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Khah Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary
Giving directions
While I was coming home today a person asked me for directions at the street, I gave the instructions in my native language and then I started thinking of how this conversation would have been like in English but then I got stuck with one phrase.
I'm at the sreet B and the restaurant the person asked about is located at the street A, these two streets are parallels.
To give this person directions, I'd say something like this in my native language : ‘‘the restaurant is behind this street.’’ The problem is that it sounds weird in English...what word/expression should I use to express this idea?
I'm at the sreet B and the restaurant the person asked about is located at the street A, these two streets are parallels.
To give this person directions, I'd say something like this in my native language : ‘‘the restaurant is behind this street.’’ The problem is that it sounds weird in English...what word/expression should I use to express this idea?
Top answer
Giving directions is difficult in any language. In English this whole subject has become a kind of running joke, because there are so many difficulties when a native English speaker tries to give directions to another native English speaker; the end result of this is invariably that the person who was given the directions can't find the place he's looking for, and so he has to ask another person, and sometimes another, etc. I'm a native English speaker in the US, and here's how I would give the directions (another native English speaker might do it completely differently): "Okay.
- Giving directions is difficult in any language.
- In English this whole subject has become a kind of running joke, because there are so many difficulties when a native English speaker tries to give directions to another native English speaker; the end result of this is invariably that the person who was given the directions can't find the place he's looking for, and so he has to ask another person, and sometimes another, etc.
- I'm a native English speaker in the US, and here's how I would give the directions (another native English speaker might do it completely differently): "Okay.
- We're on B St.
- now.
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2 Answers
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Giving directions is difficult in any language. In English this whole subject has become a kind of running joke, because there are so many difficulties when a native English speaker tries to give directions to another native English speaker; the end result of this is invariably that the person who was given the directions can't find the place he's looking for, and so he has to ask another person,
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This business about giving directions in the US has created so many problems that it has taken on sinister overtones. Your typical grade B horror movie begins with city folks driving around in a rural area. They get lost and ask a local for directions. He says: "Go down this road until you come to a fork. Take the left fork and that'll get you right back on the highway." But of course this
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