Vanessa: ... Excuse me. Do
you know where room 302 is? Did you just freeze in fear because you weren't sure what to say?
Never fear. Today, I'm here to help you. Let's talk about it.
Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. And today you are going to learn how to really ask
and give directions in English. Now, probably a long time ago in your first English classes,
you learned turn right, go straight. But the reality is nowadays we all use a GPS when we're
navigating around a new city. So this isn't really the most useful way to learn directions, but we do
still ask for directions in different places. For example, if you get a job at a new office,
you might need to ask, "Oh, excuse me, where's the printer paper." Or if you're going to a zoo,
you might say, "Hey, excuse me, can you point me in the direction of the elephants?" We still
ask for directions and you need to be able to ask politely and answer correctly as well. So that's
what you're going to learn in today's lesson. And like always, I have created a free
PDF worksheet to help you remember all of today's questions, answers, phrases, ideas,
and you can answer Vanessa's challenge question at the bottom of the PDF worksheet. You can click
on the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet today. Let's get started by
asking some common questions for directions. The first set are very direct, but we can always add,
excuse me, to the beginning to be a little more polite. Excuse me. My ticket says platform six.
Where is that? What a lovely direct question. Excuse me. I'm a new employee. Where do I go?
This is a lovely question. Where do I go? If you get invited to someone's house and then you
realize you don't know where it is, you can say, "I realize I haven't been to your house before.
How do I get there?" How do I get there?
Or in the office, you might ask, "Excuse me, where's the paper for the copy machine."
Where's the paper for the copy machine? Beautiful. Let's go on to some more polite questions that are
slightly longer, but you can do it. Excuse me. Can you tell me how to get to platform
six? Can you tell me how to get to platform six? Excuse me, where can I find the toilet paper?
Excuse me, where can I find the toilet paper? If it's the year 2020, the answer is nowhere.
Excuse me. I'm looking for Dr. Smith's office. Excuse me. I'm trying to find Dr. Smith's office.
Now, this looks like a statement, but really when you are approaching someone else, it is
perceived as a question. So if you came up to me and said, excuse me, I'm looking for Dr.
Smith's office. I would know, oh, you're lost. You can't find his office. And I might say,
all right, it's right over there. Excuse me, can you help me find my classroom? I'm lost. Can you
help me find my classroom? And our last question is a little bit long, but it's quite common.
Excuse me, can you point me in the direction of the exit? Can you point me in the direction
of the exit? So here, you're not asking them to go there with you and to show you
exactly where it is, you just want them to point, Hey, it's generally over that way. Can you point
me in the direction of the exit? You might even ask this at the grocery store too if you don't
want the employee to have to stop what they're doing and then go all the way with you to show
you where the breakfast cereal is. You might just say, excuse me, can you point me in the
direction of the breakfast cereal? This is a great question to ask.
Now that we've talked about some common questions for asking for directions, let's talk about giving
directions, giving an answer. Now, these might be things that you need to understand
because someone will tell them to you and you need to remember them so you can find your way,
or someone might be asking you, "Hey, how do I get there?" And you need to know how to respond.
We're going to be taking a look at a couple common situations where we still ask for directions. The
first one is inside a building, specifically in a school. What if someone asked you this question?
Dan: "Excuse me, where's room 302.
Excuse me, where's room 302? Vanessa:
Would you know how to respond to that? Well, let me give you an example. Go up to the third floor
through the double doors and down the hall and it will be on the right. Here, we use a lot of
prepositions. Go up to the third floor through the double doors, down the hall. This is a fixed
expression that we often, use down the hall. It's not exactly going downhill, but it doesn't matter,
down the hall and it will be on the right, or maybe it will be on the left. Great. The
next place where we often ask for directions is in a grocery store. What if someone asked you
this question? Would you know what to say? Dan:
Excuse me, where can I find the organic breakfast cereal? Excuse me? Where can I find the organic
breakfast cereal? Vanessa:
Well, if you work at that grocery store, you could say the organic breakfast cereal is over
on aisle three, near the canned fruit, on the top shelf. Here,
again, we are using wonderful prepositions in context. It's over on aisle three,
near the canned fruit, on the top shelf. If you'd like to learn more grocery store vocabulary,
you can check out this video I made where I walked around an American grocery store
and talked about everything that I saw and tried to give you a lot of common vocabulary,
phrases, cultural tips, and everything that you need to know about in American grocery store.
Let's go to our next scenario. Let's imagine that you're visiting a new city and you're staying with
a host and you'd like to ask the host some advice, what if you asked this question?
Dan: Can you help me find a good coffee shop?
Can you help me find a good coffee shop? Vanessa:
Well, first of all, great question. Congratulations on asking a good question.
The next thing is you would need to understand the answer and someone might say to you, "Head
down the street." Oh, does this sound familiar? It sounds similar to down the hall. It's a very
similar expression. Head down the street a couple blocks. You can't miss it. Oh, I hate
it when people say that because usually you miss it. But this is a common verb, to head somewhere.
It means you and your head are going in that direction. Head down the street a couple blocks.
This is usually for kind of defined streets, but you know what, we use this generally too.
Maybe you pass one street or two streets or three streets. This is a couple blocks. This is a very
American term. Head down the street, a couple blocks. You can't miss it. Let's take a look
at our next situation, which is in the zoo. We recently went to the zoo and our kids were asking
us nonstop the whole time. "Where's this? How can we see this? When are we going to see this?" So
if you find yourself at a zoo, you might be asking a question like this.
Dan: Can you
point me in the direction of the elephants? Can you point me in the direction of the elephants?
Vanessa: And I can answer you by saying,
"To get to the elephants. You need to go through the primate exhibit, turn left at the reptile
house, and loop around the safari exhibit." Oh, we've got lovely prepositions. Through the
primate house. So you got to open the doors, go through the primate house, and then you need to
turn left at the reptile house and loop around. So this is imagining that there is probably
like a sidewalk that goes around the safari. Loop around the safari, and then over there,
that's where you're going to see the elephants. Next, let's look at asking for directions
in a park. What if I asked you this question? Would you know how to respond to me?
Dan: Do you know where the park bathroom is?
Do you know where the park bathroom is? Vanessa:
All right. It might be an urgent situation. So you need to know exactly how to give the right
directions. You might say you need to follow the path around the park, past the splash pad and the
bathrooms are right next to the merry-go-round. This is a common expression we often use:
Right next to. We're not talking about right and left, we're talking about immediately
next to the merry-go-round. So when someone says I'm right next to my car, it doesn't
mean they're on the right side of their car, it just means they're immediately beside their car.
So we could say, you need to follow the path around, go past the splash pad. We often use
this expression. You're going to need to pass some things. Go past the splash pad and the
bathrooms are right next to the merry-go-round. Good luck. Let's take a look at the next scenario,
which is at a concert or a sporting event or at a theater where you have a ticket that has
a specific seat saved for you but the area is just too big, you can't find it. So you need
to ask someone for directions. You might ask a really polite question like this.
Dan: Excuse me, could you help me find my seat?
Excuse me, could you help me find my seat? Vanessa:
The person who's working there might say, oh right, let me take a look at your ticket.
Your ticket says, okay, you are in section 105, row 12, seats J and K. So to get to section 105,
you need to go up the ramp to 105, then go up the stairs to row 12 and then go about
midway across the row and you'll find seats J and K. Whew. This is going to be tough to find.
We have some great expressions: up the ramp, up the stairs, and midway over. Midway over means
about in the middle of the row, you're going to find seats J and K, and that will be where
you need to go. Let's take a look at our last situation where you might ask for directions. And
that is on transportation. I know I have been lost countless times on transportation and have needed
to ask for directions just because, especially when you're in a new place, transportation can be
confusing. So, you might need to ask a very polite question. Something like this.
Dan: Excuse me, can you help me find where to go?
Excuse me, can you help me find where to go? Vanessa:
Let's imagine you're at a busy train station, but you are completely lost.
So you ask someone for directions and they say to you, oh, it looks like on your ticket,
you need to go to platform six. Okay, go down the stairs, turn to the left, and follow the signs
for platform six. This is a common phrase that we often use. Look for the signs for platform
six or follow the signs for platform six. You might even use this while you're driving. Follow
the signs for New York City. You can't miss it. Follow the signs for platform six. Then look for
train 34, look for train 34. This is giving you a specific piece of instructions, not just look for
the signs, but look for train 34 and that will be exactly where you need to go. Whew. That was
a lot of directions. I hope if you felt lost, now, you feel like you have found your way.
Well, I have a quick question for you, in the comments, can you give me directions to
your favorite cafe? Can you use some of today's expressions to give me directions so that I can
find it because I really need a nice cup of tea? Well, like always, you can download today's free
PDF worksheet. There is a link in the description with all of today's directional questions
and how to give directions. You can print it out. You could even put it in your bag
so that next time you travel, you will be absolutely prepared and you will know the
right phrases to use and you won't get lost. There is a link in the description so you can
download the free PDF worksheet today. Well, thank you so much for learning English with me,
and I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next
step is to download the free PDF worksheet for this lesson. With this free PDF, you will master
today's lesson and never forget what you have learned. You can be a confident English speaker.
Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.