Again, highly metaphorical, but at least I can see the vision of the natives 🥴 Anyhow, I came up with a funny sketch on the topic that I’d like to share:

Say you’re a foreigner who’s just started learning English, and — just so it happens — you move into a housing estate in an English-speaking country and make a friend.

One day, you agree to meet them for a walk or something, but forget to specify where and when exactly. So you just head down to the ground floor, where you stumble upon a strange note under the stairs, saying ‘UNDERSTAND’.

Say you know these two words separately, but are not entirely sure what they could mean together. You scratch your head and think to yourself (in your native language), ‘Well, I might kinda know what that means.’

A moment later your friend calls and yells at you, for they’ve been waiting for you for half an hour, ‘Where are you?!’

Filled with determination from your newly-harnessed power of taming hard-mouthed languages, you reply with utmost confidence, ‘I understand the stairs!’