My name’s Ola and I am an English teacher.
This podcast is for you if you’re an English learner who wants to speak English with more confidence and get rid of speaking barriers. It’s time you started speaking English fearlessly! Go to my website for full transcripts and worksheets to each episode. Happy learning!
Welcome back! It’s a pleasure to be able to talk to you again. Thanks for choosing my podcast.
Today, we’re going to expand our vocabulary. Vocabulary connected with rest and relaxation. Recently I’ve noticed everybody’s talking about being productive and efficient.
How to organise your remote working day, how to organise a day for your kids and so on. Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of schedules and plans and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for planning. Especially now, with the little one around. But!
A few days ago I was listening to one of the episodes of SPI, where entrepreneurs shared how they organise their family lives with kids on board while being forced to work from home. And if you struggle with this, if you think you’re the only one, you’re not and tune in to that episode of SPI, It’s Pat Flynn’s podcast of course. it’ll lift your spirits. And it’ll give you some hints.
Being productive is hot, however, I think we should not forget about rest. Parents, you need rest! You are trying to combine soo many things, you have so much on your plate right now, you have to rest just as much as you have to work and homeschool your kids. Rest is equally important here. And if you don’t have kids, well, you need rest just as much as anyone else. It’s just a basic need of all of us. Let’s talk about taking some rest.
How it’s gonna be organised? For sure, there’s gonna be plenty of phrases and words for you to repeat. Because this is the core of these episodes, right? You speaking out loud. First we’re going to look closely at two words: ‘rest’ and ‘break’. And after that we’re going to move on to phrases and idioms connected with R and R, that is rest and relaxation. Shall we start?
REST. Let’s focus a bit more on this word. It’s a noun but also a verb. You can have a rest, get a rest or deserve a rest. Listen and repeat:
I’m going upstairs to have a rest.
Did you get any rest?
The rest you’re about to have can be described as a good rest. It can be also called a well-deserved rest or a well-earned rest. Let’s practice.
Why don’t you go home and have a well-deserved rest?
You need a good rest.
You can also rest your feet, legs or eyes. Repeat the sentence:
I need to sit down and rest my legs.
After a rest, you feel well-rested, right? Listen to the example:
A well-rested driver is a lot safer and more efficient.
How can you rest? You can rest easy. That means fully relaxed without worrying about anything. Listen and repeat.
I can rest easy, knowing everything’s under control.
If there’s something you’re dealing with at the moment, and you feel overwhelmed with it what you need is to stop thinking about it and let the matter rest. That means just relax and stop worrying. Repeat after me:
The man apologized, but she refused to let the matter rest.
To put or to set somebody’s mind at rest is quite similar. It means to relax, and stop worrying. An example sentence:
Why don’t you talk to him, and put his mind at rest.
I’ve got two more phrases with the word ‘rest’ Listen and repeat the sentences, and try to make out the meaning on your own. Ok?
Ana, just give it a rest! You’ve been talking about it all day, I’ve had enough!
What does it mean? Well, I’m certainly annoyed with Ana because she’s been talking too much about one thing or one person all day.
The second expression, and I know you know it, is ‘to rest on your laurels’. Oh my goodness, it’s so hard to pronounce. Rest on your laurels. Rest on your laurels. Yes, we’ve got the same expression in Polish. It means to stop trying, stop making further progress because you’ve finished and you’re satisfied with the results and you’ve already achieved and you think that’s enough. Repeat:
The leading company like ours can’t afford to rest on its laurels.
Ok my friend, we are now going to move on to another word that springs to your mind when you think about relaxation and it’s the word ‘break’. Let’s see how to use this word, what are the strongest collocations. So let’s boost that vocabulary! Ok. So:
First and foremost you can have or need or take a break. Let’s practice:
After two hours of intensive work, she took a long break.
I’m sorry, I need a break.
Would you like to have a break now?
How to describe a break? What adjectives go well with the noun ‘break’? Repeat after me:
a short break
a quick break
a lunch break
a coffee break
a tea break
a morning break
Let’s now listen to and repeat whole sentences:
I think I’ll have a short coffee break now. Do you want to join me?
What time’s your lunch break?
Let’s have a ten-minute break.
In all those sentences a break means a short time when you stop working or doing something in order to have some rest.
Now we’re going to look at some other meanings of the word ‘break’. I think you can easily figure out the meaning on your own so let’s try that, shall we? Listen to this sentence:
I think I need a week’s break in Tenerife.
She went for a weekend break for 200 Euro.
What does ‘break’ mean in this context? Yes, it’s short holiday. City break, weekend break, mini break, summer break.
‘Break’ can also mean a longer period of time, and by ‘longer’ I mean few days, week, months, maybe even years when you stop doing something before continuing it again after this period. For example, and please stay with me, you’re doing great, just keep it up, repeat after me:
Your visit is a welcome break in my normal routine.
See? This visit somehow interrupted my normal routine, I’m going to come back to that routine, carry it on after your visit finishes. And this visit might take few hours, days or who knows how long. Two more examples:
She decided to take a career break when she had children.
I wanted a break from university life.
Well done. Now we’re going to shift our attention to phrases directly associated with relaxation.
The first one on my list is to chill, to chill out or to chillax. All mean the same, to relax, to be calm. Let’s practice, repeat after me:
Hold it! Just chill for a second.
Hey, chill out, don’t make a fuss about it.
Moving on to put your feet up. Listen and repeat:
I’m going to put my feet up.
I deserve to put my feet up, I’ve done a lot today.
Well done. Another phrase: to recharge your batteries. Listen and repeat:
We took a trip to the mountains to recharge our batteries.
Introvert recharge their batteries on their own. They have inner resources.
Next one sounds really nice. To mellow out. Please, practice with me:
I can’t just mellow out! I’m frustrated!
We just listened to music and mellowed out all afternoon.
One more, just one word, to unwind. An example sentence:
Music helps me unwind after a busy day.
The following one is very refreshing: to take a breath. Listen to example sentences:
I’ve barely had time to stop and take a breath since they got here.
Try to chill out, take a deep breath, and remember why we came here.
Sometimes you just want to let your hair down. And that one means to give yourself permission to behave more naturally, freely and enjoy yourself. One quick sentence to give you an idea:
At the office, we’re all kinda serious. The party gave us all a chance to really let our hair down.
That one was quite long so let me repeat this one.
At the office, we’re all kinda serious. The party gave us all a chance to really let our hair down.
Not everybody relaxes this way. Mellowing out and chillaxing. Some people need more action, please! They are taking energy from meeting people, taking part in parties. There are phrases for that kind of rest as well. For example: to paint the town red. It means to go out on the town, spent the whole night in bars and clubs enjoying yourself. Listen and repeat:
Tonight we’re going to paint the town red.
Another one, expressing something similar: to have a blast. To have a lot of fun, to have a great time doing something, with others usually and let’s practice:
The kids are having a blast running around the beach all day.
The food was good and we had a blast. Thanks for inviting us.
That was the last phrase today. Thank you for staying till the very end of this episode. Now, you’re not done yet, of course, go to teacherola.com/42 and download the worksheet. Translate 10 sentences into English.
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In the next episode, we’re going to learn English with Adele and her song ‘Send My Love’. Who doesn’t love Adele? Subscribe to my podcast not to miss the next episode. Thank you for listening and happy learning. Bye!