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Weeble Wobble

Date: Jul 07 2005

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

The Weeble Wobbles were toys made in the 90s that couldn’t fall down.
Listen in as Derek talks about why he thinks he’s a Weeble Wobble.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Sara

Derek

Sara: So, Derek, have you ever fallen over before?

Derek: Um, no. Not really. I weeble wobble.

Sara: What does that mean?

Derek: Well, have you ever played with those little characters? They’re like eggs and they don’t fall over.

Sara: Yeah. Yeah. And you weeble wobble?

Derek: I weeble wobble.

Sara: So, you never fall down, you just kind of fall slowly to the side and then get back up?

Derek: Just bounce right back up. Yeah.

Sara: That’s really bizarre. How do you manage to do that?

Derek: Lots of practice.

Sara: Can you show me later how to do it?

Derek: Sure. I’ve had some success teaching some people how.

Sara: Huh. So weeble wobble. Did you make up that name?

Derek: No. The, whoever the toy company is made up the name, so.

Sara: Why do you think they call it that? Why weeble? I understand the wobble part.

Derek: It sounds cute with wobble.

Sara: It rhymes.

Derek: Yes.

Sara: Huh. Interesting. Well, you’re going to have to show me.

Derek: OK.

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

Weeble Wobbles were pretty fun toys for little kids, but they got boring after a while. It’s pretty cool how the name of a toy can start a new word though, isn’t it?
All kinds of words have been made up by product names. We have the verb to xerox[/def], to google[/def] and others. People call all soda pop Coke in parts of the US.
Does this happen where you live? Can you think of any examples of new words based on product names?

Comments

krysztal

United States

The homepage states that Weeble Wobbles were invented in the 1990s. If that were true, then I am much younger than I thought. As I remember it, however, I graduated from high school in 1990. At the age of 12 (1983), my (long-distance) grandparents gave me Weeble Wobbles for Christmas and I was irritated that they still thought I was a small child, or were unaware of the age-sensitive appropriateness of Weeble Wobbles. I’m sure weeble wobble have been around much longer than that.
The dialogue is good, but the use of Weeble Wobble seems to be out of context and more common usage. Perhaps it could be used as an idiom in situations where a person ‘bounces back’ emotionally from hard times, not from physically falling over.