supplementary pair of glasses (they are very expensive in the United States) and other things that you cannot do without-to avoid unnecessary expenses and problems of getting just what you are used to.
If you are carrying presents for anybody in the USA, remember that you must declare all the presents at the customs as well as their cost. It is better to have the cost of your presents limited to $400 - otherwise, you may have to pay the customs duty for the excess sum.
You can carry any amount of money (cash included) into the country, but if
the sum is big and you plan to take a great part of it out on leaving, it is better to declare it when entering.
There are also no limitations on taking money out of the country. But if the
sum is big, especially if it is greater than the sum taken in, you may have to answer questions about the source(s) of its origin at the time of leaving the USA.
Communications
Telephoning is perhaps the most important type of communications for any visitor to the United States-as nobody can do without it. First of all, you will have to use public pay phones located everywhere in the city. There are different types of them - some very sophisticated, like those of AT&T, operated by special telephone cards. But a visitor will most probably mainly use simple public coin-operated telephones where you just drop in a coin and dial your number. If you are making a local call, the coin to be dropped in is 25c since the charge is from $0.25 to $0.50 per one call. But if it is a long distance (intercity) or an international call (you can make such calls from any public pay phone), the deposit of coins to be dropped in before making it is much greater. You may have to drop coins for $3 or more to make it. So, before dialing the number, have a sufficient stock of coins (best of all, quarters) and drop them in to the amount of several dollars. If what you dropped is not enough for a deposit, after you dial the number, the recorded voice of the operator will tell you what deposit sum is required. Add the lacking coins and dial again.
You can certainly use the services of an operator to make a long distance call, but it will be more expensive and quite unnecessary because all calls may be made direct. So, you had better turn to the operator only for assistance - such as finding out the area/international code for you if you do not know the code of the city/country you wish to call. In this case dial “0” which is the number for the operator to answer. You also cannot do without the services of an operator if you are going to place a “collect” call. It is a call billed not to the caller but to the person called. Before such calls, an operator dials the person to be called and asks her or him whether s/he agrees to have a collect call. “Person-to-person” calls are also those that cannot be made without an operator’s assistance. This is the type of calls that incur (потребувати) a charge only if the person you want to speak to is present. They are not charged at all if she or he is absent even if the telephone is answered.
You can save about 35% of the cost of your long-distance calls if you make them after 5 PM and about 60% if you call between 11 PM and 8 AM, all day on Saturdays and until 5 PM on Sundays. Besides, you should know that if you are calling a firm, company, or organization and that has “800” in its number as an area code (see about area codes further below), this call will be free from whatever part of the United States you are making it.
To know the local number you need to call, use the telephone directories that can be found in every public telephone booth. They are of two types - “white pages (book)” and “yellow pages (book)”. “White pages” list individuals, businesses, and organizations alphabetically by their names. “Yellow pages” list them by their business, profession, or occupation. If you do not have access to a phone directory, you can find out a local number by dialing “411” (it is the “Information” service) or a long-distance number by dialing the city (area) code and then 555-1212.
In general, all telephone numbers in the USA have ten digits. First, it is a three-digit area code. It is written in parenthesis (дужки) and not dialed when you are calling from the same area. The local exchange number follows that also contains three digits (sometimes, it is two letters and one digit). Finally, a four-digit number of the individual subscriber closes the number row. In most locations when making a long distance call and dialing the area code, “1” has to be dialed before it (which is the United States country code).
If there is an emergency and you do not know the number to call the police, ambulance, etc. in a given area, dial “0” and ask the operator. But in many cities “911 ” is the number to call in all emergencies, and this number can be dialed without coins from any pay phone.
Telephone is very important for getting information from different inquiry services - like information about train or bus schedules, about banking services, and a lot of other things. Practically every big organization or institution has a special information service that you can call to make inquiries. But those information services are different from what we have in this country - primarily in the level of automation (you always talk for getting information to a recorded speaker and not to a live operator). So, if you call some information service, you will hear a recorded speaker’s voice suggesting to touch certain digits to get certain kinds of information. For instance, you may be calling the local long-distance bus terminal information service to inquire about the schedule of buses. When you dial the information service number, you will hear the recorded speaker’s voice saying something like “If you are calling to inquire about the bus routes, touch “1”. If you are calling to inquire about the schedules, touch “2”. If you are calling to inquire about..., touch ..., etc.”. When you touch the appropriate digit, you will hear another recorded operator’s voice. It may again be only an intermediary and you will hear something like this “If you are calling to inquire about the schedules of buses in the Northern direction, touch “1 ”. If you are calling to inquire about the schedules of buses in the Southern direction, touch “2”, etc.”. Finally, you will get to the particular information you need and hear it without yourself asking a question or saying a word. You can certainly talk to a live operator if you have some question that is out of the ordinary and the answer to which is not pre-recorded, but to reach this operator, you need to know what key to touch on your telephone. To learn it, you will have to wait until the first recorded speaker “announces” all the list because the digit to touch or the number to dial for calling the human operator is always told last.
On one hand, this system is very convenient, because automation fully solves the problem quite common to our telephone information services - when you have to dial its number dozens of times before you finally get through. On the other hand, it is rather annoying to have to listen to all the information that you do not need until you hear what you want.
If you are planning to stay in the USA at least for several months, it is always an advantage to have your own telephone at the place where you reside. If it already has one, you will just have to pay telephone bills every month by mailing checks. But if there is no telephone, it is no problem to install it. You have to call the telephone company (all the numbers are in the directory) from some public pay phone, and your home telephone will be installed during one week. You will be charged for the installation of the line and then get regular monthly bills. They will include a monthly fee for local service and rental of equipment. Long-distance calls will be charged extra. Installing a telephone in your residence, you should be ready to pay an initial deposit of approximately $50.
Mail. Letters in the United States are addressed just in the same way as it is required in this country now. In the bottom right-hand corner the addressee’s name and address is written (number of the house, name of the street, name of the city and state with a zip code (індекс)) while your name and address should be written (in the same order) in the top left-hand corner. It is important to write the zip code and the name of the state - otherwise, your letter may not be delivered. An American zip code consists of two groups of digits - five and four separated by a dash (e.g. 20005-3009). It is absolutely indispensable to write the first five digits while the last four ones are not so important. The names of states are usually indicated by two block letters (though you may write them in full if you like). For instance, PA stands for Pennsylvania, NY for the state of New York, MA for Massachusetts, VA for Virginia, etc.
In this country when you purchase an envelope for your letter, it usually already has a stamp on it. In America you always buy stamps and envelopes separately and stick stamps on yourself. The number and price of stamps strictly depends on the weight of the letter. Postage for first-class mail1 within the United States was 35c per one ounce in 1995 - while airmail to an overseas address was 60c per half ounce. It is not required to pay extra for airmail postage within the United States.
You may buy stamps and envelopes at post offices that are recognizable by the American flag before them. Their regular opening hours are 9 AM to 5 PM, Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 12 PM on Saturdays. There you may also have all the variety of postal services such as parcel post, money orders, registered mail, etc.
Mail boxes to drop your letters in can be found all over the town. They are blue but do not hang on walls as our mail boxes. American mail boxes are always big and stand on the sidewalk at its very curb. It is because they usually have two slots for dropping letters in-one smaller for pedestrians on the side facing the sidewalk and another bigger one on the side facing the road for drivers to use without getting out of their cars.
Other communications. Telegrams can be dictated over the telephone, the charge included into your telephone bills. You may also send a telegram by going personally to the local office of the company providing telegraph services. They are not provided by government-owned post offices but by private companies, such as Western Union or International Telephone and Telegraph.
Fax and E-mail are becoming an increasingly common and popular way of communication nowadays. So, if you have access to them while you are in the United States, it will greatly facilitate your contacting people. But better learn how to use fax or E-mail at home. Even if you do not have personal access to these facilities in the USA, you can always pay for having your fax or E-mail message sent by a special agency (for instance, copy-shops provide the service of sending fax messages).