Actually that whole thing about smelling your backyard is a perfect example of how we learn anything real. People try to turn stuff like wine or coffee or whatever into a special language you have to study, but the best way is just connecting it to what you already know. It's like how a mechanic might say an engine sounds "off" because it reminds him of his lawnmower last summer. We make sense of new things by linking them to old memories, that's just how brains work. Getting hung up on the "right" words can totally kill the fun of noticing stuff.