S05 - 1 Relaxing

Native English speakers answer questions about the relaxing from previous B2, C1, C2 and IELTS exam papers.

It’s a great topic to cover as we all love to relax. So you’re gonna hear loads of different ways to talk about relaxing. There’s also a bunch of new phrasal verbs, there’s some stuff about comparatives, the differences between British and Australian English, yes we have some Australians this season, and also a Canadian too actually for the first time, and some Welsh people, so a few next accents for you to contend with. 

For classes or transcripts go to https://realexamenglish.com/

Music: Wholesome by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesome
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Thanks to all of the contributors, including Emma, Mike, Noel, Konner, Jen, Dan from the Roar and Score Trivia Podcast

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Real Exam English podcast, season 5 here we go. In this episode we are going to talk about relaxation. It’s a great topic to cover as we all love to relax, or should I say, need to relax. So you’re gonna hear loads of different ways to talk about relaxing. There’s also a bunch of new phrasal verbs, there’s some stuff about comparatives, the differences between British and Australian English, yes we have some Australians this season, and also a Canadian too actually for the first time, and some Welsh people, so a few next accents for you to contend with. So it´s gonna be great for your listening practice. 

If you can´t understand everything they are saying then you can purchase the transcripts for this and all of the episodes over on the website realexamenglish.com

Ok then, let’s go:

How important is it to find time to relax?

Well, I think it's very important to find time to relax. However, with our lifestyles today, it's…it can be quite complicated to find some downtime, time for yourself. But I think it's very, very important to do…..for your own health, your mental health. Just in general for your well-being, you need to have time to chill and disconnect and just find other things to do or enjoy, like try and do your hobbies or do some sport or whatever thing you enjoy doing to be, to be healthy mentally.

Do you find reading a good way to relax?

Definitely, 100%. Yes, I really enjoy reading. However, it can be quite difficult to relax depending on the type of book you're reading, so it does relax you in a way, but it can also get you quite excited. For example, I like to read before bed to disconnect and to stop looking at screens and however I find that if I'm reading something really really exciting, I'm not relaxing as much. I'm really into it and I get….well, then I'm more tired in the morning because I stayed up too late reading the very interesting, gripping story.

Two excellent answers there to start off. We had a few different ways of referring to relaxing. First of all, she said it can be complicated to find some downtime. Downtime is time when you don´t have anything to do but relax. So you can say “being a father of young kids means downtime is scarce”, or I´ve been working all hours recently, I need a bit of downtime. She also said that we need time to chill and to disconnect, two nice alternatives, with chill being a little bit more informal. 

The second answer was really well organized. She started with Definitely, 100%. Yes, I really enjoy reading. Then she followed up with some contrast, However, it can be difficult to relax depending on the type of book. Then she explained in sore more detail, For example, if the book is very exciting, or I should say if the book is very gripping, as she mentioned. Gripping means it grabs your attention. So this is a great illustration of how to answer a question. With a statement, then a counterpoint and then an explanation. Or you could of course start with a statement, give an explanation and then at the end give the counterpoint. Whatever works best. It´s also the ideal way to structure a paragraph too if you are writing an essay for example, make a statement, then explain it, give an example, offer a counterpoint. Nice.

When do you feel most relaxed? I probably feel most relaxed when I'm at home after a long day of work, usually getting home and sitting on the couch and just relaxing and doing nothing for a little bit is probably when I feel the most relaxed before work. I'm probably the least relaxed, 

Which is the most comfortable room in your house and why? 

Look, I have to say the lounge room is the most comfortable room in the house. We've got a big TV in there. We've got a massive couch where you can put your legs up. It's always warm in there. It's the room that actually has a good heater. So yeah, lounge room is definitely the most comfortable room in the house. 

Ok, so this second answer is using the classic sandwich technique. It starts off with the statement, the lounge room is the most comfortable, it explains why, then it finishes restating that the lounge room is definitely the most comfortable. Actually, just before he makes his final statement he says “so yeah, the lounge room is definitely the most comfortable”. This “so yea” is very often used at the end of an answer to re-affirm what you already stated, so if you are a fan of using the sandwich technique try putting a “so yea” in there just before you restate your opinion. 

This speaker is from Australia and there are some slight differences in the vocabulary he uses. For instance, the lounge room that he mentions would usually be called a living room or a sitting room in the UK or the US. Also, he says they have a massive couch. In the UK it is more common to hear sofa, rather than couch, however, in Ireland, where I´m from, we would say couch, and the US is couch country too. 

He said that he can put his legs up on the couch. This reminds me of another idiom meaning to relax, which is to be put your feet up. Like, on Friday evenings I like to just go home and put my feet up. Ok you might not actually put your feet up anywhere at all but the listener will understand that your gonna chill, or kick back, which is another nice way to say the same thing. 

How important is it to find time to relax?

Well, as an anxious person I didn't know what the meaning of relaxing actually meant. So when I was actually learning Welsh, when they said, what do you do to relax? I didn't have an answer, so my brand is Tropic pianist gamer, I can Tropic round and pamper myself with skin care. Pianist, piano, tutor to my relaxing is playing the piano at my own leisure and gaming, I run a community with my husband, but I can turn that around and make my own gaming time, and that is chill time as well.

Alright, great. Loads of chill out time and which is the most comfortable room in your house?

Probably this one because this is my studio. It's my own space and it's got the cool wallpaper and my piano in it. But it's a desk setup so it's like well, is the sofa comfier or the desk. I found the desk more comfy cause I can have my music on and stuff.

Ok, quite a fast speaker there, I would be impressed if you caught everything she said! She did have some really nice relaxation vocabulary. She said she can pamper herself with skin care. If you pamper someone then you give them special treatment, giving them everything they want and being really kind and caring towards them. So, a mother might pamper her child, or an old lady might pamper her cats, or as with this speaker you can pamper yourself, with skin care, if that´s your thing!

She then said finds it relaxing to play piano at her own leisure. So if you do something at your leisure it means that you do it without any time pressure, when you have enough time to enjoy it. For instance, here are some documents for you to take home and read at your leisure, Or I look to go to a book shop and browse around at my own leisure. 

Lastly she mentioned she likes gaming as that is chill time for her as well. That´s a nice variation on the word chill that we heard earlier. 

You might have picked up that she said the word Sofa in her second answer, ok so she is from the UK, sofa country. She was wondering if the sofa was comfier or the desk was more comfy, interesting that she used two different comparative forms, comfier and more comfy. So what’s correct? Well, there is a grammatical rule her, if it has two syllables, com fy, and ends in a y, then it should be comfier. The same as we would say happier, or friendlier. But it´s a good illustration of how native English speakers don´t always speak grammatically correctly. It´s something a lot of people notice when they spend time in an English speaking country and I guess it´s the same in your mother tongue too.

Ok, I think you already know that I offer classes to prepare for exams, or for business English, conversation or whatever. So instead of me telling you about the classes, this season I’m gonna give you a little vocabulary or grammar test in the middle of each episode. So today it is dependent prepositions, so each adjective has a particular preposition that usually follows it, and they can be hard to remember so, let’s see how many you can get right out of 10. 

I´m gonna say the word like proud, and you gotta say the preposition, of , proud of. 

Ok here, we go:

Keen on

Interested in

Depend on

Afraid of

Addicted to

Capable of

Famous for

Experienced in

Acquainted with

Receptive to

Wow, that’s all ten, kinda hard at the end, right?  I’d love to know how you did, I’ll add a poll on Spotify and you can enter your score there if you like, that’d be great. Ok back to the questions…..

How important is it to find time to relax?

Well, in reality I would say it's vital for me because of the nature of my job. I'm working all hours of the day and night so my brain goes on overload and I have to find time to, to unwind and to relax a little bit. Otherwise I can’t function, so very very important.

What has been the most uncomfortable place you've been in?

I would say. Ohh I would have to say in. In a meeting when I first came to Spain doing some meetings in Spanish and in all honesty, you feel like a little child because you know you could do it if it were in your own language, but now you don't understand these people and they think you're you're an idiot. Because of the language barrier and you know that you're not stupid. So that's a very uncomfortable situation which I would not like to repeat. Therefore, you learn the language of the country.

In the first answer here he says it’s vital to relax because of the nature of his job. The nature of his job is the characteristic of his job, the way it is. Another example would be, given the nature of the exam questions, I think I need to study more! Or the nature of the conversation turned aggressive once they started discussing politics.

Ok so he said that he works all hours of the day and the night. You can actually shorten this expression too, and just say all hours. Like I’ve been working all hours this week, I need a break. You could also, say I’ve been working around the clock, or working 24/7. 

He then said his brain goes on overload and he needs to unwind. So if his brain is on overload it is too active and it starts to malfunction, this can happen to your brain if you’re too busy, or to your computer too for example. And to unwind is an excellent way to say you like to relax after being busy or stressed. Like After I finished my final exams, I took some time off to unwind.  

What is your favourite way to relax? 

My favourite way to relax is to travel, or just being in nature. Being Canadian, being in nature is something I need. Actually, I need I need it so when I need to really relax I just go for a hike or climb up a mountain and sit down for a while. But yeah, generally travel and  nature, any combination of those two things. 

Do you find reading a good way to relax? 

Yeah, absolutely. I read every night before I go to bed, so I get in bed, read and that's kind of my ritual to read before I go to sleep and it relaxes me, settles the mind. And you know, I try not to think about all the stuff that I did during the day, just focus on the book and and that's it. Yeah. So reading for sure. Yeah, definitely. 

Do you get past more than half a page? That's all I get. 

It's hard nowadays because of phones, right? Because phones have taken over because what you do is you like I read on my phone. But. I read the news and I find that I have to force myself to read a book now before reading a book was just natural to me. Now, like I find that the phone takes you away from the book and it's the news that does it. It's not like I'm scrolling and on Instagram or anything like that. I do. I'm reading. But you know what news is like, too kind of it kind of baits you into other stories and you end up reading silly things that you know that you could have spent that hour on, you know, reading your book, which would be better. So I I do find. Sometimes it's hard to….Especially with current events in the world too, like keeping up on them and stuff, you know, like you kind of like I don't read it. I don't read the news during the day. So before I go to bed too, that's another time that I actually catch up on everything. But I find that it sucks my time away too much. It's, you know, and it and it competes with reading and it wins a lot of times. 

Great answers there from Canada. He said that reading settles the mind. This means that it helps his mind to relax and not be so active. Phones, he said have taken over, meaning they have replaced the time he used to spend reading. You will hear this phrasal verb a lot in business, when someone takes over a company, or in an election a person takes over control of a country, they replace the previous leaders there. 

When speaking about the news he said it baits you into reading silly things. Bait is the food that you use to attract and catch a fish or an animal, so if the reading the next baits you into reading silly stories, then it attracts you to those stories, or lures you to those stories, using another fishing or hunting expression. Similarly he said the news sucks his time away, meaning it takes away too much of his free time. Something could also suck away your energy for instance, like deplete your energy, or suck away your dignity, or your money maybe. 

He had a bunch of other phrasal verbs too that we have seen before, like catching up on the news and keeping up on the news, to end up doing something, and to take you away from the book. So he actually managed to get 7 phrasal verbs into one single answer, which is super impressive! 

Alright guys, well that is the end of this chill out episode. I hope you have ended up learning plenty of new language. Hopefully, your brain didn´t go on overload, and if it did make sure to kick back and relax, unwind a little, put your feet up and disconnect. Alright, great work! See you next time!

Trevor