Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 885, Talking to a Bank Teller.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 885.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between a person who works at a bank and Antonio.
Let's get started.
Can I help you?
Yes, I'd like to deposit this check.
Here you are.
I've already filled out a slip and signed the check.
I'd also like to cash this other check.
Sure.
I can help you with that.
Here you are.
Here's a receipt for your deposit, and I've cashed your check.
Let me count out your $100.
20, 40, 60, 80, 100.
Thanks.
Could I also check my bank balance for my other account?
No problem.
You just have to swipe your ATM card and enter your PIN.
It looks like you have a balance of $1,752.
Will that be all?
Oh, I have that much?
I'd like to withdraw $80.
All right, you'll need to fill out a withdrawal slip.
Why don't you step aside while you do that so I can help the next customer?
And when you're done, come back to this window and I'll help you.
Okay, I'll do that.
And if I want to transfer money between accounts...
You'll need to fill out a withdrawal slip for the first account and a deposit slip for the second.
Got it.
This might take a while.
No problem, sir.
We're here all day, at least until 5 o'clock.
Our dialogue begins with the bank teller saying to Antonio, can I help you?
The teller is usually the man or woman who you talk to if you want to put money into your bank account or take money out of your bank account.
Antonio says, yes, I'd like to deposit this check.
Antonio wants to put money into his bank account.
That's what he means when he says he wants to deposit something.
In this case, he's depositing a check.
A check is usually written on a small piece of paper that authorizes the bank to take money from one person's bank account and give it to another person.
When you have to pay your electrical bill or your gas bill, you may write a check.
You may write on a piece of paper and sign it in order to transfer money from your account to the person or the company you are paying.
Antonio is depositing a check into his bank account.
The bank teller says please fill out a deposit slip S-L-I-P.
And be sure to endorse the check on the back.
A deposit slip is a piece of paper that you write your account information on so that the teller knows where to put this check, in whose account to put it.
Slip is just another word for a small piece of paper.
To endorse, E-N-D-O-R-S-E, a check, means to sign the back of the check.
Banks usually require, though not always, that if you are going to take a check and deposit it into your account, you have to sign the back of it to prove that you are who you say you are.
Antonio is asked to endorse the check on the back, on the back of the piece of paper.
Antonio does that and then says, here you are giving the check to the teller.
I've already filled out a slip and signed the check.
To sign means to endorse in this case.
I'd also like to cash this other check.
So now we learn Antonio has two checks.
One of them he wants to deposit.
One of them he wants to cash.
The verb to cash C-A-S-H means typically to exchange a check for currency for dollars and coins, something that you can use and spend wherever you'd like.
Cashing a check means getting money from a check, that you can spend somewhere else.
That's what Antonio wants to do.
He wants to cash this check.
Notice also that cash is a noun referring to currency, referring to money, money in the form of either paper money, bills or coins.
The bank teller says, sure, I can help you with that.
Here you are.
Here's a receipt for your deposit.
The bank teller takes the check from Antonio and gives Antonio a receipt.
R-E-C-E-I-P-T.
The P is silent.
The receipt is a piece of paper saying that you have, in this case, deposited this amount of money into your bank account.
In general, a receipt is a piece of paper usually that summarizes whatever financial transaction took place.
So if you go to a restaurant and you give the waiter or the waitress, the server, your credit card, he or she brings that back and you sign it and you take a receipt.
This is a summary of the money that you just spent.
Nowadays, receipts can also be electronic.
They can send you an email.
If you go into some stores, instead of giving you a paper receipt, they will offer you the option of sending you a receipt by email.
Of course, the real reason they offer to do this is because they want your email address so they can send you some advertisements later.
The bank teller says that she's also cashed Antonio's check, and then she gives Antonio the money.
She says, let me count out your $100.
To count out is a phrasal verb meaning to say the amount of money that you are giving someone.
If you're giving someone $100 and you have five $20 bills... you would say 20, 40, 60, 80, 100.
That's exactly what the bank teller does with Antonio.
Antonio says, thanks.
Could I also check my bank balance for my other account?
Your balance B-A-L-A-N-C-E.
When talking about money or, in this case, a bank account, is the amount of money that you still have in your account.
In this case, in your bank account.
So your bank balance would be how much money you have left in your account.
The bank teller says, no problem.
Yes, of course.
You just have to swipe your ATM card and enter your PIN.
Your ATM card stands for your automatic teller machine card.
That's the little card the bank gives you that you can put into a machine and get money out of the machine.
So you don't have to go to the bank or talk to a bank teller.
That's why we call it an automatic teller.
It's a machine teller.
To swipe S-W-I-P-E a credit card or a bank card means to take the card and move it quickly through a narrow area that reads the electronic information on the back of the credit card or the bank card.
The teller is telling.
Antonio to swipe his card, to move it quickly so that the machine can read it.
After he swipes his ATM card, he's supposed to enter his PIN.
To enter means in this case to type or put information into a computer.
The PIN, P-I-N, is the personal identification number.
Usually it is four digits, four numbers that you put in that are associated with your ATM card.
The bank teller says, after Antonio does all of this, it looks like you have a balance of $1,752.00.
Will that be all?
Will that be all means, can I help you with something else?
Are you finished?
Antonio says, oh, I have that much?
He's surprised at how much money he has.
Then he says, I'd like to withdraw $80.
To withdraw, W-I-T-H-D-R-A-W, means to take money out of an account.
To deposit is to put the money into the account.
To withdraw is to take it out of the account.
That's what Antonio wants to do.
He wants to withdraw $80.
The bank teller says, all right, okay.
You need to fill out a withdrawal slip, just like the deposit slip is a small piece of paper when you deposit money into your bank account.
A withdrawal slip is a piece of paper you fill out with your information that you give to the bank teller so that he or she can take money out of your account.
The teller says why don't you step aside, meaning why don't you step to one side of where I am standing while you do that, while you fill out the withdrawal slip, so that I can help the next customer?
And when you're done, when you're finished, come back to this window and I'll help you.
The bank teller is telling Antonio that that it's going to take a little time for him to fill out his withdrawal slip.
So he should step away from the teller and let another customer come up and be helped by the teller.
Then when Antonio is ready, he can come back to the teller and give the teller his withdrawal slip.
The window here refers to the place where the teller is working in the bank.
It usually isn't a window at all in the sense that it looks out onto the outside of the building.
It's in the inside of the building, and it's just the place where the teller is working.
Antonio says, okay, I'll do that.
And if I want to transfer money between accounts...
To transfer, T-R-A-N-S-F-E-R, means to move your money from one bank account to another.
Antonio is asking what he needs to do if he wants to transfer money between accounts.
The teller says you'll need to fill out a withdrawal slip for the first amount and and a deposit slip for the second or the second amount.
Antonio says, got it, meaning yes, I understand.
This might take a while.
To take a while.
A-W-H-I-L-E means to last a long time for something to need a lot of time in order to happen.
It may take a while before your English is perfect.
It will take a little time.
But if you keep working on it, it will happen.
Antonio says that filling out all of these slips could take a while.
The bank teller says.
The teller is saying that Antonio doesn't have to hurry because the bank will be open at least until 5 o'clock in the afternoon.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Can I help you?
Yes, I'd like to deposit this check.
Please fill out a deposit slip and be sure to endorse the check on the back.
Here you are.
I've already filled out a slip and signed the check.
I'd also like to cash this other check.
Sure, I can help you with that.
Here you are.
Here's a receipt for your deposit, and I've cashed your check.
Let me count out your $100.
20, 40, 60, 80, 100.
Thanks.
Could I also check my bank balance for my other account?
No problem.
You just have to swipe your ATM card and enter your PIN.
It looks like you have a balance of $1,752.
Would that be all?
Oh, I have that much?
I'd like to withdraw $80.
All right.
You'll need to fill out a withdrawal slip.
Why don't you step aside while you do that, so I can help the next customer, and when you're done, come back to this window and I'll help you?
Okay, I'll do that.
And if I want to transfer money between accounts?
You'll need to fill out a withdrawal slip for the first account and a deposit slip for the second.
Got it.
This might take a while.
No problem, sir.
We're here all day.
At least until 5 o'clock.
Our scriptwriter takes a while to write her wonderful scripts...
But when they're finished, they're the best on the Internet.
Thank you, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
Thank you.
