Directions

Have you ever gotten lost, especially in another country, and needed to ask for directions in the native tongue but didn’t know how? A lot of students have this complaint when they travel abroad and need to get somewhere but don’t know how to go about asking for directions to get there. That’s why the directions lesson is such a life saver for students who wish to go on vacation or experience a home-stay in countries like America, Australia, or Canada – all countries which would require you to ask for directions in English.

Once the student has settled in, I show him the directions cards which include traffic signs and very important phrases. He needs to match up the phrases with the picture cards but expresses quite a bit of frustration over getting past the first handful of them. He’s unaccustomed to the phrases but is pretty comfortable with explaining them in Japanese. We take it slower and go over the cards together, one by one, until he is confident enough to match them up himself. Now he’s smiling and is eager to move onto the next step, which is moving onto the setup in the text that involves asking for and giving directions. Both acting as the person asking for directions as well as the one giving them prepares the student for two scenarios – one is understanding the directions that they are given later on, and the other is being able to give a foreigner in Japan a bit of assistance if they’re looking a bit on the lost side.

So, we take a look at a simple map that includes intersections, several streets, a post office, school, police station, bakery etc. We then take turns in asking and giving directions. First, I have him pick a location on the map and tell me where he is and then ask for directions to get to another location. He replies confidently with, “I’m at the post office, how do I get to the theater?” Very well done for someone who was worrying about doing well in the beginning of the lesson. I then proceed to give him directions to get to the theater and he follows me step by step by outlining the route with his finger on the map. When it comes to his turn to give directions, he’s a bit shaky at first but does a decent job in mapping out an easy route to get from A to B. But we’re aiming to make his directions perfect so I praise him on a job well done and then give him some suggestions on how he can make his directions clearer and more concise. He takes my suggestions in stride and, when it comes to his turn again, follows them to the letter by perfectly outlining how I can get across the map to my intended destination.

To end this lesson, I asked him a bonus question of how to get to the station from Smith’s School of English, Kyobashi. Once he got his bearings straight, that turned out to be a fun challenge for him that he handled very well.