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Our podcast series, Office English, is back with weekly episodes to help you improve your English at work.

Learn useful phrases to boost your career in English, from setting goals to using small talk,

to apologising when things go wrong. Follow the Learning

English for Work podcast to listen or visit BBC learning English.com. Hello and welcome to the

English we speak, where we explain phrases and expressions used by fluent English speakers so that

you can use them too. I'm Faye Faye. And I'm Phil.

Phil, you are dripping wet. What happened? Well, the weather seemed fine when I left home,

but then I got five minutes down the road and it started raining really heavily. I guess I

learnt the hard way that you need to have an umbrella if you live in London.

Well, I suppose the good thing is that if you learn the hard way, then you probably won't forget.

Now, shall we learn this expression, learn something the hard way?

Yes, learning something the hard way is a bit like learning from your mistakes. It means something

difficult or unpleasant happen to you, so you learn to do something differently to make sure it

doesn't happen again. Where's the best place to buy an umbrella, Faye Faye? I'm not going

home without one. I'll tell you after this program. Yes, you can learn something the

hard way when something goes wrong. We often use it to talk about things that you could have

prepared for. For example, if you lost all your work because you forgot to save, you'll learn

why saving is important the hard, when your computer crashes.

Yeah, it's often used to suggest that someone has ignored advice.

Okay, let's hear some other examples of people using learn something the hard way.

I didn't use the cook books when I cook, but then I did, because I learned the hard way and cooked so many terrible dishes.

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