This is an All Ears English podcast episode 2067.
What do you want to brush up on?
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It's so exciting when you learn a new skill.
Learning Arabic, writing songs, but what happens when you forget what you've learned?
You can always brush up.
Today, find out what this phrase means and learn more ways to talk about getting back into something.
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Hey, Lindsay, how's it going?
Awesome, Michelle.
Excited to be on Allers English.
How's everything with you?
Everything is good.
I'm watching a good TV show, actually.
Do tell.
Have you heard of Only Murders in the Building?
No, I haven't heard of it.
Is it a crime show?
It's like it's a crime show slash comedy.
Actually, there's a there's something to do with podcasts in it.
You would.
Oh, you know, you should you you should watch it.
It's on Hulu.
We got like a 30 day free trial because we don't have Hulu.
But it's with Steve Martin and Martin Short.
I love it.
Are they making fun of podcasting?
Because usually that's what happens in media, like in movies.
They'll kind of like poke fun at it, the art of podcasting, which i love, that a little bit, but so it's about like a like true crime podcasting, crime podcast, i think.
Usually i think you would like it anyway, so i just have to say that but anyway, but do you need to?
This is kind of changing the subject, Okay.
Do you need to brush up on any of your skills, especially?
Yeah.
Well, we're talking about podcasting.
Yeah.
Anything you need to brush up on?
So many things, Michelle.
There's so many things I need to brush up on.
I mean when it comes to podcasting.
I would like to explore building skills around using the voice in different ways and languages too.
I need to brush up on my Arabic from last spring of what I learned because I don't want to lose it, and getting ready for the travel you know my trip, of course, to Portugal.
So lots of brushing up.
What about you, Michelle?
Anything specific that you want to brush up on?
Yeah, definitely.
Language like my French that we've talked about, especially recently, we have talked about that.
I would love to brush up on my music playing and my singing and stuff like that.
Yes.
Cause you used to write songs.
I think you've shared with our audience before, right?
And then I, you know, as I, I and then I like kind of got out of it, and then I became a mom and it was all over.
So like, I, I still make up songs with my kids, but like ridiculous songs.
So um, but but today uh, we have a listener question from roberto um, and uh yeah, this is dealing with brush up on and yeah lindsay okay, would you like to read it?
I would like to.
This is all right, so this is from youtube, and our listener is asking for yeah, just to know about brush up on right um, so let's see Well, what was the specific question?
That's what it is.
It's from Roberto.
He wants us to do a video.
Yeah, he wants us to do a video lesson about to brush up on.
So that is that's from Roberto.
So thank you for that question, Roberto.
I know you've wanted your questions answered and I apologize for taking some time on this, but we got it.
We're here for you today.
Thank you for thank you for following up on her.
Yes roberto, thank you for pushing us, and i know that we you have requested this a few times, so finally, this one is for you, this is for you all right.
So guys uh, head on over and listen.
We recently did episode 2061, which was justify your english with today's famous saying so it's a good one.
Yeah, before we start today, i do want to make sure i call out our amazing android app reviewers.
Guys, we do have an app for allers english and it is the best way to consume the show.
You can listen for free in the app, but you can go deeper because you can see transcripts in real time and you can save key vocabulary words.
But i want to call out a couple of those of you guys who reviewed us in android.
So thank you to sleeping beauty df, jeff d geo ka and ama nogali.
Amy muhammad muhammad said incredibly amazing, love this app too much uh, and left a five star review.
And thank you to reef d ansha.
Those are just a few of our amazing app users and android and our reviewers.
Michelle, i love reading those reviews.
Yeah, it's so.
It's really touching.
Thank you so much, guys Yeah.
So guys, go over to altersenglish.com app to try out the app with a new way to listen.
Love it.
Exactly.
All right.
So Lindsay, let's talk about this.
So brush up on something.
It means to learn more about it.
But do you say brush up on for something that you haven't ever done?
No.
So that's the difference.
And that's why I think actually my example in the Portuguese because I actually am just starting it now, but the example of Arabic was better.
However, usually it's something that you've done a lot in the past.
Yeah, wouldn't you say like you become pretty good at something and then you got one time right, you got rusty yes, so right.
Yeah exactly, it's more about a skill that you already have but maybe are not so great at it anymore, or don't remember it mm-hmm, yeah.
So guys, that is that is really the key about brushing up on something.
So you're something that you're trying to get better at again.
Basically um so yeah, you can brush up on a language, or what else can you brush up on, lindsay?
You can brush up on your skills at work.
I mean, there are a lot of specific skills marketing, conversion rate tracking, a lot of things that we could do.
Um, you can brush up on those skills.
You can brush up on your history.
That's interesting.
Right.
Brush up on your knowledge of like the civil war in the American West or something.
I don't know.
Right.
No, but like, yeah, there might be something that, you know, that you learned it at school.
And once you knew it, you know, for taking tests and you had to write a paper on something.
But then maybe you're watching a documentary or something and you're like, Oh yeah, I have to brush up on my, on my history of this, because I don't remember, you know.
Right, right, right.
I'm sure that a lot, you know, because the Oppenheimer movie just came out.
And I'm sure a lot of people were saying this to their family members.
They say Oh, I've got to brush up on my memory of World War Two.
You know, brush up on my knowledge of World War Two.
So that's it.
Love it.
Yeah.
So why do we say I mean so I think of brush up, like using an actual brush, like maybe you know a toothbrush or something, to something, to make something clear.
Right.
Like it's all kind of like foggy or dirty.
You're kind of like getting it all nice.
Yeah, exactly.
So that's what that's what I think of.
So, guys, you can think of that image.
We've talked recently about using images to remember things.
English.
So yeah, to brush up on something, get that image in your head to remember it.
Yep Lindsay, so do you?
Would you say, brush up on sure?
Yeah, I would say that especially, let's say.
A good example use case would be someone asked me to do a talk, like a speech, a presentation, on a topic that I used to be good at, but I just haven't paid attention to it for a while because someone else on our team has been doing it right, like maybe, email writing.
I would say sure, i can do that presentation.
I just need to brush up on my knowledge of email writing.
Right right right right, exactly.
It's very, it's very useful.
Um, this expression um, i think, like i mean lindsay, we're talking about things you want to brush up on now.
But is there an old skill that you had that you did brush up on at some point?
Like I was thinking, maybe for you like tennis, did you, you know, did you ever stop playing tennis?
And then you go back into it.
But does that work though for physical sports?
I'm trying to think now.
You think it's more of a knowledge thing?
Can I see brush up on my tennis?
I don't, Okay, I'm totally losing my mind right now.
I don't even know.
Yeah, I think that you could, because you could say like brush up on my yeah.
Like I wouldn't say brush up on my tennis, but I might say like brush up on my tennis skills.
Okay, there you go.
The key is the wording.
Yeah.
What if you're a tap dancer or something?
You're in a dance troupe and like, oh, I got to brush up my toe taps or like... Yeah.
So it's something more specific rather than just brush up on my baseball or my skiing.
I need to brush up on my mogul skills, I guess.
But I tend to do it more in less in a way around sports and physical activity.
You think it's more...
I think it leans conceptual and cognitive.
I need to brush up on my, like I said, writing skills, like my grammar, punctuation.
That's just my bias, but I'm not sure if that's correct.
Interesting.
No, I mean, that is interesting.
And now that it's one of those things right now that I'm thinking about, and now I'm like oh God, you know like, because sometimes when you think about something too much, then you get yourself good right.
Exactly.
I'm losing my mind.
Yeah, that's what happens, guys.
Yeah, but that's okay.
So that's just some ideas.
So you know, see how you use people, how you hear people use it.
But let's talk about some other related expressions.
So this one we already talked about and we have talked about this on the show before.
To get rusty right.
So yes, we've already ringing Yeah, this is.
So what does it mean to get rusty?
Yeah, this really is very good.
This would be great for physical sports or remembering things.
You just it's the same thing.
Imagine like a bright, shiny car.
That is, your skills when you're at the height of your game, whether it's your tennis game or your songwriting Michelle.
And then the car sits out in the weather, let's say on the East Coast, all the storms and the saltwater, and it becomes rusty.
And all of a sudden, you're not at the top of your game anymore.
It's just rusty.
I've gotten rusty.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yep.
So I could say like, oh, I'm getting rusty on my guitar picking technique.
So I need to take some time to brush up.
Yeah.
Perfect.
Love it.
All right.
The next one, guys.
So I hope you guys are writing these down.
We want to be writing these down.
A refresher, right?
So for example, I forgot how to get into this program.
Can you give me a refresher?
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
It's just a reminder of something I did know how to do at one point, but I need to refresh my memory.
Right.
Exactly.
And what's the last one?
The last one is to fine tune.
Right.
So that's just to, you know, tweak it a little, make it better, make it tighter.
Right.
So I haven't practiced my Spanish in so long.
I really have to fine tune my skills before I move to Spain.
Yeah.
And a good approach is, you know, always working on your Spanish.
And this reminds me I need to book a Spanish lesson for the next few weeks.
But, like always, be working on your Spanish.
And then when you're about to take a trip, you really kind of zoom in there and book maybe three or four lessons a week, right?
Or use an app or just really focus on that skill specifically.
That's right.
All right.
So do we have a few more phrases for our listeners?
I know they love vocab.
Well, this is this is more actually our tips.
So like if you've gotten rusty and you need to brush up.
You know I was thinking of like what can you do?
Just I would say take it slow.
Don't put pressure on yourself.
And what else?
Well, yeah.
And I just want to make an extension of that.
The way that we allow ourselves to take it slow is by giving ourselves lots of time.
For example, if there is a trip coming up, don't say I'm going to brush up on my Spanish the week before.
Give yourself three months.
Right.
That's true.
Or if there's some kind of a performance, give yourself that time.
That's how we make sure we can take it slow.
I really think that's important.
Yeah.
Give yourself the time to take it slow.
Yeah because, especially language learning when you're feeling under pressure or in a rush, the brain shuts down in terms of acquiring new information.
The wall goes up. right?
That cognitive wall goes up and nothing new can really get in, because you're so concerned and anxious.
So give yourself time.
Yes, yes.
Very good point over there.
And then make it something you enjoy.
So keep the goal in mind.
But yeah, if you, if you don't like learning a language, you know, then it's might.
I mean, maybe you have to brush up on it for an exam or something.
But like, don't you know, try not to waste too much time on brushing up things, on things that are not necessary.
Obviously, some things for work, like you have to do um, but you know, for the leisurely things actually, you know, you should like what it is yeah, of course, and then have an accountability partner, have someone else that's maybe on their own journey, maybe they have something totally different that they're trying to brush up on, or the same thing, maybe you're in a class together, text each other every night when you've done the thing, you've done the, the practice, or spent the time reading about the thing right yeah Yeah, exactly.
So let's do a role play.
So in this role play, we used to take a dance class together.
OK, oh my gosh, Michelle, I'm a terrible dancer.
But I was thinking about starting a modern dance class downtown.
I was thinking about joining like hip hop or something.
Know, i think it'd be fun just to move in a different plane of movement rather than just orange, there is always straight, you know, we're always sprinting.
I think it'd be fun to take a dance class.
I used to like doing, i used to like taking, like dance, cardio.
To me that's fun, i like the music, i like the.
Yeah, it's really fun yeah oh yeah, i'm gonna look at anyways, side point.
Okay, go for it.
Yeah, all right, here we go.
Michelle, so good to see you.
It's been too long.
I know how are you still dancing too much?
I actually meant to brush up on my tap skills because i went.
I went to.
I want to audition for a show.
Oh, that would be great.
Well, my ballet has definitely gotten rusty.
Same, i definitely need a refresher from mr jett.
Oh man, he was the best.
I'd love to fine tune my skills again.
Maybe we should take another class together definitely okay, it sounds like we had a previous life where we were taking dance classes with mr jet.
I love it.
Good old Mr. Jet.
So I said, you said, are you still dancing?
Because we shared this in our past.
And I said, oh, not too much.
I've actually meant to brush up on my tap skills.
Right.
Okay.
I want to get back into it.
That's right.
And I said, well, my ballet has definitely gotten rusty.
Yep.
And then I said, same.
I definitely need a refresher.
Now that's an interesting construction, a refresher from Mr. Jet.
Just tell us a little bit about that.
What am I saying exactly?
You say I need a, like basically almost like a session of brushing up.
Like I need like another class.
I need a couple of classes with Mr. Jet.
So to refresh my memory, to refresh my skills.
Okay.
Got it.
So I'm saying I want to take classes with him.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
The way I interpreted that when I first read it Was that we used to take classes from Mr Jet, and I need a refresher from that, like from what we did then.
But it makes more sense that I want Mr. Jet to teach me, like help me learn this again.
Right.
It's not necessarily that you actually mean that, but you're just saying like yeah, I need, like I would, I would need a new class from him.
You know, like if I want to,
Yeah.
Okay.
That's how I meant it.
How about the next one?
What do we do?
And then I said, I'd love to fine tune my skills again.
So to just get better to, you know, polish my skills.
Yeah.
And I want to add in one bonus phrase, right?
That kind of an extension here or is related is get back into something, right?
To get back into it.
Yes, that's good.
Yeah, like into something.
I'll add that to the bonus words as well.
That's a bonus phrase.
And it's not just about relearning it.
It's kind of about getting your mind back into it, get back into the habit, get excited about it again, right?
It's about more than just picking the skills back up again.
So, I mean, that'd be a good question for our listeners for today.
You know, what do you want to get back into?
Oh, yes.
That is a good question.
That is a good question.
All right.
What's our takeaway for our listeners?
All right, guys.
Just because you lost a skill, or you think you lost a skill or it's not.
Maybe you've gotten rusty.
It doesn't mean it's gone forever and you can't turn it back around.
So, you know, just have that.
If it's something that you want to pick up again, like I do want to work on my music again.
I honestly know...
That is not the time for me right now just because everything's so busy and crazy.
But I know that at one point, like as soon as I get the time, that's going to be the first thing that I that I try to brush up on.
So but I know that my skills aren't lost.
They're just rusty and I need to brush up on them.
Yeah, they're in there somewhere, right?
I mean, for me too, Japanese is in there.
It's very deep back there, way back.
We have to take it out of the cobwebs, from the corners of the brain from 15 or 20 years ago, but it's in there.
And just be encouraged, be excited, guys.
It doesn't mean you can come back to it and you will see those kind of synapses coming back together.
And you'll remember the construction of the language or how to write a song.
You will remember it.
It is in there.
You own it.
So get excited about what you want to get back into.
So good.
Awesome.
Love it.
All right, Lucy.
And thank you again to our listener, Roberto, for that question.
All right.
Good stuff, Michelle.
I'll talk to you very soon.
Take care.
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