Dumbphone

Feifei Hello and welcome to The English We Speak. I’m Feifei.

Neil And I’m Neil. So how was your holiday, Feifei? Got any photos?

Feifei Yeah! Aren’t they cool?

Neil Well, I haven’t seen them.

Feifei Haven’t seen them? Well check out my social media feeds.

Neil Erm… well, I’ll have to wait till I get to my computer. I can’t see anything on this dumbphone.

Feifei Dumbphone?!

Neil 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!

Feifei Oh I see. The opposite of ‘smart’ is ‘dumb’, so the opposite of a smartphone is a ‘dumbphone’.

Neil You’ve got it! It’s very fashionable, you know. Eddie Redmayne uses one!

Feifei Hmm, not sure about that… But let’s hear some examples.

Examples

Man 1
Argh my arm is killing me from playing around with my phone so much.

Woman 1 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!

Feifei 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.

Neil 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?

Feifei Neil, just get a new smartphone.

Neil No way. The past is the future!

Feifei What next? Are you going to start coming to work on a horse?

Neil Now that is a great idea! And maybe I could swap my computer for a typewriter. And who really needs electricity when you can have a nice gas lamp…

Feifei Good bye!

Neil Bye.