Hi there. This is Harry, and welcome back to advanced English lessons with Harry,
where we try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language,
try to help you with your conversational English, business English, whatever it takes,
whatever you need, whether it's expressions, phrasal verbs, idiomatic expressions, we're
there to help you. And if you need any help, you know where our teachers are. You can just contact
me on www.englishlessonviaskype.com. I'm always happy to hear from you.
So what have we got for you in this lesson? Well, in this advanced English lesson, we are looking
at idioms and expressions to do with relax and relaxation, how to rest, rest and relaxation.
So advanced English expressions and idioms connected with rest and relaxation. So we've
got 12. So plenty of ways in which you can relax and plenty of ways in which you can express it.
So I'll go through them and then give you situations when you might use them.
So to take it easy, well, we can use that in lots and lots of ways. You
might tell somebody that's what you want to do for the weekend. I
I'm not going to give up too much. I'm just going to take it easy. I've been working hard recently,
or we might give somebody some advice. Why don't you take it easy for a couple
of days? Just rest. Who knows when somebody is complaining, but they've. They've. They've
had no holiday. Everything is difficult. So you might just say, well, just take it easy,
take a couple of days off. You're due them. Why not? And just rest at home. Take it easy
Next, to let your hair down. So this is one of these idiomatic expressions which
sometimes needs a little bit of explaining. Particularly if you've got a head of hair
like mine or lack of hair like mine. So when you let your hair down, it's a metaphorical meaning,
of course, but it means to really relax. And when you go to town, you,
you go to their the restaurant or you go to the bar, you go to the nightclub, you sing and dance
the night away and you let your hair down and you come back the next day completely shattered.
But you've really, really had a good time of its gesture to let your hair down. So
you often hear the expression. What are you guys getting up to? With the exams are over.
We're just all going to get together, go to the nightclub, but we're really going
to let our hair down. So don't expect to see me any time soon to let your hair down
To switch off. Well, it's like switching the electric lights off. You know,
you just power down. Okay, So. Or I'm looking forward to the holiday. We've
got two weeks coming up. We're going off. And assuming there's no problems of the flights,
we're just going to switch off. Lie on a beach.
Have plenty of swims, relaxation and get a bit of a tan, some nice local cuisine.
Yep, We're going to switch off. So to switch off means to forget about everything,
switch off from work, switch off from the family. Switch off from what other activities keep you
busy. All the school runs and the helping with the homework are all those sort of issues. So the
two week summer holiday, or if you're lucky, three weeks are really going to help you to switch off.
Hang out with. So this is about doing something different. It's about resting and relaxing,
relaxation. How did you spend the summer holidays? I was hanging out
with my friends most of the time. So what kids loved to do during
the summer holidays. They don't particularly want to go to school.
But they don't want to lose touch with the Friends of the Friends, a local or not so far away. Then
they will like, if they can, to hang out with them. And of course, in the modern world they can
hangout on the Internet, they can hang out playing computer games. But, you know, they like to go to
the park, kick a football, play tennis, go for a swim, go to the movies, have a pizza together.
Yeah, They like to hang out with their friends, to be together. Sometimes not
doing anything in particular, sometimes just doing nothing. I was... we were in Charles's
room at home and we were just hanging out, listening to music. He had some good music.
We downloaded some and we phoned in the pizza. We had a really good time to hang out with.
Next, to unwind. Well, when we want to unwind, it means we might be feeling a little bit stressed.
We might be feeling a little bit uptight. So when you unwind, you literally let yourself go. You try
to completely relax. Some ways of unwinding. Could be to start the evening off with a nice massage.
That's a good way to unwind. Or you might unwind sitting in front of the TV watching a movie,
having a glass of wine. That's a nice, comfortable way to unwind with your
feet up. So there are many, many ways in which we can find to have rest and
relaxation. And we generally classified as unwinding. How did you unwind? Oh,
it was wonderful. I went to that new spa just outside the town. I was there for a day.
Wow. I could really unwind. Absolutely wonderful. Started off with the massage,
then those seaweed baths. You really should try it, Kate. It's wonderful to unwind.
To take your mind off something. Well, when you take your mind off something,
if you want to forget about it. So let's go away for the weekend and take our minds off work.
Let's go out for the evening. Try that new restaurant and take your mind off all the
problems with the kids. All of it. The school and the. But the points for a university to
take your mind off something. So it might only be for a few hours, it might be for a weekend.
And if you're very, very lucky, might be for a longer period of time over your summer holidays.
But whatever you do and whichever way you do it, you want to take your mind
off something means to forget about it. Or if you can't deal with the problem,
put it at the back of your mind and then you deal with it when you come back.
The problem's still going to be there when you've finished with the holiday.
But let's try and relax on the holiday and take your mind off things or take our minds off things.
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to slow down.
Well, this is a good bit of advice that we could all take. Had to slow down. Why does
everybody want to do things at 100 miles an hour? Why, when they send you an email,
do they look for an answer immediately? Why? When they send you a text on WhatsApp,
they send you a message 2 minutes later, Did you get my text?
Did you get this? Yeah. So we just need to sit back,
take a deep breath. Whoop. Yeah. Slow down. The world is still there. The world is still
going around. It will always go around. So what we need to do is slow down a little bit,
take a step back and slow down. Good way to rest. Good way for relaxing.
That leads on to take a breather. Okay. So this is literally to take a breather.
Is deep breaths a breather? Okay. But if you've been working very hard or perhaps
in a some sports activity, let's say you've been running on the treadmill
in the gym and then you just stop after 20 minutes, say, I think I'll take a breather,
meaning I'll take a short break, or you could be redecorating the room.
And after 2 hours, you've been peeling wallpaper off the walls. The room is
very hot and stuffy. Is it? I'm just going to step outside and take a breather for 10
minutes. I'll be back in no time at all. So to take a breather means to
walk away from or stop what you're doing for a short period of time.
That could be a very important marketing meeting in your office. And after about 2 hours,
the boss says, okay, look, I think it's time we took a breather. Let's break for lunch. We'll come
back here. It's 215 and we can pick up where we left off. So to take a breather to rest and relax,
you go out and you have that coffee, You sit down and do a little bit of thinking.
Footloose and fancy free, an ideal
idiomatic expression, footloose and fancy free. So what does it mean? Well,
Footloose means you really know direction to go. Fancy free means,
but you've no ties. You have no obligations. So you can do what you really want.
A good time to use. This is when the kids have gone off for the summer to their granny's or
they're gone for a couple of days or nights. And you can say to your partner, Well, I'm footloose,
or we are footloose and fancy free. So what we're going to do. Let's let our hair down and go to
city or whatever you planned to do.
But you don't have to worry about the kids because they're away. You don't have to be
back at midnight because they are away. You don't have to be thinking about getting up
at eight or 9:00 in the morning to prepare breakfast because they're away. So you are
really footloose and fancy free, meaning no ties, no obligations. You are your own boss.
You can do what you will with your time. You can do nothing or you can do lots of things,
but you don't have to seek permission. You don't
have to be rushing home because somebody else needs you. Footloose and fancy free
To have a blast. Well, when we have a blast, it's we have a really good time. How was the party? we
had an absolute blast. You know. It was really great to see all the old guys there. We haven't
been together for. God. I've forgotten how long it is since we last met. But it's a long, long time.
And, you know, most of them haven't changed at all. A few with a few
less hair, some with a bit extra weight. But, you know, the same old guys. So we
had an absolute blast. Not nobody got really badly drunk. Few guys a little bit tipsy,
but they really, really enjoyed themselves. We had a blast. So to have a blast is a good
way to have rest and recuperation or rest and relaxation because you get out of yourself, you
get away from the humdrum of the normal life and you start talking to or interacting with people.
In this situation that you haven't seen for some time. So to have a blast.
If you have something that isn't working correctly, for example,
your mobile phone or something that requires power, you have to re charge
the batteries say so you plug it in like your electric razor or the mobile phone,
you plug it in and you recharge the battery so you can use it for the next two, three or four days.
Okay. So just like your mobile phone, just like your electric razor, you from time to time will
need to read, charge your battery. So we use this expression when we feel it's time we had
a rest and some relaxation. Well, I'm going to spend the next three or four days just
recharging my batteries or I did nothing at the weekend but recharge my batteries.
I got up late and Saturday morning I went for a haircut, a massage. I even skipped
the gym. I just said, Right, this is it. I'm just going to put my feet up for the day,
recharge my batteries and see where it leads me. And I have to say,
I had a really, really good time. By Sunday afternoon I was getting a bit itchy feet,
so I went to the gym on Sunday afternoon and did a little bit of a workout, but nothing strenuous.
So it was still part of my recharging the battery
phase that I was going through. So to recharge your batteries,
make yourself feel better, get yourself energised or re-energised for the next week,
And finally, to indulge yourself in something. Really good way to rest
and relax. I'm going to indulge myself in a bit of
chocolate. Okay. So I'm going to sit down in front of the TV,
Find that movie that I wanted to watch. I've
got some chocolate and I'm going to indulge myself. I know I shouldn't,
but it's dark chocolate, so probably not so bad. Anyway, so to indulge yourself
Or you could say to your partner, Why don't we go away for the weekend? Go to that hotel out
in the country near the forest and indulge the sounds. I hear they've got a great spa.
They've even got a golf course. You might fancy playing a bit of golf,
but let's just indulge a sell for a few days, make ourselves feel pampered,
make ourselves feel special, or really, really good so we can completely switch off.
So all of these expressions, they're all related to you taking it easy,
you taking some rest, you having some relaxation.
And we all need them in this day and age.
So let's go through them again. As I said,
there are 12. Take it easy. Let your hair down. Switch off. Hang out with. Hang out
with your friends. Unwind. Okay. And make sure with that pronunciation. Unwind, unwind.
To take your mind off something. To take your mind off something. To forget about it.
To slow down. Take it easy.
Slow down.
Take a breather. Step out, don't play the game all night.
Footloose and fancy free, Footloose and fancy Free.
To have a blast. To recharge your batteries. And then finally,
to indulge yourself in something. Indulge yourself in something nice.
All about relaxing and resting. So these are advanced English idioms and expressions
relating to rest and relaxation so you won't remember them all.
You never will. You have to practice. Some of them see a few that you like. Use them
and come back and then use a few of the other ones. Don't try to remember them all at the
same time. And if you need some additional help, you'll get me on wwww.englishlessonviaskype.com.
Very happy to hear from me. Very happy when you can join us. This
is Harry saying goodbye to next time join me for the next lesson.