{"id":934,"date":"2018-10-08T13:25:32","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T05:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tommykwan.com\/blog\/?p=934"},"modified":"2018-10-08T13:34:50","modified_gmt":"2018-10-08T05:34:50","slug":"understand-learning-at-the-coffee-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tommykwan.com\/blog\/english-learning\/understand-learning-at-the-coffee-shop\/","title":{"rendered":"Understand: learning at the coffee shop"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"embed-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dictionaryblog.cambridge.org\/2015\/12\/02\/i-appreciate-that-this-is-hard-for-you-other-ways-of-saying-understand\/\">I appreciate that this is hard for you. (Other ways of saying&nbsp;\u2018understand\u2019)<\/a><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>verb \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/dictionary\/english\/realize\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">realize<\/a>\u2019 is often used for talking about <em>the state<\/em> of <u>understanding and knowing things:<\/u> <strong><em>I realize this is difficult for you<\/em>.<\/strong> It is also used to say that we <u><em>start<\/em> <em>to<\/em>understand something: <\/u><em>As she was speaking<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"> I suddenly realized that<\/span> we\u2019d met before.<\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<li>In British English, the phrase \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/dictionary\/english\/the-penny-drops\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the penny drops<\/a>\u2019 is used to say that you or <u>someone else finally understand what is being said or what is happening:<\/u> <em>Then I saw them together at Sophie\u2019s party and <strong>the penny dropped.<\/strong> I had no idea that they were a couple!<\/em><\/li>\n<li>verb \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/dictionary\/english\/grasp#british-1-1-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">grasp<\/a>\u2019 also means<u> \u2018to <em>succeed<\/em> in understanding something\u2019<\/u> and is often used to talk about understanding\u00a0difficult things: <em>It was quite a high-level talk but I think I managed <strong>to <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">grasp the main points.<\/span>\/<\/strong>She couldn\u2019t seem to <strong>grasp the concept.<\/strong> <\/em>(The <u>noun \u2018grasp\u2019 is also used: <\/u><em>His <strong>grasp of grammar<\/strong> is very impressive for a seven-year-old.<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>A phrase which is used for succeeding in understanding is \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/dictionary\/english\/the-gist\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">get the gist<\/a>\u2019.\u00a0 <strong><em>I think I <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">got the gist of what he was saying.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Another such phrase is <a href=\"http:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/dictionary\/english\/sense#british-1-1-3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>make sense of<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<strong><em>I\u2019ve read the paragraph three times now and I still <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">can\u2019t make sense of it!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><u>If you appreciate something serious about a situation, you understand\u00a0it<\/u> or\u00a0you understand the reasons for it:<em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>I appreciate that<\/strong> <\/span>this is a very difficult decision for you to make.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>\u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/dictionary\/english\/comprehend\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">comprehend<\/a>\u2019 is a <u>formal <\/u>near-synonym for \u2018understand\u2019. We <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>comprehend serious, difficult things, situations<\/strong><\/span> rather than subjects: <strong><em>They evidently failed to comprehend the seriousness of the threat.<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Similarly, you might say \u2018I <a href=\"http:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/dictionary\/english\/get-the-picture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">get the picture<\/a>\u2019 to a person who is describing a situation in a slightly indirect way to let them know that you understand what they are saying: \u2018<em>He\u2019s not the most organised person and he can be a bit forgetful.\u2019<strong> \u2018I <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">get the picture.<\/span><\/strong> I\u2019ve worked with people like that.\u2019<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I appreciate that this is hard for you. (Other ways of saying&nbsp;\u2018understand\u2019) verb \u2018realize\u2019 is often used for talking about the state of understanding and knowing things: I realize this is difficult for you. It is also used to say that we start tounderstand something: As she was speaking I suddenly realized that we\u2019d met<a class=\"read-more \" href=\"https:\/\/tommykwan.com\/blog\/english-learning\/understand-learning-at-the-coffee-shop\/\" title=\"Read More\"> <span class=\"button default\">Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-learning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tommykwan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tommykwan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tommykwan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tommykwan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tommykwan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=934"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tommykwan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":937,"href":"https:\/\/tommykwan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934\/revisions\/937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tommykwan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tommykwan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tommykwan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}