AEE 2633: I’ve Got It Down! How to Say You’ve Mastered Something

This is an All Ears English Podcast, episode 2633. I've got it down. How to say you've mastered something. 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, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, 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 allearsenglish.com forward slash app. When someone offers you a compliment, you have some choices on how to respond. Today we'll show you nuanced differences between three responses and how one of them can show humility for more connection.

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Take the quiz now for free at allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com slash F-L-U-E-N-C-Y-S-C-O-R-E. Hello, Aubrey. How's everything going today?

I'm great, Lindsay. How are you? Good. I'm glad to be on the show. I do have a question for you, though. You ready? Yes. So what's something you're really good at, would you say?

I think I'm really good at hosting Open Conversation Club. Nice, nice. So you've got it down. We've been doing Open Conversation Club for a couple of years now, right?

And you've really got it down. Yeah, I think so. It comes pretty naturally to me. But also, like you said, after a couple years of something, usually you've got it down, right?

right? I love hosting it. It's very fun. I really love... So for Open Conversation Club, for those of you who haven't been able to attend, I send the students to breakout rooms and we have conversation starters.

And then I bring everyone back after like five minutes. And it's so fun to hear what came up in their conversations. It's often really interesting where the conversation goes and they're connecting and it's so interesting. And so it's fun to facilitate that conversation.

For sure. And maybe in the beginning, you know, you already had that natural talent, but we have certain logistics that we follow, right? As we execute on the task, as we host this. So those are the logistics that you were able to get down.

Exactly, right? The more you do something, the more it... becomes second nature. Yeah. So this is interesting. We got a question about this phrase. I've got it down.

I'm excited to dive into this and some related phrases today. But be sure to hit follow, guys, wherever you listen to podcasts. If you're not subscribed, if you're not following, you're likely missing some of our episodes. Yeah, you don't want to do that.

You definitely don't want to miss an episode of Oliver's English. So hit that follow button now. And I'm going to go ahead and read the question, shall I? All right.

Yeah, let's do it. Okay. The listener says, Hi, Lindsay, Aubrey, and Michelle. I love your podcast. It has become a regular part of my daily routine. I often listen to one or two episodes and take notes on everything I find interesting.

That's wonderful. Yes, I love that. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I have notes from over a thousand episodes. Yeah. That is so great. I love our listeners.

I came across a great expression from a movie that might be interesting to explore. I've got it down. This quote is from Julia Roberts in her role as Erin Brockovich. Love that movie, by the way.

Yes, it's so good. It's so good. I'm an extremely fast learner. You show me something in a lab once and I've got it down. And I think I remember that scene when she said that too.

Thank you for that amazing podcast. Love, Angela. All right. Thank you, Angela, for this great question. I love that you watched Erin Brockovich. Anyone out there listening, if you haven't seen it, highly recommend.

Julia Roberts is fantastic. She's great in that movie. She's really good in it. And it's such a heartwarming movie. It's a very important movie about...

environmental law. So definitely check it out. Yeah. But this is such a great phrase for connection because we want to be able to share our skills, our talents, what we have worked hard to get down.

When you say, I've got it down, it shows confidence. People know they can trust or rely on you if you're using this at work, for example. Yes. Yes. So again, let's just reiterate, Aubrey, what exactly does it mean?

Yeah. To say, I've got it down means you know how to do it. You're confident in your skills. You've mastered this. And often it's like you were saying, Lindsay, some things come naturally to us.

But usually if we say, okay, I've got this down, it means we've worked at it. We have the experience now and we've improved at some skill. Yeah. We've trained ourselves in some way for this task.

Right. So again, the example is Julie Roberts said in her role, I'm an extremely fast learner. You show me something in a lab once and I've got it down. Right.

Yeah. So she is saying that anything she learns, anything she sees, she learns it quickly. She masters it quickly. So this is a very confident thing to say.

If you've seen something done once, maybe done it once, then you know how to do it confidently. Yeah. Yeah, it could be a lab experiment. It could be a math problem.

She's saying that she won't need the lesson repeated again and again. She won't need to be trained. She can do it independently. Exactly. So let's show how this could look in conversation with a couple mini role plays.

Okay. Lindsay, want me to show you how to use the app? No, I've got it down. Nice. So this is often the way we will say this instead of I have learned it or I have figured it out.

This is very native natural way to say you understand it. You have it mastered. Exactly. And then another one. That's a complicated recipe. Oh, don't worry.

I've made this a million times. I've got it down. Nice. So you're sharing that you are confident in your skills. You have done this before. You know that you could do it well when you say, I've got it down.

All right. And lastly, do you need help setting up the IKEA furniture? No, I've done this before. I've got it down. And that might be overconfidence there.

We've been talking about IKEA furniture a lot on the show. I think with Michelle and I, we were chatting about it too. Yeah. And I do agree with this, that once you've done them a few times, once you've put together a few dressers or beds or whatever it is, you likely do have it down because it's the first time you do it, it seems so counterintuitive.

It's really difficult to follow the instructions. But once you've done a few of them, you've got it down. Oh, we've been setting up a lot of things lately because as our listeners know, I've already announced on this show that we have a baby coming to our home.

And so we have definitely been assembling cribs and bassinets and dressers and drawers. But for me, it's like everything is assembled differently. There's no pattern that I could really get down. They're all different.

Oh, that's funny. So no matter how many times you put together IKEA furniture, you'll never have it down. It's Yeah, not necessarily from Wayfair from everywhere, right?

So none of them are the same. There's no pattern. Maybe I have to get everything from Ikea and they're all assembled the same way. Is that what you mean?

I think so, right? I feel like once you do a couple of things from Ikea, then you've got it down. But that's a good point. If you're ordering from lots of different places, the instructions are different everywhere, the way things are doing.

So that's true that it doesn't translate across companies. Yeah, it's quite a task for sure. Yeah. So there's other ways we can say that we've mastered something or we will master it very quickly.

Like it's second nature to me. Second nature is a great one, Aubrey. What do we mean by this? Yeah, this means you're so used to doing something, you don't have to think about it, right?

You're confident, but not bragging. So we'll do a little role play here too. Do you remember the dance choreography? Oh, yeah. At this point, it's second nature to me.

What would you say is something that's second nature? Maybe some athletic sport or, I don't know, an activity? Yeah, I think volleyball skills. We've started playing this game board ball, which you're pretty good at if you're good at volleyball.

If you have good setting hands or you've got some of those skills down. And then we'll have someone play who's never played volleyball before and they're terrible at We were playing in our cul-de-sac and the UPS driver wanted to try it and he was so bad.

Every time he touched the ball, it flew. It's just funny how if you haven't played a lot of volleyball, then the skills you need for this board ball game, you do not have them down. That's pretty funny. I can just envision the UPS guy running out of his truck.

Hey, I want to play. He popped out. He's like, I want to try this. It was pretty hilarious. And then an Amazon driver came not long after and we invited her to play.

We're like, we got to see if you're better than the UPS guy. And she was. She was much better than the UPS guy. That is hilarious. I love that. Wow. Okay.

Very good stuff. Here's another example. It looks hard switching between English and Spanish all the time. Oh, it's second nature to me. Yeah, languages could be another thing.

If you're bilingual or trilingual, if you grew up in a home where that was what was happening constantly, that's totally normal. And that's second nature. Right. It becomes second nature once you're really used to it.

Once you are thinking in a language and you feel very fluent, then coming up with the vocabulary you need feels like second nature. Yeah. And then the other one we could say is I've got the hang of it. I think this one is used a little bit earlier on when we're learning a task, don't you think?

Because this is interesting or for tasks that aren't quite so involved or complicated, right? Maybe like you didn't know how to do something at first, but you learned quickly. Yeah. Just kind of means like, I understand how to do this.

Or like rules of a game or something, right? You learn, you just observe, oh, I've got the hang of it. I could play the next round, right? Yes. Let's do a little role play here, yeah.

Yeah. So Aubrey, how are you at driving on the left side of the road? It was weird at first, but I've got the hang of it now. Yeah. It just means you're used to something, right?

Something that felt a little foreign at first. Have you done that before? If you now are used to it and understand it. I never have. I've never driven somewhere where we had to rent a car.

I just use the trains. Okay. Got it. Got it. We've rented cars a lot in the last few years in Europe, like Slovenia, but everywhere we've rented has been the- You drive on the right.

Right side of the road. Everything's lined up like the US. I think I would really struggle driving on the left. No, that would be terrible. Yeah. Yeah.

Here's another. The espresso machine is hard to use. Do you need help? No, I've got the hang of it. Yeah. So it's something like, you know, I don't know if you would say it's second nature.

I guess you could, but these are more like technical skills of manipulating things. Whereas it is a little different. Second nature is more like I've done this so much that it comes really naturally. It's so easy.

I don't even have to think about it. And for like a skill that you learned how to do just recently, we wouldn't say it's second nature, but we could use these other expressions. That's like a very nuanced difference between these two. And don't worry if you get that wrong, guys, and you go out and use one of them in that other situation.

It's okay. Connection is the key. But we like to highlight these really nuanced differences. And we think you guys love that too. Right? Definitely. Good.

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All right, let's do a role play. So here we are musicians. We're performing in the same music concert. So what's the status, Aubrey? You are new to performing, Lindsay, but I have a lot of experience.

Okay, here we go. Let's see how this looks. So are you nervous? A little, but honestly, I've got it down. We've practiced this piece so many times. True.

You barely even look at the sheet music anymore. Yeah, at this point, it's just second nature to me. Same with the music at least, but I get nervous seeing all the people. How do you manage pre-performance jitters?

Just experience. Honestly, I wouldn't worry. Once we start playing more concerts, you'll get the hang of it. Okay, nice. Sort of a mentor here, guiding me in terms of how to become a performer, right?

And this is a really good example. You can be an extremely talented performer and still get nervous to perform in front of people. Yeah. I mean, and some people never grow out of that, right?

Some people never, you know, some famous musicians, I'm sure they're just as nervous for their hundredth performance as they were for their first or second, you know? Right. Whereas some people seem like they're never nervous. Yeah.

I know. You never know. Yeah. It's interesting. But sometimes we can't always know what's going on on the inside. Right. You know, they look not nervous, but there could be a lot of anxiety.

They hide it well. Yes. It's very possible. Yeah. So I asked you, are you nervous? You said a little, but honestly, I've got it down. So you feel like you've mastered this thing.

Exactly. Right. I know that I know the music well. I know the piece well. I say we've practiced this piece so many times. I've got it down. Meaning I feel confident that I have this skill mastered.

And then I say, Oh, wow. Yeah. I noticed that you barely look at the sheet music at all. And you said, yeah, at this point it's just second nature. So it's like in your bones, right?

It's like, that's what I think of second nature. This skill for me, it's definitely downhill skiing. It's very much in my bones. I've done it since I was three years old.

Like it just, it just happens. You know, it's just very natural. Yeah. That phrase, this it's just second nature. We use very similarly to when we say this comes naturally to me.

So it's something that you have practiced so much or done so much or for so long that you don't have to think about it anymore. It comes very naturally. That's when we'd say it's second nature. Yes, I love that.

And then what? What did you say at the end? And then you were saying, well, with the music, but I get nervous in front of all the people. And then I'm reassuring you and saying, once we start playing more concerts...

you'll get the hang of it. So I'm saying that's something that comes with time, with experience. The more you perform in front of people, you'll get the hang of it and you won't be so nervous. You'll get used to it.

Yes, perfect. Great episode for talking about – I feel like this kind of topic could come up a lot for our listeners in connection moments and talking about what you do well, what you've been doing, maybe when you're teaching someone how to take on this new skill, right? Yeah. You know, the other way I love to use these phrases as far as a connection skill is if someone compliments you.

And maybe you have a hard time taking compliments and it's sort of awkward. You're not sure what to say. These are great phrases, right? If someone's like, you're so good at that, I'd be like, yeah, I've got the hang of it.

It's sort of a modest, humble way of saying, yes, I've gotten this figured out instead of saying, I don't know, like, yeah, I'm amazing. Yeah. Right. Right.

Because it can be awkward to know what to say when someone compliments you like that. Right. And you don't want to be like, no, I'm not. Or I don't know, false modesty.

This is a great way to acknowledge that you have, you know, perfected a skill, mastered a skill with this really interesting phrase. Especially get the hang of it because it implies something that you've gone through the process of learning it. Right. So that's the humility that you're talking about.

Yeah. Good point. Because if you say, oh, it's second nature, that's not so much showing humility because it's not, you know, that's, it isn't about having mastered a skill putting in the time, but these others, that's what it implies is that, yeah, I put in the work to get good at this. That's an interesting point, Aubrey.

I love that idea. That's a real connection point right there. So that could be another use of it, guys. So use this to build your relationships. And in the meantime, go over to 2566.

Does strong English run in your family? Yes, that was a great episode. Scroll up if you missed it. Awesome, Lindsay. I'm excited for all of you out there listening to use these phrases to connect in English about things that you have put the time in to master.

Awesome. All right, Aubrey. We'll see you very soon. Have a good day. Awesome. See you next time. Bye. Bye. See you next time.