by Alan TownendIn the dark ages when I took my driving test (I won't tell you how
many times I tried) you had to learn by heart – learn and keep in
your memory – all the rules and regulations about driving on public
roads. Now people have to take a written test about this. You can
also learn by rote whereby you repeat what you hear or read again
and again and thus learn it as we say parrot fashion. Two more uses
of learn with prepositions: We learn of the result of an election – we
find this information out from say, the news. We learn about the
important figures in our history at school – our teachers tell us about
them. If we find ourselves in an unusual situation that we never
forget, we call this a learning experience and that will have an effect
on our character. People who have done wrong and after being
punished for this wrongdoing decide not to do it again are said to
have learned their lesson. I could have said 'learnt' as an
alternative. There's been a lot of discussion about the differences
between British and American English on our Internet forums and
I've just consulted one of my more recent reference books and
discovered that the use of 'learnt' in American English is 'as rare as
hen's teeth'. Now there's a good expression to remember. Of course
we can only use the two-syllable form learn-ed when we're talking
about the professor who's very knowledgeable and academic.
Well, I don't know about you but I think it's time to lie down in a
darkened room and relax after all this 'learning'. I'll end with a
popular expression we use when we come across something new and
unexpected suggesting that we can always learn something new
every day: Well, we all live and learn. Conversely of course the cynic
might add: Some of us just live!