Learn the vocabulary you need to know for using the banks in China
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to CantoneseClass101.com. I’m David. |
| Nicole: 大家好, 我係 (daai6 gaa1 hou2, ngo5 hai6) Nicole. |
| David: And here we are with Absolute Beginner, Season 2, Lesson 15. |
| Nicole: “Opening a Bank Account in Hong Kong.” |
| David: Right. This is an inspired title, we know, but you know what you’re in for. Today we’re going to teach you everything you need to know to open a bank account in Hong Kong. |
| Nicole: That’s right. And you’ll also learn many bank words. |
| David: Right. Because you can only carry so much cash through customs, before they stop you, right? So, getting a bank account is important. So, we’ve got a dialogue here which takes place, of course, in a bank. |
| Nicole: Yeah, between a customer and - |
| David: A bank teller. Now, we’re going to take you to the dialogue in a sec, but speaking of opening accounts, if you have not yet, create a free account for yourself on CantoneseClass101.com. Nicole, how long does it take? |
| Nicole: Less than five seconds. |
| David: Right. We’ve set a record. |
| Nicole: It’s a new record. |
| David: It’s a new record. So, get yourself a free account, it’s really going to pay off. That being said though, let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 我要開戶。(ngo5 jiu3 hoi1 wu6.) |
| B: 可以。幾錢？(ho2 ji5. gei2 cin2?) |
| A: 十蚊。(sap6 man1.) |
| B: 十蚊？唔好意思，唔得。(sap6 man1? m4 hou2 ji3 si1, m4 dak1.) |
| A: 點解？(dim2 gaai2?) |
| B: 開戶至少要一百蚊。(hoi1 wu6 zi3 siu2 jiu3 jat1 baak3 man1.) |
| A: I want to start an account. |
| B: Sure. How much? |
| A: Ten HKD. |
| B: Ten HKD? I'm sorry, that can't be done. |
| A: Why? |
| B: You need at least 100 HKD to start an account. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: Nicole, what’s your favorite bank in Hong Kong? |
| Nicole: HSBC. |
| David: Mine too! Yeah, I love that. |
| Nicole: The service is great! |
| David: Service is great and the main building downtown on Queen’s right central is fantastic. |
| Nicole: You’ve been there? |
| David: Oh, many, many times. It’s worth going to, it’s a beautiful, beautiful building. And the service is actually really good, too. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: So, that’s our recommendation. |
| Nicole: It is just busy. It has branches all over the world. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Nicole: Best bank in Hong Kong, you heard it here from us. Anyway, we’ve got a lot of vocab about opening bank accounts, so let’s get to them. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Nicole: 開戶。(hoi1 wu6.) |
| David: “To open an account”. |
| Nicole: 開戶, 開戶, 點解？(hoi1 wu6, hoi1 wu6, dim2 gaai2?) |
| David: “Why”. |
| Nicole: 點解？ 點解？ 至少。 (dim2 gaai2?, dim2 gaai2?, zi3 siu2.) |
| David: “At least”. |
| Nicole: 至少, 至少, 銀行。(zi3 siu2, zi3 siu2, ngan4 hong4.) |
| David: “Bank”. |
| Nicole: 銀行, 銀行, 櫃枱 。 (ngan4 hong4, ngan4 hong4, gwai6 toi2.) |
| David: “Counter”. |
| Nicole: 櫃枱, 櫃枱, 存錢。(gwai6 toi2, gwai6 toi2, cyun4 cin2.) |
| David: “To save money”. |
| Nicole: 存錢, 存錢, 攞錢。(cyun4 cin2, cyun4 cin2, lo2 cin2.) |
| David: “To take out money”. |
| Nicole: 攞錢, 攞錢, 利息。(lo2 cin2, lo2 cin2, lei6 sik1.) |
| David: “Interest”. |
| Nicole: 利息, 利息。(lei6 sik1, lei6 sik1.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases. Our first word of course is “to start an account”. |
| Nicole: 開戶。 (hoi1 wu6.) |
| David: “To start an account”. |
| Nicole: 開戶。 (hoi1 wu6.) |
| David: Now in Hong Kong they have minimum deposits. Say you’ll need to ask them. “How much do I need to start an account?” |
| Nicole: 開戶幾多錢？(hoi1 wu6 gei2 do1 cin2?) |
| David: That’s literally “To start an account, how much money?” |
| Nicole: That’s right. 開戶 幾多錢？ (hoi1 wu6 gei2 do1 cin2?) |
| David: And we hope you remember that from our previous lessons. “How much money?” |
| Nicole: 幾多錢？(gei2 do1 cin2?) |
| David: “To start an account, how much money?” |
| Nicole: 開戶幾多錢？ (hoi1 wu6 gei2 do1 cin2?) When you want to ask “How much?” you can say 幾錢？(gei2 cin2?) and 幾多錢？(gei2 do1 cin2?) both ways work. |
| David: Right. Other key banking vocab here includes the word “bank”. |
| Nicole: 銀行。(ngan4 hong4.) |
| David: “Bank”. |
| Nicole: 銀行。(ngan4 hong4.) |
| David: If you’re looking for a bank, you can ask “Where is the bank?” |
| Nicole: 銀行喺邊？(ngan4 hong4 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: “Where is the bank?” |
| Nicole: 銀行喺邊？(ngan4 hong4 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: “Where is HSBC?” |
| Nicole: 匯豐銀行喺邊？ (wui6 fung1 ngan4 hong4 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: So, the next two words you want to focus on are “saving money”. |
| Nicole: 存錢。(cyun4 cin2.) |
| David: And “Taking money out”. |
| Nicole: 攞錢。(lo2 cin2.) |
| David: Now, if you downloaded our PDF you will be able to see the characters for this. And you will need these for filling out the forms. For now though, let’s just practice saying “I want to deposit money.” |
| Nicole: 我要存錢。(ngo5 jiu3 cyun4 cin2.) |
| David: “I want to deposit money.” |
| Nicole: 我要存錢。(ngo5 jiu3 cyun4 cin2.) |
| David: How about “I want to deposit 500 dollars”? |
| Nicole: 我要存500蚊。(ngo5 jiu3 cyun4 ng5 baak3 man1.) |
| David: “I want to deposit 500 dollars.” |
| Nicole: 我要存500蚊。(ngo5 jiu3 cyun4 ng5 baak3 man1.) |
| David: Right. We just add the amount at the end of this verb. You do the same thing when you’re withdrawing money. You can say “I want to withdraw money.” |
| Nicole: 我要攞錢。(ngo5 jiu3 lo2 cin2.) |
| David: “I want to withdraw money, please.” |
| Nicole: 我要攞錢, 唔該。(ngo5 jiu3 lo2 cin2, m4 goi1.) |
| David: Or? |
| Nicole: 唔該, 我要攞錢。 (m4 goi1, ngo5 jiu3 lo2 cin2.) |
| David: And the second is probably preferable, because you’re going to need to tell them, how much money. How about “Excuse me, I’d like to take out 500 dollars.” |
| Nicole: 唔該, 我要攞 500蚊。(m4 goi1, ngo5 jiu3 lo2 ng5 baak3 man1.) |
| David: “Excuse me I’d like to take out 500 dollars.” |
| Nicole: 唔該, 我要攞 500蚊。(m4 goi1, ngo5 jiu3 lo2 ng5 baak3 man1.) |
| David: Now, you’re probably going to want to deposit or take out more money. So let’s practice these sentences with higher amounts. For instance, “I want to deposit 2000 dollars.” |
| Nicole: 我要存兩千蚊。(ngo5 jiu3 cyun4 loeng5 cin1 man1.) |
| David: “I want to deposit 2000 dollars.” |
| Nicole: 我要存兩千蚊。(ngo5 jiu3 cyun4 loeng5 cin1 man1.) |
| David: How about “I want to take out 2000 dollars.” |
| Nicole: 我要攞兩千蚊。(ngo5 jiu3 lo2 loeng5 cin1 man1.) |
| David: “I want to take out 2000 dollars.” |
| Nicole: 我要攞兩千蚊。(ngo5 jiu3 lo2 loeng5 cin1 man1.) |
| David: So key vocab for this lesson. First, we have the word “bank”. |
| Nicole: 銀行。(ngan4 hong4.) |
| David: When you find the bank you like, you’ll want “to open an account”. |
| Nicole: 開戶。(hoi1 wu6.) |
| David: So that you can “save money”. |
| Nicole: 存錢。(cyun4 cin2.) |
| David: And “take money out”. |
| Nicole: 攞錢。(lo2 cin2.) |
| David: With that, let’s get to our grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: It’s grammar time! In our grammar section today, we want to review a really simple grammar pattern. This is the pattern of asking people where things are. |
| Nicole: 喺邊？(hai2 bin1?) |
| David: In our vocab section, we review the phrase “Where is the bank?” |
| Nicole: 銀行喺邊？ (ngan4 hong4 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: If you remember, we’re putting the object that we’re looking for, first. |
| Nicole: 銀行。(ngan4 hong4.) |
| David: “Bank”. |
| Nicole: 銀行。(ngan4 hong4.) |
| David: “Bank”. |
| Nicole: 銀行喺邊？(ngan4 hong4 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: “Where is the bank?” |
| Nicole: 銀行喺邊？ (ngan4 hong4 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: Right. In addition to a bank, you might also find yourself looking for an ATM. |
| Nicole: 櫃員機 (gwai6 jyun4 gei1). But in Hong Kong people just say ATM. |
| David: Right. So you can say? |
| Nicole: ATM 喺邊？(ATM hai2 bin1?) |
| David: “Where is the ATM?” |
| Nicole: ATM 喺邊？(ATM hai2 bin1?) |
| David: Or if you really want to stretch your Cantonese you can try that all in Cantonese. |
| Nicole: 櫃員機 喺邊？(gwai6 jyun4 gei1 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: “Where is the ATM?” |
| Nicole: 櫃員機 喺邊？(gwai6 jyun4 gei1 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: Now, when you go to HSBC, they’ve got a lot of local branches, but the big branch is huge so you may need to ask them where certain divisions in the bank are. For instance “Where is customer service?” |
| Nicole: 客戶服務喺邊？ (haak3 wu6 fuk6 mou6 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: “Where is customer service?” |
| Nicole: 客戶服務喺邊？ (haak3 wu6 fuk6 mou6 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: Right. They also tend to separate business and individual banking. So if you’re there on business, you can say “Where is the business counter?” |
| Nicole: 企業窗口喺邊？ (kei2 jip6 coeng1 hau2 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: “Where is the business counter?” |
| Nicole: 企業窗口喺邊？ (kei2 jip6 coeng1 hau2 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: You might need to ask them “Where is business banking?” |
| Nicole: 公司櫃枱喺邊？ (gung1 si1 gwai6 toi2 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: “Where is corporate banking?” |
| Nicole: 企業櫃枱喺邊？ (kei2 jip6 gwai6 toi2 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: The answer is that “is downstairs”. |
| Nicole: 樓下。(lau4 haa6.) |
| David: The second thing you’re going to need to look for is “individual banking” or “personal banking”. |
| Nicole: 個人櫃枱喺邊？ (go3 jan4 gwai6 toi2 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: That’s a long one. Let’s try it again. “Where is personal baking?” |
| Nicole: 個人櫃枱喺邊？ (go3 jan4 gwai6 toi2 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: Right. A lot of the words that we’ve covered in this lesson are specific to banks. So, you might not need to remember them all. However, the important thing to take home is the sentence pattern. |
| Nicole: …….. 喺邊？(hai2 bin1?) |
| David: As in the sentence “Where is the bank?” |
| Nicole: 銀行喺邊？ (ngan4 hong4 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: “Where is the ATM?” |
| Nicole: 櫃員機喺邊？(gwai6 jyun4 gei1 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: Right. So you can take any noun and drop in that pattern. This has been a review lesson so we hope this isn’t totally new to you. Next week, we’re going to come out to you with completely new grammar point and so more great vocab. Before we do that though, Nicole, there’s something you wanted to say. |
Outro |
| Nicole: There is a very powerful tool on our site. |
| David: Right, it is a really powerful tool for listening comprehension. |
| Nicole: The line by line audio. |
| David: Right. If you go onto the premium learning center, you can click to listen to our dialogues over and over again. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Line by line. This is a great way to break dialogues into bite size sentences and understand them. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: For now though, I’m David. |
| Nicole: 我係 (ngo5 hai6) Nicole. |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening and we hope you’re enjoying the site. |
| Nicole: See you! |
| David: Bye-bye! |
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