The dealer shuffles the cards and deals them, one at a time from the special shoe in a multiple deck game or from his hand in a single deck game. Everybody starts with two cards in black jack, including the dealer. The general rules for requesting cars is to sweep your hand, palm down, towards you once or twice. This signals to the dealer that you want a hit or a card. If you don't want a card you simply wave your hand across you cards with the palm facing downwards, this tells the dealer you will stay with what you have.
Words can be misunderstood, hand signals are more precise.
Often the down card is used to signal for a card in the same way the hand is used. The card is swept forward for each hit, don't bend it or the dealer will yell at you, when a player has had enough cards the signal card is slipped under the face up cards. He should be efficient and reasonably cordial to the players, that's not always the case, but mostly it is. The dealer can play with one to seven players depending on the action. The table is covered with with a felt material, often green in color or some other easy on the eyes color.