English Learning Guide

Competency 2
Unit 2: Maths
Workshop 4
Centro de Servicios Financieros- CSF

Name: Cohort: Date:

Training program: Instructor:

GENERAL UNDERSTANDING OF BASIC FINANCES

This workshop attempts to help you strengthen your Math skills in English and business vocabulary using
the language to discuss and learn about basic concepts and how to manage your personal finances.

Objective: from the development of this workshop, you will be able to talk about basic concepts of
finances.

1. Work in pairs and discuss the following questions1:

- How important it is to you to save money?

Saving is important as it is a reserve that is saved or taken care of in the

present to spend or invest it in the future. You can save money and other
resources, which will help you fulfill your dreams or attend to an emergency or
unexpected expense.
Ahorrar es importante ya que es una reserva que se guarda o se cuida en el
presente para gastarla o invertirla en el futuro. Puedes ahorrar dinero y otros
recursos, que te servirán para cumplir tus sueños o atender una emergencia o
un gasto inesperado.

For me the best bank to save is BANCO CAJA SOCIAL as this offers you moves
are free and the account can be exempt from the 4X1,000 tax. As for the worst
bank for my serious BANCOLOMBIA due to the large number of complaints.
Para mí el mejor banco para ahorrar es BANCO CAJA SOCIAL ya que este te
ofrece movimientos gratis y la cuenta puede ser exenta del impuesto
4X1.000 . En cuanto al peor banco para mi seria BANCOLOMBIA debido a la
gran cantidad de quejas.

- - Which one do you consider to be the best bank to have a savings

account in your city? Why? Which one is in your opinion the worst? Why?
English Learning Guide
Competency 2
Unit 2: Maths
Workshop 4
Centro de Servicios Financieros- CSF

- What do you understand for finances?

I understand from finances that are a branch of administration and economics

that studies the exchange of capital between individuals, companies or states.
Entiendo por finanzas que son una rama de la administración y de la economía
que estudia el intercambio de capital entre individuos, empresas o estados.

2. Skills practice: do the following activities to practice the learnt vocabulary and English structures.

2.1. LISTENING PRACTICE: listening about how to manage your finances.

Before listening2, discuss your following questions:

- What do you remember spending money on, when you were a child? Who did you get the money from?

What I spent most on when I was a kid was on candy and the money came
from my mom.
En lo que más gastaba dinero cuando niño era en dulces y el dinero provenía
de mi mama.

- Do you or your family (father, mother, sister, son, etc.) plan or control your finances?

With income in the house a budget is made for the necessary expenses.
Con los ingresos en la casa se hace un presupuesto para los gastos necesarios.

1
Image taken from: https://www.joinpiggy.com/ Used by SENA for academic purposes, exclusively.

2
Taken and adapted from: http://esol.britishcouncil.org/content/learners/uk-life/family- GC-F -005 V. 01
learning/managing-your-finances Used by SENA for academic purposes, exclusively.
English Learning Guide
Competency 2
Unit 2: Marhs
Workshop 4
Centro de Servicios Financieros- CSF

Now listen and identify main ideas of the topic about how to manage your finances so you
do a good financial practice. Share your answers.

2.2. READING PRACTICE: Tips to manage your finances.

- Work in groups and based on the listening practice, read the transcript and present some of the tips
for managing your finances. Include the underlined words (synonyms) and some examples to
implement the given tips.

1. TOP TIPS Get organized: Getting organized is the best place to start when it comes to finances. Write
down your incoming and your outgoing. This will give you a concrete idea of where you are every
month and what expenditure you have and what you've got left over.

2. TOP TIPS Set a budget and stick to it: It's very important to set a budget for the month. You've got to
make sure that you actually do budget properly and try not to buy anything on credit. That's my main
advice. Although, we've not got a lot of brand new things, what we have got are all paid for and I
would recommend that to anybody trying to bring up children.

3. TOP TIPS Don’t ignore your finances and make sure you understand the small print: It's very, very
essential not to ignore your finances because you need to keep an eye on exactly where your
expenditures are.

4. TOP TIPS Manage your debts, try and stick to any agreements you’ve made…if you’re struggling talk
to the bank or your creditors and negotiate: If you have debt, the most important thing is to keep an
eye on it. Any payments you agree to pay on a certain payment date, make sure you do, because it will
add additional charges and increase your debt.

5. TOP TIPS Contact the Citizens Advice Bureau for debt advice or help with money management: Help
with everything she needs to hurry up out the door. Make-up, hair.

GC-F -005 V. 01
6. TOP TIPS Prioritize your bills: Look at the major bills, all the essential bills that have to be paid, such as
your mortgage or your rent, water charges, heating charges. Then you've got things like food and
travel. Put the essential items first. Then any things that you have left over, you could put aside for
maybe treats later on.

7. TOP TIPS Look at ways of bringing down your costs: Kids clothes cost an arm and a leg, left, right and
centre. You're always going out, they need new trainers, stuff like that. Children don't need to be in all
the designer gear. To reduce spending, there are several ways you can do that. I mean you can look at,
for instance, buying refurbished or second-hand goods. That goes with clothes as well. Looking at
different types of phone providers, different types of gas and electrical providers. All these different
ways you can look at reducing your expenditure.

8. TOP TIPS If it helps…overestimate your costs: Financially, you never think it's going to cost as much as
it does. It's a good idea to overestimate costs, you just have a little contingency fund just in case
things do get a little bit more expensive than you anticipated.

9. TOP TIPS Food shopping can be expensive so plan ahead: What I would do is make a menu for the
week. I would work out what we was going to have for the week. Then I would write down everything
- all the ingredients I would need for those menus. And then make the shopping list based on the
ingredients and then go out, get the ingredients and come back. If we had any money left over that
was for like goodies. Think about cheaper alternatives. Supermarkets do their own home brands. Think
about that sort of solution. And also try and keep takeaways to a minimum.

10. TOP TIPS Think about putting money aside for birthdays and celebrations: It's a very good idea to
plan ahead for things like Christmas, birthdays, because basically as you put a little bit away each
week, it's a lot easier than trying to find a big lump sum for the time because that way you will
increase your debt by spending what you haven't got.
11. TOP TIPS Save your pennies: I mean a little idea - you could have a little jar on the side where you put
all your spare coppers and pennies in. You'll be surprised how much they add up, but also keep it out
of sight so you're not tempted to spend it. Plan ahead. Think about ways of reducing your costs. Work
out a budget and stick to it.

Look for the following vocabulary and then use the words to complete the statements below.

credit, finances , budget, save , contingency fund, pennies, expenditure, negotiate , Citizens Advice Bureau-
CAB, outgoings, agreements, bills.

- Crédito,
The finanzas,
first step to presupuesto, ahorro, fondo de contingencia, centavos, gastos, negociar, Oficina de
Asesoramiento al Ciudadano CAB, egresos, convenios, facturas.

managing your is to get organized.

- Calculate your incomings and so you know how much money you
have available.
- Set a so that you know how much money you can spend on each of your
outgoings and avoid using .
- Make sure you include everything you spend money on so you know your exact .
- Never ignore your finances and make sure you understand and stick to any
financial you've made.
- If you’re having problems, with your creditors and contact the .
- Prioritize your and think of ways to reduce them.
- It’s also a good idea to overestimate yours costs and have a .
- Put money aside for birthdays and celebrations and your .

2.3. SPEAKING PRACTICE: discuss and share your finances experience.

In groups of 3 or 4 people, talk about your finances and share your opinion/experiences.

- Is there any advice your relatives give to you on how to manage your finances?
- Can you remember any experience when you had money and expend it wrongly and later you
regretted doing so?
2.4. WRITING PRACTICE: Giving tips and advice for good financial practice.
- Prepare some own tips and advice for good finances practice. Use different examples, such as:
shopping, studies, paying bills, getting food supplies. Give examples on how to save/earn more
money. Share with the class. Use posters, images and any complementary materials you’d like to
use.
- Write a paragraph describing bank accounts in Colombia. Can also compare banks.

3. Extension activities: the extension activities will help you improve your performance in
the topics. You need to reach at least five hours of practice on your own.

- For some more information about banking and vocabulary: Introduction to banking page 6,
Shopping for a Checking Account page 14, Answer the questions on page 16., finances, vocabulary
and practice visit: http://dhss.alaska.gov/gcdse/Documents/projects/assets/pdf/esl%20finlit.pdf
- For more about personal finances: https://www.lds.org/bc/content/ldsorg/topics/self-
reliance/personal-finances-na-eng.pdf
- For negotiating with creditors: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/201406
- For practicing simple past English structure: http://www.esl-lounge.com/student/grammar-
guides/grammar-elementary.php#past-simple-structure
- For practicing more English structure present perfect review: http://www.esl-
lounge.com/student/grammar-guides/grammar-pre-intermediate-3.php#present-perfect-structure
- For practicing past continuous English structure: http://www.esl-lounge.com/student/grammar-
guides/grammar-pre-intermediate.php#past-continuous-structure