Reinvent the wheel

Summary

Is Neil wasting time thinking of ideas for today's programme? Feifei thinks he's writing the same old thing—but what's writing got to do with reinventing a wheel? All will be revealed in this programme—if Neil finishes writing it!

Transcript

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

Neil
… and… hi there… I'm Neil.

Feifei
Err… Neil, could we have your attention please?

Neil
Sorry Feifei—I'm still trying to finish the script for this programme.

Feifei
What? You're still writing the script for this programme! So what's going to happen today then?

Neil
Well, I thought that you could pretend to arrive late… I've lost my coffee… I just need to think of an authentic real English phrase to use now…

Feifei
Oh come on Neil, there is no need to reinvent the wheel!

Neil
Feifei, you're amazing—to reinvent the wheel—that's a great English phrase. I'll use that in my script.

Feifei
To reinvent the wheel means 'to waste time trying to create something that has already been made'. So I'm saying, don't waste time writing a script that has already been written—all your ideas have been written before!

Neil
Really?

Feifei
I'll show you—but first let's hear some more examples of this phrase…

Examples
Don't reinvent the wheel; we already have a plan that seems to work well.

He spent days working out the new course syllabus when we had planned it already—he's just reinvented the wheel!

Nancy's new idea is just the same as the old one—she's just reinvented the wheel!

Feifei
So to reinvent the wheel means 'to waste time and effort doing something that someone has done before'. Now let me show you that old script…

Neil
Oh yeah. Let's have a look. Arrives late… drinks coffee… I tell a joke… you're right Feifei, this is almost the same script. I'll just copy the idea for today's script.

Feifei
Actually, maybe you shouldn't reinvent the wheel—and start writing something new and original.

Neil
Sorry—we're out of time Feifei. I just need to say something funny and we can go… I've had a 'wheely' good time!

Feifei
That wasn't funny.

Both
Bye!