At the Bank

Money questions are the ones you least want to fumble in another language. This topic gets you comfortable handling a visit to a Spanish speaking bank, from the first greeting at the counter to the last thank you.

What you will learn

The conversation follows a traveler through a full bank visit: exchanging foreign currency, asking about the rate and any charges, handing over identification, and then sorting out a problem with a machine. Along the way you pick up dozens of useful words and phrases, from el tipo de cambio and la comisión to el recibo and la tarjeta. The same language carries over to plenty of other counters and windows, anywhere you have to explain what you need and understand what you are told in return.

How the practice works

Each quiz plays out as a realistic chat between two people. You follow the exchange as it unfolds and assemble sentences word by word, which pushes you to notice endings, accents, and polite forms instead of skimming past them. Every line is recorded by native speakers, so your ear gets the same workout your reading does. A session takes only a few minutes, and you can come back and replay a quiz whenever it suits you.

One word, two very different tellers

In Spanish, el cajero is both the person behind the counter and the machine in the wall. The full name for the machine is el cajero automático, but almost nobody says all of it, so the same word can point you toward a human or toward a keypad depending on the sentence around it. Native speakers sort the two apart from context without ever stopping to think about it, and once you know to listen for it, so will you.