easy about

[ian2]

Dear friends,

Could you please "fine-tune" the red phrase "easy about" for me? To me, easy about seems one step further than familiar with. When you are easy about something, you are not just familiar with it, you even feel comfortable about it. Thanks.

Ian2

It would be nice if we could purge economics of its jargon, but that would be like asking doctors to tell us about our troubles in plain English. Instead, we must learn to speak a certain amount of economics—that is, to become familiar with, and easy about, some of the basic terms in which economists tell about our economic condition.

[Anglika]

You could say "able to interpret" in this context, since specialist vocabularies can almost seem a foreign language.

[ian2]

You could say "able to interpret" in this context, since specialist vocabularies can almost seem a foreign language.

Anglika, Thanks. But do you think easy about could also involve "able to use the terms in speaking about economies" in addition to just interpreting the terms? Thanks again.

[Anglika]

Yes!