Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Hello and welcome to The English We Speak. I'm Feifei. And I'm Neil. So how was your holiday, Feifei? Got any photos? Yeah! Aren't they cool? Well, I haven't seen them. Haven't seen them? Well check out my social media feeds. Erm… well, I'll have to wait till I get to my computer. I can't see anything on this dumbphone. Dumbphone?! Yeah, I was getting addicted to my smartphone – I couldn't stop checking it every five seconds - so I got rid of it and now I have this dumbphone! It's brilliant – it does absolutely nothing apart from phone and text! Oh, I see. The opposite of 'smart' is 'dumb', so the opposite of a smartphone is a 'dumbphone'. You've got it! It's very fashionable, you know. Eddie Redmayne uses one! Hmm, not sure about that… But let's hear some examples. Argh, my arm is killing me from playing around with my phone so much. Get yourself a dumbphone, like me. There's nothing to check! My sleep has improved so much since I got rid of my smartphone. There's no temptation to stare at this dumbphone in bed! I'm sick of being bullied by my smartphone. I'm going to join the dumbphone revolution! This is The English We Speak from BBC Learning English. We're learning the word 'dumbphone'. A dumbphone is a simple, old-fashioned style mobile phone which can only make calls and send text messages. 'Dumb' is the opposite of 'smart'. Some people are choosing to use them because they think smartphones distract them too much. It's a word that's only appeared over the last couple of years, so you probably won't find it in a dictionary – but it's been used a lot in the media. So, Feifei, how am I going to see these holiday snaps of yours? Neil, just get a new smartphone. No way. The past is the future! What next? Are you going to start coming to work on a horse? Now, that is a great idea! Maybe I could swap my computer for a typewriter. And who really needs electricity when you can have a nice gas lamp… Good bye! Bye.
A2 UK feifei smartphone mart dumb holiday speak Dumbphone: The English We Speak 35363 685 Evangeline posted on 2021/05/16 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary