Are you ready for a good laugh? If so, then this episode is for you. Join Andrew and Suzanne for this fun-filled Chatterbox episode as they share some of their former and unfortunate nicknames!

  

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Fun fact

A pet name, or a hypocorism, means a nickname of affection. It is an informal name that a person uses for someone else to express endearment, love, or intimacy.

Expressions included in the learning materials

* A nickname

* A dumbo

* A vibe/to vibe

* To switch it up

* To push [someone’s] buttons

Sample transcript

Suzanne:        Hey, Andrew. I’m well. How are you?

Andrew:           I’m doing pretty well, yeah. Thanks.

Suzanne:        It’s nighttime for you, right?

Andrew:           Yeah. You and I are on opposite sides of the world. So it’s nighttime for me and it’s morning for you. And thanks to the power of the internet, we can record this podcast for all our listeners.

Suzanne:        Yes. And normally I have my coffee with me when we record in the morning. But today I decided to switch it up.

Andrew:           Switch it up?

Suzanne:        Yeah.

Andrew:           So you’re drinking orange juice?

Suzanne:        Oh no. I’m not a big juice fan.

Andrew:           No? No juice?

Suzanne:        I don’t really vibe on the juice.

Andrew:           OK.

Suzanne:        It’s too sweet, I think.

Andrew:           Fair enough. So milk?

Suzanne:        Milk? No. I drink maybe almond milk.

Andrew:           OK.

Suzanne:        But just like in, you know, cereal or something. One more guess, you have one more guess.

Andrew:           Uh, well, it’s not coffee, it’s not juice, it’s not milk. It must be tea.

Suzanne:        Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Yes, sir.

Andrew:           Nice.

Suzanne:        I’m drinking tea, caffeinated tea. So it has caffeine in it, but it’s definitely not as strong as the coffee.

Andrew:           Right on. Well, Suzanne, I think we should move on to today’s episode. Today we’re doing a Chatterbox episode, and this is where we chat. We have a natural conversation about an interesting topic.

So today, Suzanne, what is our topic?

Suzanne:        Today, Andrew, we’re going to talk about nicknames.

Andrew:           Nicknames. I love it.

Suzanne:        Yeah!

Andrew:           What is a nickname?

Suzanne:        A nickname is a shortened version of your name.

Andrew:           Mmhmm.

Suzanne:        For example, my name is Suzanne but a lot of my friends just like to call me Sue.

Andrew:           Mmhmm, so this is your nickname?

Suzanne:        That’s a nickname. But sometimes a nickname can be like a quirky, short name that has nothing to do with your name, but maybe has to do with a character trait about you. Maybe you like to wear blue shirts all the time, and so some people start calling you a Smurf.

Andrew:           Or the Blue Shirt Guy.

Suzanne:        Exactly.

Andrew:           Yeah, that’s exactly it. And I’ve found that, in my life, I had different nicknames throughout different stages of my life.

Suzanne:        Yeah?

Andrew:           When I was a kid, I had a certain nickname, and now that I’m older, I have different nicknames and different groups of friends call me different things.

But let’s start right at the very beginning, when we were kids.