Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,240, Giving Correct Change.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 1,240.
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 Evelyn and Hank about giving someone the correct amount of money back when he pays you in cash.
Let's get started.
If you want a job here as a cashier, you'll need to be able to give correct change.
Don't you use a cash register here?
We do, but when it's not working, we have to be able to calculate change in our heads in a pinch.
Oh, I didn't realize that.
Okay, let's see how you do with a simple sale.
Let's say I'm purchasing these two items and I'm paying with a $20 bill.
Alright, give me a minute.
The total is $9.36.
Make sure you count back the change.
I've never done that before.
I'm not sure I know how.
Count up, starting with the coins and working your way up to the paper money.
Count out loud so the customer gets a running total.
Okay, but first I have to do the math.
The change should be...
Can I have a piece of paper to check my work?
I don't want to short the customer or give them too much change.
You won't have time to do that with each customer.
Math wasn't your favorite subject in school.
Was it?
You're right about that.
Maybe I need to work on my math skills.
In the meantime, I'm handy with a mop.
Good to hear.
There's a cleanup on aisle three that's got your name all over it.
Evelyn begins our dialogue by saying to Hank if you want a job here as a cashier, you'll need to be able to give correct change.
A cashier C-A-S-H-I-E-R is a person who whose job it is to take your money at a store where you are buying something.
Now, you can pay for things in most American stores using a credit card.
But many people buy things, especially things that don't cost very much money, in cash.
That is, they pay for their items, the things they are buying, with paper money and coins.
To give correct change means to, as a cashier, give the correct amount of money back to someone who pays you with more money than what the item is worth.
An example will make this clear.
If you are buying a large coffee cup like the ones that I use, and the cup costs 550, you may give the cashier 10 to pay for this coffee cup.
The cashier then gives you back money.
The correct change in this case would be 450, because 10 minus 550, the cost of the cup, is 450.
We call that amount of money you get back change.
C-H-A-N-G-E So Evelyn is telling Hank that he has to learn how to give correct change.
Hank asks, Don't you use a cash register here?
A cash register R-E-G-I-S-T-E-R is a machine nowadays usually a computer that adds up the cost of everything a customer or a person buying something is buying and tells you what the total amount is.
A cash register will often usually tell you how much change to give back to a customer if the customer is paying with cash.
Notice that we call it a cash register, but it is used for people paying with credit cards as well as with cash.
Evelyn says we do, meaning we do use a cash register here, but when it's not working, when it is not functioning properly, we have to be able to calculate change in our heads in a pinch.
To calculate C-A-L-C-U-L-A-T-E means to perform a mathematical function with numbers such as adding subtracting, multiplying or dividing.
To do something in your head means to do it without writing anything down on a piece of paper or using a computer or other machine.
Most of us can add 5 plus 5 in our heads.
We don't need a piece of paper to calculate the answer, or at least I hope we don't.
To do something in a pinch P-I-N-C-H means to do something if it's necessary in a difficult or challenging situation.
Meaning you wouldn't normally have to do it that way, but if it were required you could do it that way.
Hank responds oh, I didn't realize that meaning.
I guess he didn't realize that sometimes the cash register doesn't work.
Evelyn says okay, let's see how you do meaning, let's see how you perform, how you are able to give change back with a simple sale.
Let's say meaning.
Let's imagine I'm purchasing or buying these two items, these two things, and I'm paying with a 20 bill.
Hank says all right, give me a minute, meaning give me some time, a short amount of time to think about it.
Hank then says the total is $9.36.
The total means that's how much the two items that Evelyn has there cost together.
Evelyn says, make sure you count back the change.
To count back the change means to say out loud, as you are giving the money back to the customer, how much that change is.
So if a customer buys something for 936 and gives you a 20 bill, you count back the change by starting with the amount that the customer purchased and each coin or each piece of Currency cash you give the customer.
You say it out loud
So if the customer buys something worth $9.36, you would first give the customer four pennies.
You would go 9.36, 37, 38, 39, 40.
Then you would give the customer a dime worth 10 cents, 9.50.
Then you would give the customer two quarters worth worth fifty cents.
Then you would say ten, and then you would give the customer a ten dollar bill and you would say twenty.
So the total is nine thirty six and you would say nine thirty seven, thirty eight thirty nine forty fifty, ten and twenty.
You are counting back the change to the customer.
I worked in a store as a cashier for seven years when I was in high school and college, so I got used to counting back change to the customer.
Hank says, I've never done that before.
I'm not sure I know how.
Evelyn says, count up starting with the coins and working your way up to the paper money.
To count up means to start with the smallest number and gradually or slowly add to it.
That's what I did in my example.
I counted up, beginning with the total of the sale, $9.36.
First, I gave the customer back the coins.
A coin.
C-O-I-N is a small in the United States round piece of metal that represents a certain amount of money.
In the U.S., we have the smallest coin, which is a penny.
That's worth one cent out of the 100 cents in a dollar.
We also have a nickel coin.
N-I-C-K-E-L, worth 5 cents.
A dime, D-I-M-E, worth 10 cents.
A quarter, Q-U-A-R-T-E-R, worth 25 cents.
We do have a 50 cent coin, but it's not used very often.
We also have a dollar coin, but again, it's not used very often.
In fact, I don't think they make dollar coins anymore.
So Evelyn tells Hank to count up starting with the coins and to work his way up, meaning to get up to a higher amount. in this case, to the paper money, what are called paper bills, B-I-L-L-S.
In the US.
The most common paper bills you will see are 1 bills, 5 bills, 10 bills and 20 bills, although you will also see 50 bills and 100 bills.
Evelyn says count out loud meaning so the person can hear you.
So the customer gets a running total.
A running total is a total amount.
Each time you add a new amount to what you are giving the customer, just as I did when I gave my example of 9 37 38 39, 40.
That's a running total.
Hank says, okay, but first I have to do the math.
To do the math means the same as to calculate.
Hank says the change should be.
And then he stops and says can I have a piece of paper to check my work?
Hank wants a piece of paper and a pencil or a pen to calculate on the piece of paper rather than doing it in his head.
He says, I don't want to short the customer. or give them, him or her, too much change.
To short, S-H-O-R-T, means to give the customer less money than you are supposed to give him.
Of course, you don't want to short the customer.
The customer might get very angry.
Evelyn says you won't have time to do that with each customer, meaning you're not going to have time to take out a piece of paper and calculate the change every time you have a customer.
Math wasn't your favorite subject in school, was it?
Evelyn asks.
She's making a joke.
She's saying that Hank isn't very good at math, at mathematics.
In British English, they would say maths with an S on the end.
But in U.S.
English we just say math without the S.
Hank says you're right about that, meaning no, math wasn't my favorite subject in school.
He says, maybe I need to work on or to practice to get better on my math skills.
In the meantime, I'm handy with a mop.
To be handy, H-A-N-D-Y, means to be able to do something well, especially some physical task.
A mop...
M-O-P, is something you use to wash the floor.
It has a long stick and on the end of the stick there is either a sponge or a group of thick ropes that are used to clean the floor with water and some kind of soap.
Hank is making a little joke here.
He's saying that because he isn't very good at math, maybe he can do something else at that store.
Maybe he can clean the floors.
Evelyn says good to hear, meaning that's good to know.
That information is good for me to know.
Then she says, there's a cleanup on aisle three that's got your name all over it.
A cleanup, C-L-E-A-N-U-P, one word, is a noun referring to something that needs to be cleaned up, that needs to be picked up. usually because someone dropped it.
If you go into a grocery store, a place that sells food, sometimes people drop the containers of food on the floor and someone has to clean that up.
That's a cleanup.
An aisle A-I-S-L-E in this case refers to the area between the rows of food in a grocery store.
Most grocery stores put cans and packages of food that don't need to be in a refrigerator or freezer on shelves and these shelves are placed in the store.
In between the shelves is what is called an aisle.
That's where you can walk up and down in order to see the food on the shelves.
Evelyn says that there's a cleanup in aisle three, meaning the third aisle in the grocery store.
She says the cleanup has Hank's name all over it.
To have your name all over something or written all over something means that it is something that is a good match for you, something that is intended for you.
Evelyn is saying, in other words, that Hank would be a good person to clean up the mess in aisle three, especially since he isn't very good at math and therefore will not be a very good cashier.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
If you want a job here as a cashier, you'll need to be able to give correct change.
Don't you use a cash register here?
We do, but when it's not working, we have to be able to calculate change in our heads in a pinch.
Oh, I didn't realize that.
Okay, let's see how you do with a simple sale.
Let's say I'm purchasing these two items and I'm paying with a $20 bill.
Alright, give me a minute.
The total is $9.36.
Make sure you count back the change.
I've never done that before.
I'm not sure I know how.
Count up, starting with the coins and working your way up to the paper money.
Count out loud so the customer gets the running total.
Okay, but first I have to do the math.
The change should be... Can I have a piece of paper to check my work?
I don't want to short the customer or give them too much change.
You won't have time to do that with each customer.
Math wasn't your favorite subject in school, was it?
You're right about that.
Maybe I need to work on my math skills.
In the meantime, I'm handy with a mop.
Good to hear.
There's a cleanup on aisle three that's got your name all over it.
It's impossible to calculate the amount of English you will learn by listening to the wonderful scripts by our wonderful script writer, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks 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 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
