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Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod! My name is Marco.

And my name is Catherine. And today we’ve got a great lesson for you about travelling and getting directions.

That’s right. So sometimes we are looking for an address, we are looking for our friends’ house and we can’t find it. So what do you have to do? You have to stop and ask someone for directions.

It’s actually a joke in many countries that men hate to ask for directions, and so this is the women’s approach, asking and getting directions and finally finding your way. So it’s a good thing.

That’s a very good thing. So we’re gonna jump right into the dialogue, let’s see what happens here and if they can find a place they’re looking for.

We have been going around in circles for the past hour! Will you just please stop and ask for directions?

Yeah, whatever. I told you we should buy that GPS that was on sale, but would you listen to me?

No! This is so typical.

Fine! I’ll ask this guy for directions if it will shut your trap! Excuse me, sir. Can you tell me how to get to Saint Mary’s Church?

Sure! Go down Park Road, turn left, go up as far as the set of traffic lights and turn left. The place you are looking for is the second building on the right.

Thanks!

See? Was that hard? If you would only listen to me more often, you would be better off.

Alright, we’re back. So… well, the woman was obviously a little bit angry that the guy refused to admit that he was lost.

That’s right, she’s very frustrated and this has been in movies and in books and all sorts of things, this kind of story of the man not wanting to ask for directions. And so, uh, he keeps saying: listen, I’ve got these excuses, I’m taking the scenic route, for example. That’s right, and that’s our first word for today on “language takeaway”. Voice: Language takeaway.

So as you say the scenic route, what does he mean by that?

Okay, route is like a path or a trail, or kind of like, uh, the way that you go somewhere. So the route to my house. But in this case the scenic route or scenic rOUTe, you can say it both ways, is the most beautiful way to go. It’s usually… It’s a little bit longer though, right?

The longer one, yeah.

Right.

So you can say: oh, it’s just the scenic route, it’s not really true, it’s the longer route. Right, exactly. So that’s the excuse that he’s giving her, he’s like: no, I’m not lost, we’re taking longer because, well, we’re taking the beautiful route.

Right, with all the trees and the animals ???… no, I don’t… I don’t buy it, I don’t believe this.

That’s right. And she said: yeah, whatever, you know what, we need a GPS. Okay, GPS, Global Positioning System, so many people have these in their cars these days. This is like a… uh, an electronic map, that will use your location to show you where to go.

Uhu, it’s very useful and, uh, especially in places like the United States, they have streets that are clearly marked and, uh, it’s a just a little bit easier to get around. You know, you can just get in your car, type in the address you wanna go to and the thing talks to you, it says: turn left, go straight, turn right.

Creepy. So this is a very useful device, it’s like a computer that you use in your computer [NOTE: probably she wanted to say “car” instead], GPS.

Uhu Alright, so she’s talking about the GPS and then at the end of that line she says: this is so typical.

So what, getting lost, alight.

Getting lost.

Getting lost is so typical. So something that is typical is common. This is so normal. Right.

This is so typical, this is so… something you normally do.

So, what other examples could we give with the word typical? Something that is typical. Okay, well, you can have a behavior like this. What he did was typical. We can also say, u in my typical Saturday I wake up late and drink a coffee and take a nap. Okay, cool. So it’s common, it’s regular, it’s frequent, maybe.

That’s right. Or you know, you go out to dinner and your friend is late, and you say: oh, this is so typical of him.

Right. He’s always late.

He’s always late.

Okay, very good. Alright, and we have one last set of words here, and when the guy was giving him instructions, he said: you know what, go left, go right, whatever… and then he said: until you reach the set of traffic lights. So what is atraffic light?

Well, you know what a light is. And you know what traffic is. Traffic is cars, driving on a road, trucks, things like that. So traffic light is a special light with three colors: red, yellow and green. And it tells you if you can stop or go. So, they’re also called stop lights, right?

That’s right, uhu.

Okay.

So, stop lights and traffic lights, it’s the same thing. Usually they hang from… above the street.

Uhu, okay, very good. Words and phrases there. Why don’t we listen to our dialogue again and we’ll be back in just a little bit?

We have been going around in circles for the past hour! Will you just please stop and ask for directions?

Yeah, whatever. I told you we should buy that GPS that was on sale, but would you listen to me?

No! This is so typical.

Fine! I’ll ask this guy for directions if it will shut your trap! Excuse me, sir. Can you tell me how to get to Saint Mary’s Church?

Sure! Go down Park Road, turn left, go up as far as the set of traffic lights and turn left. The place you are looking for is the second building on the right.

Thanks!

See? Was that hard? If you would only listen to me more often, you would be better off.

Alright, so we’ve got some great phrases coming up in “fluency builder”. Voice: Fluency builder.

So the first phrase that we’re gonna look at is what the wife said at the very beginning. She said: we have been going around in circles for the past hour.

Going around in circles. So we could say: we’ve been driving in circles. In circles means you’ve been making the same route over and over and over again, you keep seeing the same house, the same tree, the same house, the same tree. So this means, we’re not going anywhere. You could also say: oh, Marco I wish you had brought the map, we’ve been walking in circles for two hours.

Okay, cool, so you can use it if you’re driving or if you’re walking, in any situation like that.

Exactly.

Okay, good. Alright, so going around in circles. Now, moving on, the guy was a little bit irritated with her and he said something that’s a little bit impolite, he said: you know what, I’m gonna ask for directions if it will shut your trap.

Impolite? This is rude.

This is rude.

Yeah, this is very rude. So be careful when you use this. You can say: hey, shut your trap! Okay, so shut means to close. But trap, this is your mouth, okay.

So your mouth is a trap.

It’s kind of a trap. In this case, ‘shut your trap’ is a set phrase, and it means: shut up, be quiet… Okay.

Stop talking.

So, how can we say this in a nicer way? For example, I’ve heard people say: youryap, shut your yap.

Yeah, shut your yapper. Um, I would say: can you please stop talking or can we have some quiet time now.

Can we have some quiet time.

Yeah. That’s a polite way. The rude way is: shut up.

Shut up, yeah.

Shut your mouth.

Uhu, that’s very direct though, right?

Yeah.

Very rude.

Yeah, that’s right.

Okay.

So, shut your trap.

Shut your trap. And then the wife said, well: see, there you go, we got directions, we’re gonna get there now, and was that hard? If you would only listen to me more often, you would be better off. So the guy would be better off. That doesn’t really make much sense. To be better off. Okay, so you have to think of this as a phrase, not about the individual words. To be better off means, uh, to be happier or in some way better. So, for example: If I earned more money, I think I’ll be better off.

Okay, so to be…

Okay, I have a nicer life.

To be happier, maybe more successful.

Right.

Right.

Or if you only listened to me, you would be better off. It means you would make better decisions. You would have a better situation.

So I could say, uh: if she got a divorce, she would be better off.

That’s right. Her life would improve.

Her life would improve.

To be better off. This is a great, great, very useful phrase.

Very useful. Alright, so why don’t we listen to the dialogue for the very last time? And we’ll be back to talk a little bit more with you.

We have been going around in circles for the past hour! Will you just please stop and ask for directions?

Yeah, whatever. I told you we should buy that GPS that was on sale, but would you listen to me?

No! This is so typical.

Fine! I’ll ask this guy for directions if it will shut your trap! Excuse me, sir. Can you tell me how to get to Saint Mary’s Church?

Sure! Go down Park Road, turn left, go up as far as the set of traffic lights and turn left. The place you are looking for is the second building on the right.

Thanks!

See? Was that hard? If you would only listen to me more often, you would be better off.

Alright, so the whole thing about men asking for directions. Why do you think men don’t like to ask for directions?

Well, it depends on the person, but I think a lot of people don’t like to admit that they don’t know. Okay, because if you ask for directions th… it means, I don’t know where I’m going, I need help.

Right, uhu.

So this is one problem. The other problem is: sometimes directions are bad. Hehe.

True.

I think so too. Sometimes when you receive an invitation or instructions on how to get to someone’s house, they’re very ambiguous, they’re like, you know: you pass the dog that’s sitting at the corner. And you’re like: there’s no dog, what… how… Yeah I know, and I know someone who lives in Costa Rica and her address is: go down the main street, turn… take the second left after the post office and after that take the right after the general store, and 400 paces is the house.

So there’s no address ???

There’s no address, you know, so…

Yeah, it happens.

And these instructions can be very confusing, very vague like you said so. I think there’s a couple… couple of different problems, potentially.

I also heard a joke the other day about, um, a kid asked his mom, he said: hey, why was Moses leading everyone through the desert for 40 years?

Why?

And she’s like: because he refused to ask for directions.

Funny, I like that. I was gonna say why, because he’s going in circles. Hehe.

Alright, so if you have any questions about today’s lesson or comments maybe you can tell us: do you like to ask for directions? Or do you like to figure things out alone? Let us know on the website englishpod.com.

Alright, we’ll see you guys there.

Bye everyone!

Bye!