00:03 Marco
Hello everyone and welcome to English Pod. My name is Marco.
00:06 Catherine
My name is Catherine and we have a very fun lesson for you today.
00:09 Marco
That's right. We're going to talk about toys. So, uh, we're going to actually take a look at a lot of different types of toys and, uh, we're going to be listening to a couple of commercials.
00:20 Catherine
That's right. So we've got two children who are watching TV and they're listening to a number of different commercials. So we're going to learn about some of these very popular products in a moment. Let's first listen to our dialogue.
00:39 Speaker 1
SpongeBob SquarePants will be right back after these brief messages.
00:43 Speaker 1
What's that on the horizon? A pirate ship. Raid villages and find buried treasure with this new Pirates Lego set. Build the ship and decide who rules the sea. Arr!
00:53 Speaker 1
The new Play-Doh Sparkling Brights Precious Gem Press. Make large colorful gems for you and your friends with five special molds. Comes with the new Sparkling Brights Play-Doh compound in four new colors. Treasure chest sold separately.
01:08 Speaker 2
Wow, mommy! Can I get that for my birthday?
01:11 Speaker 1
Wolverine, Jean Grey, Rogue, and Professor X. Collect all four of these special edition collectible X-Men action figures and decide the future of the mutants in our world.
01:21 Speaker 2
No way! I want Professor X!
01:24 Speaker 1
The new Collector's Edition Nursery Rhymes Porcelain Dolls. Little Bo Peep comes with her own sheep and staff. Her clothes are made with the finest fabrics and real Italian lace and her face has been hand-painted by our finest artists. Only $199.
01:41 Speaker 2
Ooh, she's pretty!
01:42 Speaker 3
I've never had a porcelain doll before.
01:45 Speaker 3
I doubt mom and dad will get you that for your birthday. She costs a pretty penny, plus, you'd most likely break her.
01:51 Speaker 1
What is better than a board? What is better than one board game? Three board games in one. Enjoy playing chess and checkers on this side of the board. But if you're looking for some more fun, flip it and play the classic game of Sorry!
02:04 Speaker 2
That's ingenious! Why hasn't anyone thought of that before?
02:08 Speaker 1
Now you can take SpongeBob SquarePants wherever you go with the new SpongeBob SquarePants glow in the dark Yo-yo. And now, back to our show.
02:23 Marco
All right, we're back. So a lot of great toys and actually it's very popular that, well, maybe you're watching cartoons, you get a lot of these commercials that are selling you all types of toys.
02:33 Catherine
Absolutely, because normally children watch cartoons and children like toys, so it makes sense.
02:39 Marco
Exactly. So why don't we take a look at uh so why don't we take a look at six keywords that we have for you on Language Takeaway.
02:49 Speaker 4
Language Takeaway.
02:52 Catherine
Okay, Marco, so what's the first word we're looking at here today?
02:55 Marco
All right, we have actually a brand, a very famous type of toy. Um they're called Legos.
03:01 Catherine
Legos. So Lego, Legos.
03:04 Catherine
So Legos are basically little pieces that you put together to build things.
03:08 Marco
Yeah, they're like little blocks.
03:09 Catherine
Okay, so uh when you see them, they don't look like anything. But as a child, you get to create anything you want.
03:16 Marco
Mhm. So Legos have become very famous. They have like special uh types that you can recreate maybe a spaceship from Star Wars, a pirate ship, a lot of different types now.
03:27 Catherine
Okay, so the one in today's commercial is Pirate Legos. So they're building a pirate ship.
03:32 Marco
Exactly. Legos. All right. And the next toy that we have is also a proper noun. It's a brand and it's called Play-Doh.
03:40 Catherine
Play-Doh.
03:41 Catherine
Okay, so play like playing with something, playing basketball, but Play-Doh is
03:47 Marco
It's like clay, right?
03:48 Catherine
It's like clay, but it's made out of flour I think and and you can shape it into anything you want. So when I was little, I used to make Play-Doh animals.
03:58 Catherine
You know, you could you can make a ball and you make another ball and then all of a sudden you have a cow.
04:03 Marco
Right. So it's a very soft texture type of a of a material that you can mold. You can give it different shapes and that's what we call Play-Doh. Obviously, as you say, it's it's safe for children. I think it's made out of uh out of some flour.
04:19 Catherine
Salt, salt and flour. Yeah.
04:21 Catherine
And I think a lot of children sometimes eat this, so it's it's pretty safe for kids.
04:25 Marco
Right. So yeah, that's that's Play-Doh. It's a proper noun and I guess everyone just calls it Play-Doh, so this is the toy that we're talking about.
04:33 Marco
Now moving on, we are talking about uh the X-Men, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Rogue, Professor X. And all of these come in little statues that we call action figures.
04:43 Catherine
Oh right, so what you're talking about here are obviously the X-Men, Marco. Uh and X-Men, there are many different kinds of X-Men. You have, like you said, Wolverine, who's maybe one of the most famous, and Rogue.
04:56 Catherine
But when you collect these little statues, these little dolls, they're called action figures. So figure is like a kind of doll.
05:04 Marco
Right. So the X-Men is just an example. You have action figures of all sorts of cartoons or movies. Star Wars action figures are very popular.
05:14 Catherine
Right, or G.I. Joe action figures are very popular as well.
05:17 Marco
That's right. So they're little toy statues that children play with.
05:22 Marco
All right. Moving on, now we have an adjective, a a way to describe the X-Men.
05:28 Catherine
That's right. So the X-Men, as you know, are not normal people. They have special powers. Some X-Men can fly. Wolverine has uh animal abilities. He can use his long claws. Uh so these are mutants. That means that um they were humans, but something changed in them and it makes them have these special powers.
05:51 Marco
Okay. So a mutant is a maybe a person that has special powers, like uh like as you say, Wolverine, or and all these types of X-Men. But I guess to taken maybe a look at the verb mutate, that means
06:06 Catherine
To change.
06:07 Marco
To change, right?
06:08 Catherine
Okay. So to mutate is to change. So we could say, I found a frog that had three legs. So it clearly mutated.
06:18 Marco
Because normally frogs have like four legs.
06:20 Marco
Exactly. You see that sometimes with uh chickens that maybe have two heads or something like this.
06:25 Catherine
These are mutants. They they have mutated.
06:28 Marco
Okay, very good. And now moving on to our dolls, they were talking about these beautiful porcelain dolls.
06:36 Catherine
Okay, so let's talk about porcelain because I think everyone knows what a doll is, but but porcelain is a special kind of doll, right?
06:42 Marco
Right, it's a material. Mhm. Uh and uh usually you can find this material very commonly in your plates.
06:49 Catherine
All right. So it's not clear. It's not glass.
06:52 Catherine
Um it's colored. It's normally whitish. Um and very, very fine, very pretty.
06:58 Marco
Mhm. So you call it porcelain. I guess it's a type of ceramic, right?
07:01 Catherine
That's right. Mhm.
07:03 Marco
Okay. So yeah, you have porcelain dolls. Many people also have very fine China that you call it, like dinner plates.
07:09 Catherine
Or teacups.
07:10 Marco
Or teacups and those are usually made of porcelain. All right. And uh finally, they were talking about a game that has three games in one and one of the kids said, wow, that's ingenious.
07:22 Catherine
Ingenious. This is a great word. Makes you sound really fluent. So ingenious basically means clever.
07:28 Marco
Right. It's a really good idea.
07:30 Marco
It's very a clever good idea, yeah. So if something is ingenious, it's just, wow, it's very creative.
07:36 Catherine
For example, I have a pair of gloves, but on the fingers, sometimes I can pull a cover over them and they turn into mittens. Right? I think it's ingenious. Because I have gloves and mittens all the time.
07:47 Marco
You have gloves and mittens.
07:51 Marco
All right. So a lot of interesting words there, a lot of specific toys and uh particularly brands that you may or may not know. Um but why don't we go back and listen to the dialogue again and we'll be back with Fluency Builder.
08:07 Speaker 1
SpongeBob SquarePants will be right back after these brief messages.
08:11 Speaker 1
What's that on the horizon? A pirate ship. Raid villages and find buried treasure with this new Pirates Lego set. Build the ship and decide who rules the sea. Arr!
08:23 Speaker 1
The new Play-Doh Sparkling Brights Precious Gem Press. Make large colorful gems for you and your friends with five special molds. Comes with the new Sparkling Brights Play-Doh compound in four new colors. Treasure chest sold separately.
08:38 Speaker 2
Wow, mommy! Can I get that for my birthday?
08:41 Speaker 1
Wolverine, Jean Grey, Rogue, and Professor X. Collect all four of these special edition collectible X-Men action figures and decide the future of the mutants in our world.
08:52 Speaker 2
No way! I want Professor X!
08:56 Speaker 1
The new Collector's Edition Nursery Rhymes Porcelain Dolls. Little Bo Peep comes with her own sheep and staff. Her clothes are made with the finest fabrics and real Italian lace and her face has been hand-painted by our finest artists. Only $199.
09:14 Speaker 2
Ooh, she's pretty!
09:15 Speaker 3
I've never had a porcelain doll before.
09:18 Speaker 3
I doubt mom and dad will get you that for your birthday. She costs a pretty penny, plus, you'd most likely break her.
09:25 Speaker 1
What is better than a board? What is better than one board game? Three board games in one. Enjoy playing chess and checkers on this side of the board. But if you're looking for some more fun, flip it and play the classic game of Sorry!
09:40 Speaker 2
That's ingenious! Why hasn't anyone thought of that before?
09:45 Speaker 1
Now you can take SpongeBob SquarePants wherever you go with the new SpongeBob SquarePants glow in the dark Yo-yo. And now, back to our show.
10:02 Catherine
Okay, so the first phrase here in Fluency Builder is a really important one for anyone who's buying anything because you often see this phrase on packages or you hear it in commercials.
10:12 Marco
Right. As you saw, as you saw in the Play-Doh commercial, the guy said, "Treasure chest sold separately."
10:18 Catherine
Okay, sold separately. That means the treasure chest is not included. You have to buy it extra.
10:25 Marco
Mhm. As you say, you usually see it in packaging as well. Maybe you buy a toy car and at the bottom, it will say, "Battery sold separately."
10:33 Catherine
That means there are no batteries in the box. You have to buy batteries extra.
10:38 Marco
Exactly. So that's what the phrase sold separately means. It indicates that you it's not included in the product that you are buying.
10:46 Marco
All right. Now moving on again to the uh action figures and the dolls. We saw this very interesting way of describing them. For example, the action figure said, "Special edition collectible X-Men action figures."
11:00 Catherine
Okay, special edition. This is really important and it's very common, I think, with uh with special toys or action figures or even baseball cards. Special edition means that they're produced specially on one occasion, at one time. They're not always produced.
11:17 Marco
Right. So for example, if you have, like you say, uh baseball cards, or maybe action figures, they're produced normally, but then a limited amount, a special type of the same action figure will be produced. So that's a special edition, or also commonly known as a collector's edition.
11:36 Catherine
All right. So some people collect stamps, you know, stamps for letters that you send. And I know many countries like America, um offer special edition or collector's edition stamps. These are produced once and usually they mark a special occasion like the Olympics in 1996, we had special edition stamps.
11:54 Marco
Right. So these uh special edition objects are usually not used. They're for collectors, like, like the name says, right? Collector's edition.
12:02 Catherine
Right. So you plan to sell them later on or you collect them for yourself. Uh they're not normal.
12:08 Marco
Right. They usually go up in value because they're very limited.
12:11 Catherine
That's right.
12:12 Marco
Okay. So collector's edition, special edition. And now when they were talking about the porcelain dolls, as well, it's pretty expensive, right? Almost $200.
12:22 Catherine
That's a really expensive doll.
12:24 Marco
And so one of the kids said, you know what? I think uh mom and dad won't buy you that because uh it costs a pretty penny.
12:31 Catherine
A pretty penny. This does not mean that the penny is beautiful.
12:35 Marco
Right. A penny is a one cent coin in the United States.
12:38 Catherine
That means uh it's very, very low in value. The coin. But a pretty penny is actually the opposite. It means it's very expensive.
12:47 Marco
Mhm. So why would how would you uh use this in another in another example?
12:51 Catherine
Uh, I've always wanted to buy a Ferrari, but man, Ferraris cost a pretty penny.
12:56 Marco
Okay. So you have to add the word cost before you say pretty penny, right?
13:00 Catherine
That's right. You can't say it is a pretty penny. You have to say it costs a pretty penny or
13:05 Marco
It's worth a pretty penny.
13:07 Catherine
Exactly, it's worth a pretty penny.
13:09 Marco
Okay. Very good. And for our last phrase, I think this one is a very good phrase, uh because it describes a lot of different toys that glow in the dark. Glow in the dark toys.
13:21 Catherine
Okay, so something that glows in the dark, the verb here is to glow, means that uh it can be seen even when it's dark. So, for example, when I turn the lights off and um I can see this yo-yo in my room, that means it's glow in the dark. It has light even in the dark.
13:39 Marco
Right. So there are a lot of different toys and things like this. Usually glow in the dark toys, they have a green glow, right? They look green in the dark.
13:48 Catherine
I used to have stars. So they were stickers, star stickers, and I put them on my ceiling so that when I was in bed, I could look at them and they were glow in the dark. So when the lights were off, I still had stars.
13:58 Marco
You can still see them.
14:00 Marco
Mhm. So yeah, glow in the dark. It's a way of describing an item, an object that you are able to see in the dark.
14:07 Marco
All right, so that's all we have for you on language. All right, so that's all we have for you on Fluency Builder. Why don't we go back, listen to the dialogue one last time, and we'll be back to talk some more.
14:24 Speaker 1
SpongeBob SquarePants will be right back after these brief messages.
14:28 Speaker 1
What's that on the horizon? A pirate ship. Raid villages and find buried treasure with this new Pirates Lego set. Build the ship and decide who rules the sea. Arr!
14:39 Speaker 1
The new Play-Doh Sparkling Brights Precious Gem Press. Make large colorful gems for you and your friends with five special molds. Comes with the new Sparkling Brights Play-Doh compound in four new colors. Treasure chest sold separately.
14:53 Speaker 2
Wow, mommy! Can I get that for my birthday?
14:57 Speaker 1
Wolverine, Jean Grey, Rogue, and Professor X. Collect all four of these special edition collectible X-Men action figures and decide the future of the mutants in our world.
15:07 Speaker 2
No way! I want Professor X!
15:09 Speaker 1
The new Collector's Edition Nursery Rhymes Porcelain Dolls. Little Bo Peep comes with her own sheep and staff. Her clothes are made with the finest fabrics and real Italian lace and her face has been hand-painted by our finest artists. Only $199.
15:27 Speaker 2
Ooh, she's pretty!
15:28 Speaker 3
I've never had a porcelain doll before.
15:30 Speaker 3
I doubt mom and dad will get you that for your birthday. She costs a pretty penny, plus, you'd most likely break her.
15:37 Speaker 1
What is better than a board? What is better than one board game? Three board games in one. Enjoy playing chess and checkers on this side of the board. But if you're looking for some more fun, flip it and play the classic game of Sorry!
15:50 Speaker 2
That's ingenious! Why hasn't anyone thought of that before?
15:54 Speaker 1
Now you can take SpongeBob SquarePants wherever you go with the new SpongeBob SquarePants glow in the dark Yo-yo. And now, back to our show.
16:12 Marco
All right, so talking about toys. These are really interesting toys. Are there any specific toys that you had when you were growing up or that you really, really liked?
16:20 Catherine
I had an amazing Brio train set. Okay. This is when I was young and uh a train set is basically like Legos with trains. So you build a track and you push the train around the track. And so I used to have a um a track that was as big as the living room. And my my challenge, my goal was to use every single piece.
16:42 Catherine
Which is very hard because some pieces don't fit with other pieces. And so that was my favorite toy because I I got to be very creative.
16:48 Marco
And then you would turn on the train and it would go away.
16:50 Catherine
It wasn't electric. So I had to push it myself.
16:53 Marco
Oh, okay. What was your favorite toy?
16:54 Catherine
What was your favorite toy?
16:56 Marco
Um actually, when I was growing up, I used to collect little toy cars.
17:01 Marco
I used to have a lot of little toy cars and uh I even had a little uh special, I don't know, like a box for them when you can so I could see them. And then as time went on, I I got to collect the scale cars, you know, the ones that are like one to 10, one to four.
17:17 Catherine
Did you build them or did you buy them made?
17:18 Marco
No, usually I I bought them made. I actually tried the whole um building model cars, model airplanes, but it's so hard.
17:27 Catherine
Very hard. Even adults have a hard time with that.
17:29 Marco
It's very difficult. So I don't know what type of kid actually does that when they're growing up, but uh but yeah, so many toys out there. So many people collect them, play with them. You have childhood toys that uh you're very fond of. So that's what we want to know. What type of toy did you grow up with? What did you like to play with when you were a kid?
17:48 Catherine
Or if you have kids, what toys do your kids like? Uh because we're not too familiar with toys these days. We'd be curious to hear about those.
17:55 Marco
That's right. So we want to hear from you. Come to Englishpod.com and we'll see everyone there.