AEE 2067: What Do You Want to Brush Up On?

This is an All-Ears English Podcast episode 2067. What do you want to brush up on? Welcome to the All-Ears English Podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection. With your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York Radio Girl, coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA. To get real-time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All-Ears English app for iOS and Android. Start your seven day free trial at allyoursenglish.com forward slash app. 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. Hey, Lindsay, how's it going? Awesome, Michelle. Excited to be on All-Ears English. How's everything with you? Everything's good. I'm watching a good TV show, actually. Oh, do tell. Have you heard of Only Murders in the Building? Nope. I haven't heard of it. Is it a crime show? It's like a crime show slash comedy. Actually, there's something to do with podcasts in it. You would, oh, you know what you should, 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 make kind of like poke fun in it at the art of podcasting, which I love that a little bit. But so it's about like a true crime podcasting. They're making a true crime podcast. I love that. 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, 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 a language like my French. That we've talked about, especially recently. We have talked about that. I want to, I would love to brush up on my music playing and my singing and stuff like that. Yeah. Because you used to write songs. I think you shared with our audience before, right? All the time. And then I, you know, as I, and then I kind of got out of it and then I became a mom and it was all over. So like, I still make up songs with my kids, but, like a ridiculous song. So yeah, yeah. But today, we have a listener question from Roberto. And yeah, this is dealing with brush up on. And yeah, Lindsay. Okay. 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? So let's see. Well, what was the specific question? That's what it is. It's from my question. He wants to do a video. Yeah, he wants us to do a video lesson about to brush up on. So 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. 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, I had on over and listen, we recently did episode 2061, which was justify your English with today's famous saying. So it's a good. 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 others 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, Caw, and Emma, no golly, Amy Muhammad, Muhammad said, incredibly amazing. Love this app too much. And left a five star review. And thank you to Rifty Anshad. 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 slash 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. I mean, it's 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 beginning wasn't that great of learning 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've become pretty good at something? And then you got one time. Right. You got Rusty. Yes. So yeah, exactly. It's more about a skill that you already have. But maybe are not so great at it anymore. Don't remember it. 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. 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, fun things that we could do. 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 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 Open Himer 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 II, you know? Brush up on my knowledge of World War II. 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. Yeah. You're kind of like getting it all nice. Yeah. Exactly. That's what I think of. So guys, you can think of that image. We've talked recently about using images to remember 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 at 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. Exactly. It's very, it's very useful. This expression. I think, like, I mean, Lindsay, we're talking about things doing it brush up on now. But is there an old skill that you had that you did brush up on at some point made like I was thinking maybe for you like tennis, did you, you know, did you ever stop playing tennis? And then you can do it. But does that work though for physical sports? I'm trying to think now. You think more of a knowledge. Lush up on my honest. I don't. Okay. I'm totally losing my mind right now. I don't even know. Is it? Yeah. I think that you couldn't because it because you could say like brush up on my, uh, yeah, like you, I wouldn't say brush up on my tennis, but I might say like brush up on my tennis skills. Oh, right. There you go. Or what if you're like a wording? Yeah. What if you're a top dancer or something you're like in a dance troupe and like, oh, I got to brush up my, you know, my, my toe taps are like, yeah. So it's something more specific rather than just brush up on my baseball or my skiing. Like, I need to brush up on my like mogul skills. I guess, but I tend to do it more in, like, less in a sport, like, away around sports and physical activity. Yeah. I think it leans conceptual and cognitive. I need to brush up on my, like I said, writing skills, like my grammar, punctuation. Um, that's just my bias, but I'm not sure if that's interesting. No, I mean, that is interesting. And now that it's one of those things are 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 going right exactly. That's what I'm saying. I'm losing my mind. Yeah, that's what happens, guys. Um, 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 bringing, yeah, this is, um, so what does it mean to get rusty? Yeah, this really is very, you could, 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 on the top of your game anymore. It's just rusty. I've gotten rusty. Yeah. Yeah. 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. 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 some, the 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 find tune, right? So that's just a, 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. Yeah. And book maybe three or four lessons a week, right? I use an app or just really focus on that skill specifically. That's right. Hey guys, do you spend valuable office time reading your emails again and again before you hit send? You might think to yourself, did I make a grammar mistake or am I being unclear? Even for me as a teacher of English and an entrepreneur, I sometimes lack confidence in my writing. I've told you before on this podcast that I started using Grammarly to edit my emails about a year ago. Since then, every time I write an email, if something is incorrect, like my punctuation or my grammar or just my clarity, Grammarly will underline my mistake so that I can fix it quickly and send off that email. So the biggest benefit to me with Grammarly is the peace of mind that I get, especially when I'm sending an email about a potential business partnership, a formal email like to someone in a large corporation when it really matters. Plus, we've heard from our guests like well-known journalist Lane Green who was on the show this summer in episode 2026 that concise and clear writing is powerful. Grammarly will make your writing more concise and more clear. You'll always feel understood with AI-powered full sentence rewrites. I'll say that again, full sentence rewrites. Write effortlessly with our free to use AI-powered rewrites and paraphrasing options that ensure that your English sounds natural, clear, and fluent. So I recommend that you go ahead and give Grammarly a try. Communicate effortlessly with Grammarly. Go to Grammarly.com slash ESL. That's g-r-a-m-m-a-r-l-y.com slash ESL. All right, so do we have a few more phrases for our listeners? I know they love vocab. Well, 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? I would say take it slow. Don't put pressure on yourself. And what else? 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. Like, for example, if there is a trip coming up, right? Don't say, I'm going to brush up on my Spanish the week before. Give yourself three months. Right. That's true. That's the 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, learn yourself the time to take it slow. Yeah, because especially language learning, when you're when you're feeling under pressure or in a rush, the brain shuts down in terms of acquiring new information, the 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 exam or something, but like, don't, you know, try not to waste too much time on brushing up things that are not necessary. Obviously, some things for work like you have to do. 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 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. Okay. I was thinking about starting a modern dance class downtown. I was thinking about joining a like hip hop or something. I don't 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'm going to like doing what I want you guys to like taking like dance cardio. Yeah, that's fun. I like the music. I like the. Yeah. Really fun. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to look at anyways. Side point. Okay. Yeah. All right. Here we go. Michelle, so good to see you. It's been too long. I know. How are you still dancing? And not too much. I actually meant to brush up on my cat skills because I went to I want to audition for a show. Oh, that would be great. Well, my ballet is definitely gone rusty. Same. I definitely need a refresher for Mr. Jet. 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 glasses with Mr. Jet. I love it. I love it. Mr. Jet. Oh, so I said you said, are you still dancing? Right. 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 or refresher from Mr. Jet. Just tell us a little bit about that. What am I saying? Exactly. You're saying I need a, like, basically almost like a session of brushing up. Like, I need like another class. I need a couple 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. Yeah. 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. Perfect. How about the next one? What do we do? And then I'd love to fine tune my skills again. So to get better, to, you know, polish my skills. Yeah. And I want to add in one bonus phrase, right, that we're kind of an extension here, or is related, is get back into something. Right. To get back into it. Yeah. So that's good. Yeah. Like into something. I'll add that to the bonus, 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 it 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 all right, guys? Just because you lost a skill or you think you lost a skill or it's not, you maybe you've gotten rusty. It doesn't mean it's gotten 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 it's 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 for 15 or 20 years ago, but it's in there. And, you know, just be encouraged, be excited, guys. It doesn't mean, you know, 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 the, you know, how to write a song. You know, 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. Let's see. And thank you again to our listener Roberto for that question. All right. Good stuff, Michelle. I'll talk to you very soon. Okay. Bye. Thanks for listening to all ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two minute quiz. Go to all ears english.com forward slash fluency score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.