Space out
Today’s expression is a bit informal, but it’s a good one to know. It’s a phrasal verb: space out. When you space out, you stop concentrating and you miss what’s going on. This happens to everyone sometimes. You could be in a conversation, listening to a teacher, reading a book, watching a movie, anything that requires your complete concentration. But if you lose your concentration and your mind wanders to other matters, or to nothing at all, and you miss what’s going on, then you’ve spaced out.
Do you remember how you heard it earlier? I was talking about, admittedly, a simplified example of how many subjects are taught in school : a teacher gives a lecture in the classroom and students go home to work through practice assignments at night. One criticism of this model is that when new material is being presented in the classroom, the students can’t pause and rewind the lecture. They can’t stop and just think about something. And if they space out, they miss what was said in the classroom.
If they space out, they miss what was said. Admit it. This happens to you too, right? You’re physically present. You’re sitting there in the classroom or the conference room. You’re paying attention at the beginning. It’s all making sense. And then you’re confused. You realize that for the last few minutes, your mind was thinking about something else. That’s because you momentarily spaced out.
Spacing out is temporary; it’s usually just for a few minutes. And you typically resume your concentration after spacing out. In many cases, it’s not the worst thing in the world to miss a little of what was said. You space out for a bit, but then you get back on track. Nobody else has to know.
This is not the same as getting distracted. Let’s say you’re watching a movie and you spill popcorn all over the couch. You have to clean it up and you miss a scene in the movie. That’s not spacing out; that’s just getting distracted or not paying attention.
But if you’re watching the movie, your eyes are trained on the screen, your ears are hearing the action, but you miss a scene, you’ve spaced out. Maybe your mind went blank and you just weren’t thinking about anything. Maybe you were thinking about all the calories in the buttered popcorn that you’re eating. Or maybe you’re Mexican and thinking that American popcorn would be a lot tastier if it had salsa on it. Whatever, if you’re eyes are on the screen, but your mind is elsewhere, then you’re spacing out.
In many situations, it’s perfectly okay to admit that you spaced out. If you’re in a conversation with a friend, but you space out for a few minutes, don’t panic. You can ask the friend to go back and repeat herself. “Sorry, I spaced out for a second, what were you saying?” You can say that to a friend. I wouldn’t say that in an important meeting at work because it will seem like you’re not paying enough attention. But in a friendly situation, you can absolutely just come clean and say you spaced out.
Sometimes I’ll space out while reading a book. Has that ever happened to you? I don’t understand how this is possible, but it is. My eyes pass over the words on the page. The words enter my brain. I am reading. But I’m not processing anything. I’m spaced out and thinking of something else. Once I recover my concentration, I realize that I’m confused, so I have to go back and re-read a few paragraphs or a few pages.
JR’s song of the week
It’s Thursday, so JR has a song of the week for us. Today it’s “I Lost a Friend” by Finneas. The song is about how Finneas lost touch with a friend from his childhood, and how he regrets not staying in touch, wondering why he didn’t keep up the friendship. That’s definitely relatable to me. I’ve grown apart from a lot of childhood friends. We’ve just grown into much different adults. But there are other friendships that might have lasted much longer had we put in the effort. I think that’s a very relatable song. “I Lost a Friend,” by Finneas is this week’s song of the week; thank you, JR.
See you next time!
By the way, they do put salsa on popcorn in Mexico. It’s hard to believe, I know. But if you go to Cinépolis, you’ll see salsa available to sprinkle on popcorn. When JR saw his first movie in America, he went looking for the salsa.
On that note…let’s wrap up today’s Plain English. Congratulations on reaching the end. If you spaced out for a little bit, that’s okay. You can listen as many times as you want. In fact, I know a lot of you listen to each lesson multiple times. Not because you space out, but you do it because you pick up on new things every time you listen. That’s the way it is for other languages, I think. The first time around, you’re just trying to get the main idea. Then once you have the main idea, you can listen for more details the second or third time around.
However it works for you is fine by me. I know a lot of Plain English Plus+ members like to listen to the slow version first to understand what’s going on, and then the fast version so they can try to train their ear to hear the words they way, honestly, you’ll hear them in a real situation. And after a few months, I think most Plain English Plus+ members are listening to the fast version more than the slow version.
If you’re not a Plain English Plus+ member, the fast version is one of the key benefits. It’s a second recording of the whole program, only at full speed. It’s one of the great tools we have to help you improve your listening. If that sounds like something you’d like to try, check it out at PlainEnglish.com/Plus.
Use realistic expressions like a native speaker
