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Learning Strategies Video Library

Expressions with Get Course

Video 1: Get Your Act Together

Glossary

get (one’s) act together: to become organized and prepared

get (one’s) feet wet: to experience for the first time

get (one’s) hands dirty: 1.) to engage in hard work; 2.) to be involved in

something illegal or unethical

get (one’s) head examined: said of someone when they are crazy, delusional, or

completely wrong

get (one’s) head around (something): to attempt to understand something difficult

or complex

get (one’s) money’s worth: to receive good value in return for one’s investment

get (one’s) hopes up: to become excited or hopeful about something

Sample Sentences

1. David is completely unprepared for tomorrow’s presentation. He’d better get

his act together soon, as he is running out of time.

2. During her first week on the job, Julie got her feet wet by doing simple tasks

while observing more experienced co-workers.

3. We have lots of work to do this week, so let’s roll up our sleeves and get our

hands dirty.

4. You should always do what is right. Don’t get your hands dirty by doing

something illegal.

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 5. Your son spent $250 on a baseball cap? That’s crazy! He needs to get his head

examined.

6. Hey, can you help me understand this math problem. I can’t seem to get my

head around it.

7. It only costs $12 to have lunch at that all-you-can-eat buffet. You really get

your money’s worth there.

8. Very few people ever win the lottery, so your chances are slim. Don’t get your

hopes up.

Vocabulary Questions
1. Talk about someone you know who never seems to have their act together.

2. Talk about a time when you got your feet wet at doing something for the first

time. How did it go?

3. When was the last time you got your hands dirty by doing a lot of hard work?

4. Talk about some common ways that people in your society get their hands

dirty by doing unethical or illegal things.

5. Talk about someone you know who needs to get their head examined.

6. Talk about a time when you had difficulty understanding something. Use the

expression “I couldn’t get my head around it” in your response.

7. Talk about a time when you really got your money’s worth.

8. Talk about a time when you got your hopes up for something, and you ended

up disappointed.

Transcript

Greetings, everyone. In this video, I want to talk about some expressions with the
verb "get," and the very first one is get your act together. What does it mean "to get
one's act together"? Well, when you get your act together, what you're doing is you're
becoming organized and prepared for something. You're getting ready for
something, and we often say this when we need to get our act together, when we
need to be more prepared for something. For example, let's imagine that Gabi is
having a party at her house on Saturday evening, and you know, she's looking
forward to it, but she really hasn't been able to prepare adequately for it, because

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she's so busy with her work and her family life and her friends, and suddenly, it's
Saturday early afternoon, and all the guests are coming over in a couple of hours,
and she tells herself, "Man, I need to get my act together. Otherwise, I'll be totally
unprepared for the arrival of the guests." Or another example might be, let's imagine
that Jezser is having breakfast with his family on a Sunday morning, and his wife says
to Jezser, "Jezser, can you help me with the dishes and some of the laundry this
morning?" And he says, "Oh, I'm so sorry, but my Zoom session is starting in 15
minutes, and I need to get my act together. Maybe later I can help you," something
like that.

Now, that's kind of, those are urgent examples. When things are getting ready to
happen, you need to get your act together. But it can also be over more of a long
term. For example, let's say you have a friend who has been struggling with drug
addiction. Maybe he or she is addicted to prescription pills, and it's caused many
problems in that person's life and in the lives of their friends and family, and finally,
your friend has decided to get his act together by entering rehab, and it takes many
months, but eventually, he gets his act together and starts putting his life back
together, right? So "to get your act together" means to just kind of pull everything
together, put everything in order, be prepared, be ready to do what you need to do,
to get your act together. Sometimes, I don't have my act together, and I need to
focus to get my act together. I bet you know some people who frequently don't have
their act together. Okay, that's a very useful one.

The next one that you might hear is, get your feet wet. What does it mean "to get
one's feet wet"? Well, imagine that you want to go swimming and you come to a lake,
and you're getting ready to just jump in the lake because it looks so inviting, but you
might want to test the water with your feet first before submerging your whole body.
It might be too cold. So you stick your feet in the water, and you let your feet sit
there awhile, just to get used to the temperature and feel of the water, and then if
you think it's going to be comfortable, then you can submerge your whole body. You
first start by getting your feet wet. So we use this figuratively to mean to experience
something for the very first time, especially before you get further into it.

For example, we offer a seven-day course on our website for people to get their feet
wet with Deep English lessons, materials, and method. We offer a 14-day trial for our
Fast Fluency Formula members when they first join the membership so they can get
their feet wet and see if it's really right for them. Do they want to take the plunge? Or
maybe, they find something different that suits their needs. They get their feet wet
first. So that's what it means "to get your feet wet."

Let's imagine another situation. Let's say there's a guy who lives in Korea named
Hyunsu, and Hyunsu has taken a recent interest in golf, but he's never played it
before. But he's been inspired by the success of the female golfers in South Korea,
who are some of the best in the world. And so he says, "You know what, I'm going to
give golf a try." And he knows, he's a smart guy, Hyunsu, and he knows that it's a

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mistake to go out and purchase all of the equipment, the clubs, and the hats and
getting a golf membership. It would cost a fortune. It's so expensive. So he decides
that he's going to get his feet wet by borrowing some clubs from a friend, going to a
public course where the rates are cheap, and he can just have fun practicing, and
he'll get his feet wet that way, to see if it's something he really wants to do. And if it's
not, then he doesn't really lose anything. He has to get his feet wet, experience it at
the beginning, to see if it's right for him.

Okay, now, that's a little different. Getting your feet wet is a little different than
getting your hands dirty. What does that mean? Well, when you "get your hands
dirty," you imagine, when you're working, you get your hands dirty, right? So one of
the meanings of this expression is to engage in hard work, when you engage in hard
work. So when it's time for Dan and I to create a new lesson set, we get our hands
dirty, and we jump in there, and we research it, and we do our best to provide the
best possible lesson we can. We get our hands dirty. Some of our members, like for
example Pouli. I know Pouli; he prepares for his conversations. He does a little bit of
research ahead of time. He reviews the vocabulary. He looks at the conversation
questions and the vocabulary questions, and he thinks of good examples. He gets
his hands dirty before going to a Zoom session.

Now, you have to be careful with this one, because it also has a different meaning, a
much more negative meaning. If you get your hands dirty, it can also mean to be
engaged or involved in some kind of illegal or unethical activity. So, for example, if
you are working with the mafia, mm, you're getting your hands dirty, right? Or if, let's
say, actually, when I was a high school student, I knew a guy in our high school who
was running a sports betting ring amongst many of the high school students. He got
in a lot of trouble for it. But yeah, he was getting his hands dirty by doing something
under the table that many of people frowned upon; they didn't like it. So yeah, he
was getting his hands dirty. I've noticed interestingly that politicians in Japan, when
they are speaking in front of many people, or they're at some kind of official
ceremony or speech or event, they wear white gloves. So I don't know if there's a
connection there, but it shows how clean their hands are. Their hands are not dirty.
They're not doing anything wrong. They wear those white gloves. I thought that's
interesting.

Okay, now, you also will hear the expression to get your head examined. What
does that mean, to get one's head examined? Well, we say this about people when
they do something or say something that's crazy or delusional or just plain
completely wrong. Let me give you a few examples. Like my friend, he has a teenage
son, and he's really into fashion, the son. And my friend found out that his son had
purchased a baseball cap, and he spent like $250 on this baseball cap, and my friend
said, "You need to get your head examined. Why would you spend that kind of
money on something so simple like a baseball cap when you can buy one for 10 or
15 dollars, and it's perfectly fine? You need to get your head examined. Why are you
spending so much on that," right? Some people might say that people who deny the

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existence of the COVID-19 virus and who walk around without masks and don't
social distance and don't care about the pandemic, that they need to get their heads
examined, right? Something's wrong. That's crazy, that's delusional. Any time you
hear that, you can use this expression, "you need to get your head examined," like
that.

Let's see, another one is to get your head around something. What does that
mean? That's a little different than getting your head examined. When you need to
get your head around something, it means that you're attempting to understand
something that's maybe difficult or kind of complex. A lot of people have struggled
with math, and so they need to get their head around these complex, difficult
problems, and it's difficult for people to get their head around those problems. You
could refer to someone's behavior this way. For example, Dan just recently bought a
new suit, and I looked at it, and it's like a pink and purple suit with polka dots on it,
and I just couldn't get my head around why he would wear such a suit. I couldn't
believe it, right? I mean, it just doesn't make any sense. I think Dan needs to get his
head examined, right? He needs to get his head examined. I can't get my head
around why he would do that. And just situations that are confusing and complex,
like American politics right now. I can't get my head around some of the things that
people say and do and believe. It's really hard to get my head around it. Anything
that you struggle to understand, you can say, "It's tough to get my head around it."

All right, next is to get your money's worth. What does that mean, "to get your
money's worth"? Well, you can probably imagine what this one means. It just means
to receive good value in return for your investment. And of course, by investment, I
mean it could be time, money, energy, attention, et cetera. So, for example, Maria,
she loves to dive. She's a diver, and she went diving last weekend at this new place
that she's never been to before, and it was perfect. The water current was just right.
The temperature was just right. There were very few people around. The reef was
just full of life and color, and she saw some very rare fish and animals, and it was just
a great experience. She really got her money's worth that day. So she got a good
return on the amount of time and energy and money that she spent to have that
experience. Did you get your money's worth, or not? If you buy tickets to a concert,
and you go to the concert, and the performance is terrible, you might ask for a
refund, and they ask, "Well, why do you want a refund?" And you say, "Because I
didn't get my money's worth. It was a terrible performance. I want my money back."
So if you're unhappy, you may ask to get your money back 'cause you didn't get your
money's worth.

So let's say another person buys a really nice shirt, spends quite a bit of money on it.
Let's call him Luiz. He buys a nice shirt, and he wears that shirt frequently, for years
and years and years, and it still looks like new. Wow, he really got his money's worth,
right? Luiz was happy he got his money's worth. We hope that you get your money's
worth with these videos and with your membership experience and with getting on
Zoom with other members and discussing the lessons. We hope that you get your

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money's worth. If you don't feel like you're getting your money's worth, let us know. I
want to know.

All right, finally, one more, to get your hopes up. What does that mean? Well, when
you become excited about something or very hopeful about something, you are
getting your hopes up. You're building expectations. So, many of us now are getting
our hopes up that 2021 will bring an end to the pandemic. There are vaccines being
created, and we are getting our hopes up. But, some people are skeptical. They're
saying, "Hey, don't get your hopes up. It could be a much longer path than you
expect." Another example might be, let's say you're planning to go to an outdoor
concert over the weekend, and you're really excited about it, because your favorite
musicians are going to be there, who you haven't heard in a long, long time, so
you've been looking forward to this day for a long time, but then your friend calls
you up and says, "Hey, I know you are really excited about seeing those bands, but
don't get your hopes up, because I heard that a big storm is on the way, and they
might have to cancel or postpone it, so don't get your hopes up like that."

Okay, that brings me to the end of this video. I hope you enjoyed those expressions.
They're all very useful, and if you can master them, you will definitely improve your
ability to communicate in very natural ways. All right, if you have questions, ask us.
We'll be happy to give you more examples.

Video 2: Get a Load of This

Glossary

get a load of (something or someone): to take a good look at something or someone

of interest

get a kick out of (something): to get pleasure and excitement from something

get a rise out of (someone): to act in a way that causes a person to become

annoyed or upset

get a fair shake: to receive fair or just treatment

get a leg up: to achieve a position of advantage in a competitive situation

get a handle on (something): to begin to understand something difficult or complex

get a lot of mileage out of (something): to get a lot of use or value out of something

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Sample Sentences

1. Get a load of George’s new suit. It’s very stylish!

2. My son and his friends get a kick out of riding roller coasters. They love the

thrill and excitement.

3. Don’t pay any attention to what your sister is saying. She’s just trying to get a

rise out of you by making you upset.

4. Protesters were upset about not getting a fair shake by the government’s

unjust policies.

5. That company is lowering prices and increasing quality in an effort to get a leg

up on the competition.

6. After 6 months on the job, Yuri was finally starting to get a handle on how

things are done.

7. In an effort to get a lot of mileage out of his new gym membership, Imre

decided to work out every day.

Vocabulary Questions

1. Do you know of anything interesting that we should have a look at? Use the

expression get a load of in your response.

2. What do you get a kick out of doing?

3. Do you know anyone out of whom it is easy to get a rise?

4. Talk about a time when you or someone you know didn’t get a fair shake.

5. Talk about a time when you or someone you know gained a competitive

advantage. What did you do to get a leg up?

6. Talk about a time when you or someone you know began to get a handle on

something that was difficult or complex.

7. Describe something that you or someone you know got a lot of mileage out

of.

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Transcript

Okay everyone, prepare yourself for more expressions with the verb get. And the
title of this video is "Get A Load Of This."

So, the first expression is get a load of something or someone. A load is a large
amount of something gathered in one place. So that's literally, but figuratively, when
you get a load of something, you're getting a really good look at it. You're checking it
out. Especially if it's something interesting. For example, have you seen Mauricio's
new car? Wow, it's really cool. You should get a load of it, right? That means go check
it out. Take a look at it. It's, it's cool. It's interesting. Or get a load of this, look at this,
get a load of this, this is a beautiful, look how beautiful that cake is, right? What a
beautiful cake. Jaturaporn's daughter made it. She's studying to be a chef. And I
know she's going to be a great chef one day. I can't wait to get a bite of that cake she
made. Like that.

Actually, when I was researching these and thinking about which expressions to
introduce in this video, this one really made me think of a scene in the movie
"Batman," where Jack Nicholson, who plays the Joker, is kind of talking to himself and
he's thinking out loud. And I remember very distinctly he says, "wait till they get a
load of me." Right? And then he starts laughing this evil laugh. I'll share the link to
that video in the forum so you can check it out. But yeah, that's a, that's another
example. Wait till they see me, wait till they get a load of me. Of course, he was a
crazy person. The Joker's pretty crazy. All right.

The next one is, get a kick out of something. Maybe you've heard this before to get
a kick out of something. When you get a kick out of something, it means you get
some kind of pleasure or excitement from something, right? What, what do you get a
kick out of? Like, I get a kick out of reading horror stories. I think they're really
interesting, right? I get a kick out of that. It's different than reading because if you say
I get a kick out of reading, you could say that, but usually, when you get a kick out of
something, it's, it's something more specific. It's more exciting. It's more something
that you can be passionate about or that just gives you pleasure in a more
immediate way. So it would seem a little strange to say, I get a kick out of reading,
but it's not strange to say I get a kick out of reading horror stories or I get a kick out
of reading Japanese, futuristic manga or something like that, then people can
imagine, Oh yeah, there's something exciting there.

Another example might be gardening. Maybe some of you are into gardening. You
like gardening. But to say, I get a kick out of gardening. Well, it just, it sounds a little
odd because gardening is kind of the slow process where you're interacting with
plants, and you're helping them grow, and you're working it there. And it's just, it's a
very nice relaxing thing. You don't really get a kick. You can get a kick out of riding
roller coasters, or with gardening, you can get a kick out of growing something
specific. So, for example, I get a kick out of growing really hot peppers in my garden

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like habanero or ghost peppers, Jolokia. I get a kick out of that because they're really
wonderful and powerful and colorful and strong. And they make me sweat.
Especially in the summer, it cools me off. I get a kick out of eating hot peppers and
growing hot peppers. I hope that you get a kick out of some of our lessons, right?
They're not just boring and just pleasant, but you, it excites you in some way, or you
get some kind of intellectual pleasure or emotional pleasure from them. We hope
that you get a kick out of the lessons. What do you get a kick out of?

Now getting a kick out of something is a little bit different than getting a rise out of
someone. What does that mean? Well, if you imagine like you go fishing and you
attach a flotation, a little small flotation device. And then, at the end of the hook, you
put a worm, and you throw that out there. And the worm sits, just under the surface
of the water. Well, that's going to attract a hungry fish, and that fish will rise up to
come get it. So if you get a rise out of someone, you're doing something to kind of
attract them. But in this case, it means to do something in a way that makes
someone irritated or annoyed so that they get emotionally upset. You're drawing out
their emotions. You're giving rise to their anger or irritation or annoyance. Okay. So
you get a rise out of someone.

Great example, my uncle Bob, right? He's a pretty easygoing guy. Doesn't talk much.
He's pretty calm in most situations. But as soon as you start talking about politics,
you're sure to get a rise out of him. He'll get emotional; he'll get upset, he'll get
irritated. He'll start shouting. You'll get a rise out of him. If you talk about the
president, or you talk about the presidential politics or something like that, you'll get
a rise out of him for sure. Some people tease each other. They tease each other to
get a rise out of each other. Brothers and sisters do this all the time, right? Siblings
will, one sibling will say something to the other sibling, knowing that it will get a rise
out of him or her and start some kind of argument. Some people do it for fun, but
other people do it with malicious intent to get a rise out of it. I bet you know people
who you can get a rise out of, right? By the things that you do or the things that you
say. So, yeah, that's what that one means.

Moving on, another one is get a fair shake. To get a fair shake. What does that
mean? Well, that's simply means to receive very fair, just treatment, to receive fair
and just treatment to get a fair shake. Let me give you a few examples. Maybe some
of you know, this guy he's been in the news Carlos Ghosn, he was the ex-CEO of
Nissan and Renault. And as you probably know, if you follow the international news,
he was arrested for financial crimes, and he was kept in detention without ever
being for almost a year without ever being proven guilty that he was awaiting trial.
And he left Japan. He snuck out of Japan, supposedly in like an instrument case that
was flown out of Japan and eventually onto Lebanon through Turkey. And he left in
that way. He fled because he felt he was not going to get a fair shake in a Japanese
court of law. So he left, he fled. That might be one example.

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Another example of not being treated justly or fairly might be the people of color in
the US have felt for a long, long time, but they haven't gotten a fair shake in society
in the institutions of society and the way that they've been treated, right? And that's
all they're asking for is a fair shake, right? Fair, just treatment. We should all get a fair
shake like that. Have you ever experienced a time in your life where things didn't go
your way because you were treated unfairly or unjustly? In that case, you can say, I
didn't get a fair shake. Okay. All right.

The next one is connected with the legs. And that is to get a leg up, to achieve a
position of advantage in a competitive situation. So some of you might want to
improve your English fluency and your English confidence. And speaking English and
communicating in English because you want to get a leg up in business. You want to
get a leg up in your career, right? To gain a competitive advantage. I recently saw an
interview with a chess grandmaster, and he was saying that he works out like two
hours a day. He lifts weights and he sprints, and he conditions his body because it
helps him get a leg up over the competition in chess. And I thought that was really
interesting because unlike a lot of sports, chess players, they sit there and they have
to concentrate. But I guess if he, what he was saying is you can think and
concentrate a lot better for a longer period of time in a more intense way if your
body is also in great shape. So I thought that was really interesting. He gets in shape
physically to get a leg up on a very mental game.

Okay. The next one is to get a handle on something. Of course, as you know, a
handle is something that you can grab and turn and manipulate, to accomplish
something you want to do. But when we, when we say get a handle on something
figuratively, what we're talking about is to sort of begin to understand something
difficult or something complex. To begin to understand it, to start understanding it.
Okay. So, for example, this COVID virus just suddenly came out of nowhere in early
2020, and it was a new novel virus. And so it took a while for scientists, and medical
researchers and doctors and nurses to get a handle on how to contain it and how to
develop a vaccine against it and how to avoid it and how to treat patients that had it.
And so it took months to get a real handle on it. And now we've gotten a handle on it
collectively, and hopefully, we'll be able to, using that knowledge to either eradicate it
or deal with it in a way that makes it safe for people to go back to some sort of
normalcy in their lives right? We need to get a handle on it first.

Some people have difficulty getting a handle on new technology, right? Technology
doesn't come easy to some people, and they have difficulty getting a handle on it.
They need the help of other people who are more experienced at technology or
more knowledgeable about technology in order to get a better handle on whatever
software or hardware that they're trying to learn. So to get a handle on it, right? It
means to begin understanding it. All right.

Finally, the last one comes from comes from driving automobiles. Literally, if you
ever buy a used car in North America, one of the very first questions you're going to

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have is, "What is the mileage on this car?" Right? How many miles has this car been
driven? And that gives you an idea of how much it's been used and what the
potential of certain problems it might have, what the potential is for certain
problems that it might have and that might affect the price that you pay for it. So to
get a lot of mileage out of a car means to drive that car for a very long time. Maybe
even if you get lots of mileage out of it, then it was a good deal. It was a good value.
You've got your money's worth. If you get a lot of mileage out of a car.

So like for example, my father back in the mid-eighties purchased a brand new
Toyota minivan. And it, at the time, it looked like something from outer space. It
looked like a spaceship with the engine in the middle of the van, kind of poking up in
the middle of the passenger area. And it was, it was a lot of fun, but you know what?
He got a lot of mileage out of that. He drove it for like 20 years and got a lot of
mileage out of it. So that's kind of a literal meaning of it, but we use this figuratively
to mean to get a lot of use or value out of something, anything a relationship you can
get a lot of mileage out of a relationship with another person or just things.

I know a guy who had a wooden deck, and most wooden decks don't last that long in
Japan because of the humidity. But this guy, he took such good care of his wooden
deck. He stained it like twice a year, and he was constantly keeping it in good
condition and keeping the bugs off of it and keeping it dry as much as possible. And
man, he got a lot of mileage out of that deck. It lasted over 20 years before he had to
replace it.

Some of our members are getting a lot of mileage out of their membership,
especially when it comes to attending Zoom sessions. I know that Ibragim and Jana,
and Diana have gotten a lot of mileage out of the Zoom sessions. They come
frequently. They come often, and I hope they're getting a lot of mileage out of it.
They're getting a lot of value out of it. How much mileage are you getting out of your
Zoom sessions?

Okay. That brings us to the end of this video. Yeah. As always, please ask questions
in the forum or during our Zoom sessions in order to understand how these are
used better. Right? And in that way, you can get a lot of mileage out of these videos.

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Video 3: Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Glossary

get along: to have a good, friendly relationship with someone

get into (something): to become interested in or passionate about something

get over (something or someone): 1.) to recover from something negative; 2.) to

overcome a problem or difficulty

get at: to suggest, intend, or allude to a particular point

get through: to endure a difficult or boring experience

get away (with something): 1.) to avoid being caught for doing something wrong;

2.) to do something successfully even though it was not the best way

get (someone) down: to cause someone to be sad or depressed

Sample Sentences

1. For years the brothers argued and quarreled, but now they are friendly and

get along with each other quite well.

2. Recently, my father has gotten into cycling. He enjoys it tremendously.

3. It has taken Daryl over two months to get over the loss of his pet dog. Now he

is starting to feel much better.

4. After the crew gets over these technical issues, we can finally start the show.

5. I think what the author is getting at is that democracy in the USA is in danger.

6. If you can just get through the next three hours of boring meetings, then we

can have a nice dinner together.

7. Jason got away with driving without license for a whole year before he was

finally caught.

8. The chef was all out of butter, so she got away with using margarine instead.

9. Being fired from his job really got Alex down. He was depressed for many

weeks.

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Vocabulary Questions

1. Talk about some people with whom you get along well, and other people with

whom you do not get along well.

2. Talk about some things (activities, hobbies, TV series, etc.) you have gotten

into recently.

3. Talk about a time when you (or someone you know) had difficulty getting

over something or someone.

4. Describe a time when someone was trying to suggest or allude to a particular

point they wanted to make. What were they getting at?

5. Talk about a difficult experience that you had to get through. How did you

endure it?

6. Talk about a person who got away with a crime or wrongdoing. How did they

get away with it?

7. Talk about a time that you or someone you know got away with doing

something successfully, but in a makeshift way.

8. Name some things that get you down. Why do they make you sad or

depressed?

Transcript

Hello everyone. In this video, I want to introduce some very common and useful
phrasal verbs with the verb to get. So let's get started.

The first is get along. Can't we all just get along? To get along means to have good
relations with other people. It usually means friendly as well, but not always. I'll
explain. So, for example, Dan and I, we get along. We get along really well, okay?
We're friends, and when we're together, we laugh. We have a good time. We're able
to communicate well. We get along well together. Most people get along well with
their friends. In the Deep English Zoom sessions, I observe many different breakout
rooms, and largely people get along. Like Minerva gets along with Nishi, and Jian gets
along with Pavel. I see that, right? A lot of people get along with everyone. But you
don't have to like someone to get along with them.

For example, there's a guy I know at my work who I don't really like that much. I
don't like the way he does things. And I think he might feel similarly about me, but it

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doesn't matter. We're both mature adults, and we let those things go, and we get
along. We get along quite well, actually. So you can get along with people without
liking them. You don't have to be super friendly, but you just have a nice smooth
relationship, you get along. There's no conflict. There's no problems. Who do you get
along most with?

The next phrasal verb is get into something. Now, before I explain this, you should
know that the phrasal verb get into has many different meanings. I could do a whole
video on all the different meanings of get into, but I've chosen one that I think is
quite useful. And that is to become really interested and passionate about
something. So, for example, for years, I didn't do a lot of cardiovascular exercise, but
about five or six years ago, I got into jogging, and now I do jogging several times a
week. When I was younger, I got into soccer, right? Around the age of five or six. My
dad got me into soccer. So you can get someone into something by leading them to
that experience. We bought a very small piano when my daughter was young to get
her into piano. Now she is into piano, right? We got her into piano. My younger
daughter got into karate when she was four. My older daughter is now getting
design. She's very interested in design. She's passionate about it. She's getting into it.
Have you gotten into any kind of activity or hobby recently, or what are you into now
like this?

The next one is get over something or someone. What does that mean? Well,
actually, there are a couple of different meanings for this. The first one is to recover
from something negative. It could be an illness, right? You've gotten over an illness.
How long does it take to get over the flu? How long does it take to get over a cold? Or
how long does it take to get over COVID? Do you ever get over COVID, right? It could
be something emotional like grief if a loved one passes away, right? You'll need time
to get over it, right? To recover from it. Or maybe a breakup of a close relationship
that you have with someone you care very much about, and the relationship doesn't
work anymore. It takes some time to get over that person. And you can use it as a
command as well. Let's say your best friend breaks up with her boyfriend, and you
tell her: "Hey, man, it's been like two or three months now, you should get over it,
right? Get over it, recover from it. Let it go. Get over it; go back to normal life." Like
that.

Now it can also be used the same phrasal verb to overcome a problem or a difficulty
of some sort. So sometimes our members, including me, we have technical problems
with Zoom at the beginning of our sessions. Maybe the microphone doesn't work, or
you have a problem with the camera, or you can't find the button that you need to
push to do something. Yeah, can't really do anything until you get over that technical
problem, right? You got to get over it. You got to solve it, and then you can proceed,
right. So to get over a problem or get over a difficulty. You have to get over a hurdle
in life. You have to get over many hurdles actually in life. So that's what that means.
That's the other meaning of it.

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Now, the next phrasal verb is get at, to get at something. When someone is getting
at something, it means to kind of suggest or to intend or allude to a particular point
without saying it directly. Let me try to give you some examples. Let's say Dan like
cuts his own hair, right? And I see his new haircut, and I say: "Wow, Dan, that's quite
a haircut. I know a guy, I know a barber who's really good, and his rates are pretty
cheap. Maybe in a couple of months, I'll introduce him to you." And Dan says: "Hey,
wait a minute. What are you getting at, right? What are you getting at? Are you saying
I'm not good at cutting my own hair?" Like that. So that might be an example. I'm not
saying it directly. I'm not saying Dan, you have a terrible haircut. I mean, I'm trying to
communicate that in a much nicer way, suggesting that: "Hmm, that's an interesting
haircut. Maybe you should try a barber next time." So I'm trying to get at the fact that
maybe he should go to a barber. I don't actually know he cuts his own hair or not,
but Dan has a very handsome haircut.

As an English teacher, this is might be a different example. As an English teacher, I

have listened to so many different people trying to express themselves at many
different levels of English. And sometimes, people struggle naturally to communicate
what they're trying to say. And so as an English teacher, I have to not only listen very
carefully but sometimes I have to use my imagination a bit to try to figure out what
they're actually getting at, right? Are they getting at this meaning, or are they getting
at that meaning and sometimes I have to ask questions to figure out what exactly
they're getting at because when you're not skillful at communicating something, it
comes across to a native or an advanced speaker as almost an illusion or a
suggestion to something they're not quite sure what it is. And so, I often need to ask
questions to figure out what people are getting at. And then I can understand them
and maybe offer them a better way, a more skillful way to say what they're trying to
say. What are they getting at? What are you getting at? You can actually ask that
question to someone. If you're not really sure what their intention is or what they're
trying to communicate to you. You can say: "Hey, what are you getting at? What are
you getting at? I don't understand. Why don't you say it directly." Like that.

Okay, the next one is get through, to get through something. Again, there are
different meanings to this phrasal verb, but the one I want you to pay attention to is
to endure a difficult or a boring or some kind of negative or some kind of challenging
experience. You have to endure it from the beginning until the end, right? So let's
take Lilijana, for example. Lilijana is a doctor and she deals with many, many
different patients and many of her colleagues every day. She's a busy one woman,
and sometimes she has to have meetings with difficult colleagues. She has to get
through those meetings. Sometimes she has difficult interactions with difficult
patients, and she has to get through those so that she can focus on what she does
best, right? So we often have to get through difficult, challenging or sometimes
boring experiences.

If you're ever have taken a really boring English lesson. Yeah, you'd had to get
through it in order maybe to find the benefit. All of us are having to get through this

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pandemic one way or another, right? It's not easy. It's long; it's challenging. It's
sometimes boring. It's sometimes depressing, but we've got to get through it like
that. So endure a difficult situation.

The next one is get away with something. Now again, this can have many different
meanings depending on the context, but I want to focus on two of them, two of
those meanings for get away with something. Well, first of all, to get away with
something, one of the most common meanings is to avoid being caught when you're
doing something wrong, something you're not supposed to be doing. For example,
about ten years ago in my neighborhood, which is a very quiet, peaceful, lovely
neighborhood, very stable, very safe. Someone was murdered in the middle of the
day with a knife, and it was shocking, right? We were all shocked and the police, they
investigated, but they never caught the guy, the murderer. So that person, whoever
it was, got away with murdering someone in broad daylight. He got away with it. He
was never caught for doing something wrong.

I know another guy who likes to speed. He just likes driving fast. He has a fast car. He
has a sports car, and I've told him before that's like really dangerous. You're going to
end up hurting yourself or hurting others because speed kills. So you should really
stop speeding so often. But you know what, to this day, he's never been caught for
speeding, but eventually he will. But he's never been caught. He has got away with
speeding on many occasions. Have you ever done something wrong and gotten
away with it? Perhaps all of us have at some point in our lives.

Now that's one meaning of get away with something. But another meaning and I
think this is a very interesting one, it's not quite as common, but you'll hear it, and I
think you should learn it and use it is to do something successfully even though it
was clearly not the best way to do it. Let me try to give you a couple of examples.
Let's imagine that you and your friend go to a football game at a stadium non-COVID
time. At a stadium and of course, it's outdoors, and it's a big game. There's lots of
people there. And suddenly it starts raining really hard, and then everybody takes
out their umbrellas and raincoats but you and your friend are not prepared. You
didn't have your act together. And so you started getting wet, and you needed
something to protect you from the rain. So you rummage around, and you find two
plastic garbage bags, and you make them into like little raincoats over your head and
shoulders and body. And guess what? It keeps the rain off of you. You're able to
enjoy the game. You don't get soaked. So yeah, you successfully avoided getting wet
from these garbage bags, but clearly that's not the best way to stay dry. So you got
away with using plastic garbage bags to stay dry. You got away with it, right? You
were able to successfully do it even though it wasn't the best way to do it.

Another example might be, let's see oh, when I was a teenager I had a used old beat-
up car that my parents gave me on my 16th birthday and I broke a window
accidentally, and I didn't have enough money to repair it. It was one of the back
windows on the passenger's side in the back. And my parents refused to pay for a

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new window, so I had to save up some money. It took me about two weeks, and in
those two weeks, I got away with putting a piece of clear plastic with duct tape
around the broken window to prevent rain from coming inside. So I got away with
doing that, and it was fine. Eventually, I got the window fixed. So that's a really good
one to know. To get away with something, to do it successfully, right? Even though
it's clearly not the best way to do it.

All right, finally, to get someone down. You can probably guess the meaning of this.
As something gets you down, it makes you sad or depressed, right? War gets me
down. Poverty gets me down. When I see my loved ones or my friends suffering, it
gets me down, right? I don't like that. For some of you, sometimes this happens. My
students come to me, and they're really down and what gets them down is their lack
of progress in their language learning goals. They work hard, but they don't see
results. And so they come to me, and I tell them: "Hey, don't get yourself down. Don't
get down about this, right? Don't let your lack of progress get you down because
your progress in language learning is like a staircase, right? It's flat for a while and
then suddenly it goes up and then it stays flat again and then suddenly it goes up."

So people's experience, even though the learning process might be kind of a linear
going up. The subjective experience of it is more like a staircase. You go for a long
time on a plateau, and you don't feel like you're learning even though you're actually
learning, and then one day you wake up, and suddenly you can feel yourself at
another level. I've experienced that in language learning, and a lot of people tell me
from their own experience that is what has happened to them too. So don't let your
lack of progress get you down because that next staircase is coming soon. If you stay
focused, you get your act together, and you work hard in an efficient and consistent
way, and you'll achieve your desired results.

All right. As always, I want all of you to try to put these to use in conversation in
repetitive and meaningful ways, so that you will remember them when you need
them in a conversation. Okay, enjoy the day, and we'll see you soon, hopefully on
Zoom.

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