Hey everybody, welcome to another phrasal verb episode.
I hope you're doing great and that your English learning is going well.
I hope you're ready to learn a couple new phrasal verbs today.
In this episode, we're going to look at the phrasal verbs brush up on and bulk up.
So let's first define these two phrasal verbs and let's see an example of each one, and then we'll move on from there.
So, brush up on.
This means to improve your knowledge of something that you have previously learned, but you've partly forgotten.
So you've learned it in the past, but now you're not as knowledgeable or good at it, because you've forgotten some of it.
So, for example, I could say I need to brush up on my math skills before taking that class.
What I'm saying here is that I need to revisit this topic, this subject of math, and try to learn or I should say relearn some of it, so that I can remember what I've forgotten.
I can remember what I learned previously that I already forgot.
So I'm going to brush up on my math skills.
Okay, the other one is bulk up.
So this means to gain weight, especially by becoming more muscular.
We don't say this that much to refer to someone gaining weight without muscle.
We use it to talk about them getting bigger and muscular.
So for example, I could say they almost didn't recognize him because of how much he had bulked up.
So in this sentence I'm saying that they almost didn't recognize him because he got a lot bigger and more muscular.
Alright, now I'm going to talk about a couple different things, and I'm going to use these two phrasal verbs again and again so that you can hear them in many sentences and hopefully, by the end of this episode, you'll feel comfortable with them and maybe you can even use them in your own sentences.
So first let me talk about about brushing up on your language skills.
So this is something that people need to do if they have learned a language to a certain level and then they stop.
Maybe they stop using it and they forget some of it, and then for some reason, they need to use that language and then they have to brush up on those skills because they've forgotten a lot of that language.
I've had to do this for several languages.
For example, when I went to Paris for the second time.
I've been there twice.
When I went there the second time, I wasn't learning French.
At that time, I think I was learning Greek or something, and I needed to brush up on my French skills before I went to Paris.
So I wanted to prepare for that trip.
It was only a couple days on the way home from Italy, but I wanted to prepare so that I could speak French in Paris for those couple days.
So I needed to brush up on my knowledge of the language.
Didn't have a good level at all, but I think that my level was better previously, and then I stopped learning French and so I forgot a lot of it.
So that's why I decided to brush up and my French before going, so I had to do that when I went to Paris that second time, and I've had to do this multiple times for Spanish.
Even even though I'm fluent in Spanish, I don't speak it as much anymore because I want my kids to hear English, because my wife speaks to them in Spanish.
And so I want them to hear English from me and Spanish from my wife.
So I don't really speak much Spanish at home.
I used to speak Spanish like all day with my wife, and now I don't, so I've kind of lost the habit of speaking it every day.
I do say some things in Spanish throughout the day, but I don't speak it all day anymore.
And because of this, when I travel to Mexico, I kind of need to brush up on my Spanish.
Or if I don't brush up on my Spanish before I go, I have to get accustomed to speaking Spanish all day, again when I'm in Mexico.
So it's helpful for me to brush up and talk some more in Spanish before I go.
But sometimes I don't do that.
And so I just have to get used to it and speak when I'm in Mexico and kind of get used to it again when I'm in the country.
Or if my in-laws are visiting here, like they did recently.
I also need to speak Spanish for a good chunk of the day, meaning a lot of time during the day.
So that's another case when it's helpful to brush up on my Spanish.
But like I said, I don't always do this.
So sometimes I just have to get used to it in the moment.
And just in general, when I've taken breaks from learning a specific language and then I come back to that language, I have to brush up on my knowledge.
This has happened with Portuguese.
It's happened. with French.
So I have to relearn what I forgot to even get back to the level that I once had.
And this is normal.
We can't expect to always retain everything we learn even though we're not using that knowledge.
It's normal. to forget stuff and have to brush up on that knowledge.
So it's just part of life and it's part of being a language learner.
If I go back to learning Portuguese in the future, or learning Greek, I'm going to have to brush up on a lot of stuff, because I've forgotten a lot of Portuguese and I've forgotten almost all of the Greek that i've learned.
But the cool thing is that when i hear words again, like in greek, they sound familiar to me.
It's not like i'm seeing them for the first time, So there is some knowledge of it still in my brain.
So that's helpful.
And how can you brush up on your skills if you just need to do it quickly because you're going to travel to a country that speaks that language?
Maybe you do a lot of listening in the days leading up to your trip.
You can use apps, apps that train your knowledge, your skills in that language.
Maybe playing around with those apps can help you brush up learning on your skills in a particular language.
Maybe you have some conversations before you travel, or whatever, and of course, just getting some speaking practice can help you brush up on your speaking skills.
So There are different ways of doing this, even if you only have a few days before you need to travel to that country or whatever.
So it's a situation that I have found myself in, and it's a common one for people that have learned languages before.
All right, now let me talk about something else.
Let me talk about when I started working out.
So I started going to the gym when I was 16 years old.
I think I went before that, but I didn't start going regularly until I was 18, around 16, maybe a little before that.
And I really wanted to bulk up at that time.
I wanted to bulk up for several reasons.
I wanted to play football, American football, actually.
And I knew that getting stronger and bigger and was gonna be helpful for me.
So I wanted to bulk up for that and I also just wanted to get stronger in general.
And I think the biggest reason why I wanted to bulk up was that I wanted to look better and I wanted to have bigger muscles and I wanted to be more confident with my appearance.
So I did it also for that reason.
And I went to the gym like five or six days a week at that time.
So I was overwhelmed. really motivated, really disciplined too.
I really wanted to get bigger, bulk up, look muscular, get stronger.
That was my main goal at that time.
That's like the main thing that I thought about.
I was just really into working out.
I had a lot of fun doing it.
I loved going to the gym.
It was my biggest hobby at that time.
And besides just working out at the gym, in order to bulk up, you have to eat a lot and take in enough calories and protein specifically.
And so I remember taking protein powders, and I also took specific powders to gain mass, meaning gain weight and get bigger.
By the way, Powder just refers to like a substance that is in tiny little grains, like powdered sugar or whatever.
So I think you know what I'm talking about.
So I would take specific powders uh, that are meant to help you gain weight, gain mass.
So i took a lot of those and i actually did bulk up.
It worked.
I got a lot bigger.
I gained a lot of weight, not pure muscle.
I also gained some fat, of course, and people noticed that I was bulking up.
People at my high school commented on the fact that I looked bigger, I looked more muscular, I had a put on some muscle and looked better.
And I really liked that, to be honest.
At that time, I relied way too much on other people's admiration.
This is typical for a lot of high schoolers.
We want to impress other people.
We want other people to admire us.
And that was the case for me.
I loved it when people commented on how strong I looked.
That really motivated me to keep on going to the gym.
And I actually never even played football.
I trained with the football team.
For some months I lifted weights with them and did some like football activities and exercises with them.
But I never actually played football.
So I bulked up a lot. but I never actually used that strength to play football.
So you might think that it was kind of a waste, but it wasn't, because it got me in the habit of exercising and going to the gym.
And when you do that when you're young, it helps you establish that habit, that custom of for the rest of your life.
It doesn't always happen, but I find that it's easy for me to want to exercise.
It just feels good. normal for me.
Whereas for other people who never really developed that habit when they were younger, it might be harder for them to get into it when they're older.
So this was actually a good thing, even though I didn't accomplish my goal of playing football.
I played basketball, but when you play basketball you don't necessarily need to be super big and muscular.
It's not as important, but it was good that I developed my strength and I developed that muscle memory, as we say.
So even as an adult, it's kind of natural to do these different movements and I can regain muscle if I lose it.
I can do this more easily than someone who is just gaining muscle for the first time, probably.
So there were a lot of benefits, but obviously I didn't bulk up for all the right reasons.
Like I said, I went to the gym and worked out primarily because I wanted to look good for other people and have other people's admiration.
I paid way too much attention to my physique.
Of course, it's good to pay attention to your strength, your body, your health.
That's good.
I paid way too much attention at that time.
I thought about it all the time.
I was constantly focused on how I looked, how my body looked.
It was too much.
And so it was excessive.
Let's say so.
In summary, when I was 16, I really wanted to bulk up, and I did so.
Not for all the right reasons, but there were some good benefits that followed.
All right, I hope that now you feel more comfortable with the phrasal verbs that we learned in today's episode and that you can use them in your own sentences.
And I want to remind you that you can use my advanced podcast episodes to train your listening.
In those episodes, I speak at normal speed.
I speak fast, not like in these episodes.
So if you want those, then click on the link below to become a Listening Time family member.
And also check out my US Conversations podcast to listen to my conversations with other native English speakers from around the country.
It's great practice for your listening, because these are authentic conversations that I have with other people.
And of course, I provide the transcript with the definitions of key words and phrases that we use.
So check that out.
That link is also down below.
Thank you all for listening to this phrasal verb episode, and I'll talk to you in the next one.
