Learn the English Phrases "to take a load off" and "to take a breather"

In this English lesson I wanted to help you

learn the English phrase “to take a load off”.

When you tell someone to take a load off or when you decide to take a load off.

It means you're going to relax usually after working.

The last few days, I've come home and I just need to take a load off.

I take off my shoes when I walk in the house

and I just sit on the couch for about half an hour.

I usually have a cold drink.

Teaching is going great, but we're in a heat wave here.

It's 32 degrees Celsius right now in September.

So my classroom is just stiflingly hot.

So when I come home, I just need to take a load off.

I just need to sit and relax a little bit in the air conditioned house

before I get back to work.

By the way, my classroom is not air conditioned.

It would be nice if it was.

The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to take a breather.

Now this means to relax as well, but it usually means to stop doing something

for a bit because you're out of breath or because you're exhausted.

So if you're playing a sport, you might need to take a breather halfway

through the game.

If you're playing a game

where you have to run a lot, you might need to take a breather.

Let's say you're out hiking with someone and they're really fast

and you're out of breath.

It's hard for you to keep up.

You might say, Hey, stop for a minute.

I need to take a breather.

So to review, to take a load off means to relax a little bit.

Usually after working hard for a...

for a period of time

and to take a breather means that you're actually physically exhausted,

usually you're out of breath a little bit and you just need to sit for a bit or

stop doing what you're doing so that your breath, your ability to breathe, returns.

But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.

This comment is from Ünsal.

So there's people I think paddling in the river will go look in a sec. Hi.

Have you ever had rose jam?

If you like peanut butter and jam sandwiches

and you think this sandwich needs a little

something to make it taste better, I suggest you try it with rose jam.

In my opinion, it tastes much better this way.

Thank you so much for this wonderful video.

My response? I'll have to find some and try it.

I do like peanut butter and jam sandwiches, so I'll probably like it.

So yes, I probably should see if I can find that somewhere.

It doesn't seem to me like it's a common type of jam that I know of.

Um, I'm not familiar with rose jam.

I'm sure that I'll be able to find it somewhere. I...

maybe I'll look at market tomorrow.

That might be a good place to start.

So there's someone yelling over here.

Oh, I see.

There's someone going by on a paddleboard in the river way down there.

And there's a man in a kayak as well.

Oh, there's two people on paddleboards.

So I guess they're enjoying the hot fall day.

It's...

it's not really fall yet, but it certainly feels like fall.

And they're just out having an enjoyable time on the river.

Soon, though, it'll be cold

and those types of activities will definitely stop.

I’m just checking my time here.

It's a little bit hard to see.

I think I need my reading glasses to check the time.

Oh, it says only 3 minutes.

Well, hey, let's have a closer look at the people on the river.

They volunteered

to come down here, so they get to be in the video now.

So that's a stand up paddleboard on the left.

I think the girl in the middle is on a stand up paddle board as well,

but not standing.

And the man is in a kayak, a red kayak.

So I think stand up paddle boring, paddle boarding,

not boring, boarding has become more popular in recent times.

I have never tried it.

Maybe I should.

Mostly when I go out on the water, I go...

I go out in my kayak.

Anyways. Thanks so much for watching.

Thanks for learning a little bit more English.

I hope you're having a good day. I'm having a great week.

My, uh, my week at school is almost done one day to go

and then I'll have a nice relaxing weekend.

I'll be able to take a load off, but I don't need to take a breather.

I can teach all day. No problem.

Anyways, see you in a couple of days with another short English lesson. Bye.