1. Alumno: Laura Maffei
Carrera: Guía de Turismo Regional
Profesora: Alicia E.Vatteone de Siffredi
Materia: Inglés I
Trabajo Práctico 1: The Terminal
Fecha de Entrega: 31 de Mayo de 2012
Régimen: Alumnos Libres
Período Lectivo: 2012
Bibliografía:
• “New English File Elementary” by Clive Oxenden-Paul Seligson – Oxford
University Press – Student´s Book y Workbook.
• “English Vocabulary in Use” Elementary; McCarthy. Cambridge U.P.
• Patagonia, Bariloche, Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi, a magazine in English
published by Emprotur.
• New York: Lonely Planet

2. Name of Student: Laura Maffei
TP 1: THE TERMINAL
THE AIM OF THIS ASSIGNMENT IS : to encourage students to listen, read and research about
AIRPORTS AND TRAVELLERS.
ACTIVITIES:
1. You must watch the film THE TERMINAL directed by Steven Spirlberg and starred by Tom
Hanks. Remember to listen to the film in English with Englsih subtitles. Listening
comprehension will be one of the aims at this stage.
2. What does the opening scene show the viewers? What is the atmosphere? What is its
significance?
The first scene of the film takes place at the international arrivals lounge of the JFK Airport in New
York. Immigration officers are getting ready for the arrival of a plane from China.
The following scenes create a stressing atmosphere. The images go quite fast and show the
immigration officers asking the travellers - in English and in a not very polite manner- on the purpose
of their visit to NY. Suddenly a group of Chinese travellers begins to run when the immigration police
discovers that they are not simple tourists going to Disney World as they pretended to be.
In this stressing context, with people running and screaming around him, Viktor Navorsky (who
doesn´t understand English) is trying to answer the question of the officer: “business or pleasure?”.
3. Why can´t Viktor leave the airport? What has happened to his country?
While Viktor was flying to NY there was a military coup in his country. The U.S. has revoked his visa
until a new diplomatic status is defined to Krakozia.
The Borders were closed, the passports and visas were cancelled, and all flights to and from
Krakozia were suspended. He became a “citizen of nowhere”. According to the immigration police
Viktor didn´t qualify for any of the existing refugee status, he was considered “unacceptable” to enter
the US.
Viktor didn´t have the right to enter the US, and the immigration police didn´t have the right to detain
him. So the only thing he could do is to stay at the JFK International Transit Lounge until the problem
is sorted out.
4. How does he survive? What does he eat? How does he make a living?
The day of his arrival the police gave him some food tickets, but he lost them. He was starving when
he saw someone taking a cart to a “return point”, and the machine payed him back 25 cents. So, he
started to take the carts that were loose in the lounge to the return points in order to get the 25 cents
and buy some food.
One day he had to stop because in order to avoid him doing that, a worker was put in charge of that
particular task. He was starving again, eating snacks with mustard and ketchup, when a young
worker that was working in the “food sector” of the airport asked Victor to help him get information
from a girl he was in love with. In payment for his help, he would give Viktor some food, so from that
day on he started to eat “airplane food”.
Some time after that, he started to earn money as a construction worker making some reforms in the
airport.
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3. Name of Student: Laura Maffei
TP 1: THE TERMINAL
5. How does he learn English? Who helps him? Why?
He started by recognizing some words while watching the news about his country on TV. He bought
the English version of the tourist guide that he had taken with him from Krakozia and he started
comparing the texts, one guide in Russian, the other one in English.
There were several people that helped him during his stay at the airport, among them: the man that
worked in the food area; a man working in the luggage claim area; a man doing the cleaning. The
three of them became his best friends at the airport.
Besides them, there was a flight attendant that he met by accident and with whom he felt in love
immediately. She really liked him, she had contacts in Washington and she managed to get a one-
day visa for him.
At the end, the immigration officers that were supposed to stop him, help him get out of the airport
and he finally could go to NY.
6. Plan a 2 day-tour for Viktor in NY.
Day 1:
Departure from the hotel at 08:00 AM
8:00 – 12:00 AM: City tour by bus, including Times Square, the World Trade Center Site, Fifth
Avenue, Central Park, Empire State, Rockefeller Center
12:00 – 03:00 PM: Lunch - Food and cultural walking tour in China Town.
03:00 – 05:00 PM: visit to the Empire State building and Observatory
06:00 – 09:00 PM: Dinner Cruise – a selection of locally-produced dishes. Spectacular views
from the Hudson River: Manhattan´s skyline, the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge.
Return to the hotel at 10:00PM
Day 2:
Departure from the hotel at 08:00 AM
8:00 – 12:00 AM: Visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
12:00 – 02:00 PM: Lunch – food tasting and visit to the Chelsea Market
02:00 – 05:00 PM: Central Park bicycle tour
06:00 – 10:00 PM: Dinner & Jazz – a visit to some of the most famous Jazz clubs in NY.
Selection of beers and appetizers.
Return to the hotel at 11:00PM
Note: All proposals are real tours offered in Internet.
7. Compare the real story with Spielberg´s version. What are the differences? Write a text (120
words) comparing Viktor Navorski´s story with the true story that inspired “The Terminal”.
The story that inspired “The Terminal” is about an Iranian man who, by the time of the film (2004),
had been living in Paris´ airport for more than 15 years. There are a lot of differences between the
two stories.
In both cases the foreigners did not have the papers to enter the country (France for the Iranian man,
US in the film). In the case of the Iranian man his papers had been stolen. In the film, Viktor´s
passport and visa were not valid due to a military coup in his country.
After 11 years living in the airport, the Iranian man was given a French residency permit, but he
decided to stay at the airport. In the film, Viktor could go back to his country when the revolution
finished in Krakozia, he did so after going to a Jazz Club in New York.
(145 Words)
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4. Name of Student: Laura Maffei
TP 1: THE TERMINAL
The true story that inspired 'The Terminal' By Laura Bly, USA TODAY
The story has the trappings of an urban legend — or a Kafka novel. A hapless foreigner, lacking the documents to enter or
leave a country legally, is consigned to the purgatory of an international airport.
Nasseri: Iranian
man stranded at
Paris airport in
1988.
1999 AP file photo
But the premise behind DreamWorks' The Terminal is grounded in the convoluted, true-life tale of
Mehran Karimi nasseri, an Iranian refugee in his late 50s who has been living in Paris' Charles de
Gaulle airport for nearly 16 years.
According to published reports, Nasseri showed up at the Paris airport in 1988 with a ticket to
London but no identity papers; he said they had been stolen in a Paris subway. He flew to
England, but authorities sent him back to de Gaulle, where he remained in legal limbo — living off
food vouchers donated by sympathetic airport employees, snoozing on a bench near the Paris
Bye Bye departure lounge and becoming the star of French documentary films until he received a
French residency permit in 1999.
Though an airport spokeswoman confirmed Nasseri has been free to come and go since then, he
has chosen to stay put. He received a rumored $250,000 from DreamWorks for his story and told
a reporter from this month's Premiere magazine: "I have a better image now that the film is
coming out. But my lifestyle is the same. I'm happy. This is my dream world
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