This seems like a good day to talk about relationships.
I was explaining to a non-native-english speaker today the phrase “taking a break”. While this phrase has various meanings, one in particular has recently come into common parlance: Taking time off from a romantic relationship.
When I explained this concept, my friend expressed disbelief. I forget the exact words she used, but the basic meaning was “Are these people for real?”
After all, if you are in a romantic relationship, this implies that you are with the one person in the world whom you most want to be with. So what does it mean when one party asks to take a break from the relationship?
One possible meaning is this: “I want to break up with you, but I haven’t even explained that to myself yet, let alone to you. So I’m arranging a way that I can get away from you, while not actually needing to say I’m breaking up with you.”
Of course this might be an overly cynical interpretation. But how could we know?
Well, here’s a way to test the question empirically: What percentage of the time, when somebody says to their romantic partner “I need to take a break”, does the couple end up getting back together again?
If the percentage is very low, then perhaps my friend’s reaction of disbelief was simply common sense.