to learn one's lesson

Example #1:

Tom: Yesterday I was in a hurry, so I drove in the carpool lane even though I was all by myself.

Joe: So what happened?

Tom: I got a ticket. Man! It's going to cost me a lot of money.

Joe: I hope you learned your lesson!

Tom: I did! I'll never do that again.

Example #2:

Sara: Every year at Christmas I always wait until the last minute to go shopping. I hate it!

Julie: Why? The stores get so crazy! Why don't you do your shopping earlier?

Sara: I don't know. I just keep procrastinating.

Julie: When are you going to learn your lesson?

To learn one's lesson is used to describe the process of learning a lesson in life through a difficult experience or mistake. These are lessons you cannot learn from a book or a class. Usually people have to learn their lesson the hard way.

This idiom was taken from LSI's textbook "Speaking Savvy." This book is used to teach Level 5 Speaking classes at LSI. For more information please visit www.languagesystems.com

Thank you Ty!