a thing or two

know a thing or two know something about, be quite familiar

But I found these sentences difficult:
1.A peace movement has learnt a thing or two from Vietnam. (From Collins Dict)
2.They taught me a thing or two about the World History. (My own sentence)

1. Does it mean the peace movement studied a lot the case of Vietnam ?
2. They shared the World History they are familiar with to me, so I can grasp the subject well? or They shared their familiar subject, the world history, to us, without knowing whether I could understand it well?

"a thing or two" is used to express that a lesson has been learned about something.


I taught him a thing or two about manners.

I learned a thing or two about . . .

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Originally Posted by redgiant

know a thing or two know something about, be quite familiar

But I found these sentences difficult:
1.A peace movement has learnt a thing or two from Vietnam. (From Collins Dict)
2.They taught me a thing or two about the World History. (My own sentence)

1. Does it mean the peace movement studied a lot the case of Vietnam ?
2. They shared the World History they are familiar with to me, so I can grasp the subject well? or They shared their familiar subject, the world history, to us, without knowing whether I could understand it well?

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No, it does not mean that if you know a thing or two about anything that you have studied a subject matter deeply. But just that you had an introduction to the subject where you learnt a few things/points about the subject matter. It also means discussing a few finer points.
The intent is that when a discussion or debate or some conversation takes place, you just discuss a few points and not the whole matter. And you discuss only a few points rather than going into details.

Ex. : The senior player told a thing or two about the game to juniors on his visit to the local club.

During the summit meeting, a thing or two were surely discussed about the present bout of terrorism all over the world, apart from Global Financial Crisis.

The phrase "I know or thing or two" or "learned a thing or two" is deliberate understatement to mean "I know a lot" or "I learned a lot."

Your expressions refer to how much has been learned, not how hard it was studied or how difficult was to teach.