Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 191, Changing Money.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 191.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Remember to visit our website at eslpod.com.
You can get there our complete learning guide for this podcast, including the complete transcript definitions, additional explanations and culture notes.
Today's podcast is called Changing Money.
Let's go.
I was at the airport to pick up my friend Sandra, who was visiting from Italy.
Do you have everything?
Yes, I think so, but I don't have any U.S. dollars.
Where can I change money?
Can I do that here?
You could, but I wouldn't recommend it.
The exchange rate is really high and so are the fees.
I'll take you to the bank tomorrow.
The next day, I picked Sandra up from her hotel and we went to a branch nearby.
What can I do for you?
I'd like to exchange some currency and to get some U.S. dollars.
Okay.
How much would you like?
How much is one euro worth?
The current rate is $1 to 0.8 euros.
In that case, I'd like 500 US dollars.
Okay, that will be 400 euros.
Would you like that in large or small bills?
I'd like a mix of both.
I'd like some change, too.
That's no problem.
Please sign here.
That will be $300 in 20s, $150 in 10s, and $45 in 5s and 1s.
And here's $5 in change, quarters, dimes, and nickels.
That's perfect.
Thanks a lot.
Is there anything else I can help you with?
No, that's all.
Thanks for your help.
It's my pleasure.
Have a nice day.
Today's podcast is called Changing Money.
To change money means to convert it from one country's money to another country's money.
So to take your dollars, for example your US dollars, and convert them or change them into yen or euros or whatever the country's money is.
The story here is that Gustavo is picking up his friend Sandra from Italy.
Gustavo goes to the airport and asks Sandra...
Do you have everything?
Meaning, do you have all of your bags?
Do you have all of the things that you need?
He's picking her up from the airport, and so he wants to make sure that she has all of the things she needs for them to leave the airport.
Sandra says, yes, I think so, but I don't have any U.S. dollars.
Where can I change money?
Can I do it here?
Where can I change money?
As we said before, where can I convert my money into US dollars?
Gustavo tells her that he would not recommend changing money at the airport.
To recommend R-E-C-O-M-M-E-N-D means here the same as to suggest.
I recommend talking to that beautiful woman sitting over there.
I think she's interested in you.
Well, Gustavo is not talking about beautiful women.
He's talking about the exchange rate.
He's telling Sandra that she should not change money at the airport because the exchange rate is really high.
The exchange E-X-C-H-A-N-G-E rate R-A-T-E tells you how many dollars you can get for how many, in this case, euros or whatever the money is.
I should say that another word we use for money when we are talking about changing money is currency C-U-R-R-E-N-C-Y.
So you can say the currency of Italy is the euro.
That's what they call their money that they use now.
Well, the exchange rate is really high, Gustavo says, which means that you are not going to get very many dollars for the euro if you change the money at the airport.
Gustavo also says that the fees are high.
A fee, F-E-E, is... like a price that you have to pay for something.
And when you change money or exchange money means the same thing.
At the airport, you often have to pay an extra fee in order to change your money.
Gustavo tells Sandra that he will take her to a bank tomorrow. where she can exchange her money.
So the next day he goes to Sandra's hotel and they go to a branch nearby.
A branch.
B-R-A-N-C-H is one of the offices of a bank, that Usually there's a main office, a large office, and then there are smaller offices, smaller parts of the bank in different parts of the city.
And so a branch of a bank is usually one office of a very large bank that has many offices.
They go to this branch and And the bank clerk, who sounds a lot like Gustavo in the dialect, but it's a different person.
The bank clerk says, what can I do for you?
And Sandra says, I'd like to exchange some currency and to get some US dollars.
Notice that she's using the verb to exchange in the same way as to change.
They mean the same as we said before.
Also notice that she says currency instead of money because those mean the same as well.
The bank clerk says, okay, how much would you like?
And Sandra asks, how much is one euro worth?
How much is something worth when we are talking about currency, or money means how many dollars can I get for my euro?
How much money can I get for my euro?
So the bank clerk says that the current rate or the current exchange rate is $1 to 0.8 euros.
This means that for every 08 euro that you exchange, you will get 100.
If the exchange rate were 1 to 1 euro, then for every euro you give the bank, they'll give you 1.
But in this case, the exchange rate is $1 to 0.8 euros.
Sandra says she'd like $500, and the bank clerk said that will be 400 euros.
Would you like that in large or small bills?
A bill, B-I-L-L, when we are talking about money or currency, is the paper form of money.
We have a dollar bill in the United States and a five dollar bill in the United States.
The bills are the paper money.
So he asks Sandra if she wants large or small bills.
Large means, of course, that the bill would be worth a lot of money.
So a $100 bill is a large bill, and a $1 bill is a small bill.
You'll also hear the word denomination here.
Denomination, D-E-N-O-M-I-N-A-T-I-O-N, is how much the money is worth, how many dollars.
And so we could say that the U.S. bills come in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100.
Well, Sandra says she wants a mix of both, meaning she wants some small bills and some large bills.
She then tells the bank clerk, I'd like some change, too.
Change C-H-A-N-G-E again.
When we are talking about money means coins, not paper money, not the bills, but individual coins such as a penny or a nickel or a dime.
In the United States, most of the coins that we have, most of the change that we have would be less than a dollar, although we do actually have a 1 coin and a 1 bill.
But very few people use the coins.
The blank clerk says that's no problem, please sign here.
He's asking her to put her signature on a piece of paper.
Then he begins to, we would say count out the money.
To count C-O-U-N-T out O-U-T, two words is when you are giving money to someone else and you are telling them how much it is as you give it to them.
So you're giving someone $20.
You say, okay, $5, $10, $15, $20.
You give them four $5 bills, and you count it as you give it to them.
So the bank clerk is counting out the money.
He's giving her $300 in 20s.
Notice we use the plural here, 20s.
It means $20 bills.
$150 in tens, $10 bills.
$45 in fives, $5 bills.
And ones, $1 bills.
The only bills that you can find normally in the United States are $1, $5, $10, $20.
You will sometimes see $50 and $100, but they're not as common.
Most people have 5, 10, 20, or 1s.
In fact, many stores will tell you that they will not accept a denomination higher than 20, meaning you cannot give them a 50 or 100 bill.
They will only take 20s, 10s, 5s, and 1s.
The bank clerk also gives Sandra her change, her coins.
He gives her quarters, dimes, and nickels.
A quarter, you probably know, is 25 cents, one quarter of a dollar.
A dime is 10 cents.
A nickel is 5 cents.
And, of course, we also have a one-cent coin, which we call the penny, P-E-N-N-Y.
Sandra says, that's perfect.
Thanks a lot.
The bank clerk, who's very polite, says, Is there anything else I can help you with?
Meaning, do you want anything else?
Do you need anything else?
Sandra says, No, that's all.
Thanks for your help.
The bank clerk says, It's my pleasure.
Have a nice day.
And of course, Sandra will have a nice day because she now has $500 to spend.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a native rate of speech.
I was at the airport to pick up my friend Sandra, who was visiting from Italy.
Do you have everything?
Yes, I think so, but I don't have any U.S. dollars.
Where can I change money?
Can I do that here?
You could, but I wouldn't recommend it.
The exchange rate is really high, and so are the fees.
I'll take you to the bank tomorrow.
The next day, I picked Sandra up from her hotel, and we went to a branch nearby.
What can I do for you?
I'd like to exchange some currency and to get some U.S. dollars.
Okay.
How much would you like?
How much is one euro worth?
The current rate is $1 to 0.8 euros.
In that case, I'd like 500 US dollars.
Okay, that will be 400 euros.
Would you like that in large or small bills?
I'd like a mix of both, and I'd like some change, too.
That's no problem.
Please sign here.
That will be $300 in 20s, $150 in 10s, and $45 in 5s and 1s.
And here's $5 in change, quarters, dimes, and nickels.
That's perfect.
Thanks a lot.
Is there anything else I can help you with?
No, that's all.
Thanks for your help.
It's my pleasure.
Have a nice day.
The script for today's podcast was written by Dr. Lucy Say.
If you have questions about this podcast or comments and suggestions, you can email us.
Our email address is eslpod at eslpod.com.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2006.
