I need a change of pace.

Hey everyone, last May I taught you the word pace. Which means a step or the speed at which you walk/move/do something. 

Phil walks at a quick pace.

Life in Tokyo is fast paced.

That movie was too slow paced, nothing happened for the first 40 minutes!

You can see that lesson here.

The other day I was teaching a lesson and taught:

a change of pace

I then realized I forgot to include this common idiom in my pace lesson! So today I will teach you how to use this very common idiom.

It means that something has been moving at the same speed for a long time and it has gotten a little boring or tiring. You need to change your pace (speed up or slow down) to feel refreshed.

When traveling on foot, you move faster if you change your pace (walk 10 minutes, jog 30 minutes, walk 10 minutes, run 10 minutes, jog, etc) than if you keep the same pace all the time.

This idiom is usually used to talk about your life, you are getting bored with how your life is going and you want a change of pace. Either you want to slow things down or you want to speed things up.

1. I used to be a stock-broker in New York but it was really stressing me out. My doctor told me I should slow things down so I decided to start an organic farm for a change of pace.                       
2. I've been stuck in this small town since college, I need a change of pace! Next year, I think I'm gonna move to the big city!                                                                                                    
3. I always go to McDonald's so sometimes I go to Lotteria for a change of pace.

As you can see, change of pace is usually used with need or for a. 

Need is often used BEFORE you've changed things, you use it to talk about a change you're thinking/dreaming of doing.

For a is used to explain the REASON you changed something. You are explaining that things had gotten boring and you needed to do something different.

After traveling around the world for a year and a half, I realized I needed a change of pace so I decided to settle down in Japan and teach English for awhile.

Have a good week,

Phil

I need to pace myself.

Hey guys, do you know what the word pace means?


It is like a step, the distance you walk in one step. So it can be used to talk about your speed:

He moves at a quick pace.

He moves quickly. In Japanese, ハイペース

He moves at a snails pace.

He moves slowly. A snail is,  螺 in Japanese a snail's pace is translated as a cow's pace! 牛歩 (ぎゅうほ).

These days, life is moving at a fast pace.

These days, life is moving quickly.

He does things at his own pace.

He does things at his own speed. In Japanese this is what you call:  マイペース 

When I jog I try to move at a steady pace.

This means I try to move at the same speed.


As a verb, it means to walk back and forth usually due to stress or nervousness.

A: Why is he pacing?

B: His wife is giving birth!

Can you guess what the title means now? It means that you shouldn't rush, you should slow down and move at steady pace. Think about being at an all-you-can-eat buffet. If you rush and eat a lot quickly you will get sick and not eat so much. So someone will say:

You need to pace yourself.

Meaning don't rush!


Phil