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English Conversation – Banking
This is the preparation material for an english conversation lesson about banks and banking. A bank is a place where money can be saved or loaned out from. Someone's money can be placed in the bank for safe keeping. Or the bank can give out loans to people for an agreement to pay the bank back at a later time, usually with interest. The people who run a bank are called bankers. Banks also can use the money they have from deposits to invest in businesses in order to make more money. Many people are not happy with the banking industry at the moment. They believe that the banks are greedy and do not care about their customers.
Video
- Have you ever received an irritating letter from the bank?
- Do you agree that bank hours make it very difficult for working people to go there?
- Is there a problem with long bank queues in your country?
Vocabulary
| Nouns
Bank account Savings account Teller / Cashier Loan Interest Direct Deposit Withdrawal Mortgage Travellers check/cheque Bank statement Payment Balance Currency Bill
|
Verbs
Open (an account) Close (an account) Deposit (money) Withdraw (money) Cash (a check/cheque) Apply (for a loan) Borrow (money) Lend (money) Purchase Make (a deposit) Speak (to the manager) Check (your account balance) Cash (a cheque) Transfer (money) Exchange (money) Save (money) |
Phrasal Verbs
| Take out | I am going to take out a loan to purchase a new car. |
| Save up | I am saving up for a Summer holiday. |
| Fill out | Please fill out this form before depositing your money. |
| Pay off | I need to pay off my loan in the next 2 years. |
Conversation Questions
- How do you feel about banks?
- Do you go to banks often or do you mostly use internet banking?
- What are banks useful for?
- What banking services do you use the most?
- How did you choose your bank?
- Is it easy or difficult to open an account with a bank in your country?
- What are the negative things about banks?
- Do you think bank fees are too high?
- Have you ever had a bad experience with a bank? What happened?
- Have you ever made a complaint to a bank?
- Has a bank ever made a mistake with your account?
- Do you ever have to wait a long time in the bank?
- Have you ever closed a bank account? Was it a difficult process?
- Do you think banks help people to save money?
- How can children be taught how to save money?
- Did you have a piggy bank when you were a child?
- Are banks the best place to keep your money? Some people think it is safer to keep money hidden ‘under the bed’.
- What do you think about credit cards?
- Some people say that in the future we won’t even need cards but we will have an electronic chip implanted in our hand. What do you think about this?
- Do you know the difference between a debit card and a credit card?
- Are cheques common in your society? If not, what are the most common methods of payment?
- Do you feel you know enough about how the banking industry works?
- Do you think it is important for people to understand how banks and the finance industry works?
- Why do you think bankers have such a bad reputation at the moment?
- Do you think it is ok that banks lend out more money than what is given to them by people making deposits?
- Do you agree with governments ‘bailing out’ banks that run into trouble?
