Picking Up the Pieces

Q: Is collecting shells on the beach easy to learn?
A: Yes, you’ll pick it up right away!

Explanation: Picking up shells on a beach is easy because, if the beach has shells, you just bend over and lift them up with your hands.

To pick something up is also an idiom meaning to learn something.  If I say that my nephew picked up guitar really quickly it means that he learned to play guitar easily.  A few more examples: My friend who speaks Spanish picked up Italian after a few weeks in Rome; Just watch what I am doing and you will ick it up right away.

This joke is funny because it plays with two meanings of “pick up:” to lift something up and to learn something.

Have you always wanted to learn to play guitar?  There are lots of videos online.  This series form Fender is pretty good, in my opinion.

About stfleming

Reader, writer, teacher, thinker and dreamer. Lector, escritor, profesor, pensador y soñador. I teach in Lima, Peru. Enseño en Lima, Peru.
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