Meaning of THE HARD WAY - A Really Short English Lesson with Subtitles

So in English when you learn something the hard way

or when you find something out the hard way

it means that you learn something in a way

that sometimes isn't pleasant.

You don't learn it from reading a book

or having learn someone teaching you,

you learn it the hard way.

A really good example of this would be if you turn on

a faucet at a sink and you're not sure if the faucet

is for hot water or cold water

and then you touch the stream of water

that's coming out of the faucet and you burn your hand.

We would say that you learned that the hard way,

you learned which tap was the hot water tap the hard way

because you were injured just a little bit

or because you put your hand into hot water.

So in life,

it is always nice to learn things from other people

and to not always learn things the hard way.

That's not a nice way to learn things.

Hey, sometimes people take the easy way out.

So when you take the easy way out,

it means you do something so that it's not a lot of work

for yourself.

A good example of this would be maybe you are going

to a party and you're supposed to bring some food

and the idea is that you make some food at home,

but instead of making food at home,

you take the easy way out and you just go to the store

and you buy some cake.

Sometimes when am really busy I often take the easy way out

cause it's just easier.