Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod.
My name is Marco.
And my name is Katherine, and today we've got a great lesson for you about traveling and getting directions.
That's right.
So sometimes we are looking for an address, we are looking for our friend's house, and we can't find it.
So what do you have to do?
You have to stop and ask someone for directions.
There'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 going to jump right into the dialogue.
Let's see what happens here and if they can find the place they're looking for.
We've been going around in circles for the past hour.
Will you just please stop and ask for directions?
We are not lost.
I'm just taking the scenic route.
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 St.
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're 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 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.
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 the way that you go somewhere.
So the route's to my house.
But in this case the scenic route or the scenic route, you can say in both ways is the most beautiful way to go.
It's usually the longer one.
So you can say, oh, it's just the scenic route.
It's not really true.
It's just 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 and the lakes.
No, 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 an electronic map that will use your location to show you where to go.
It's very useful and especially in places like the United States that have streets that are clearly marked and it's just a little bit easier to get around.
You can just get in your car, type in the address you want to 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, a GPS.
All right.
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.
Getting lost is so typical.
So something that is typical is common.
Because this is so normal.
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, 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.
You say, oh, this is so typical of him.
Right.
He's always late.
Very good.
All right.
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 a traffic light?
Well, you know what a light is.
You know what traffic is.
Traffic is cars, driving on the 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 stoplights, right?
That's right.
Okay.
So stoplights and traffic lights is the same thing.
Usually they hang from above the street.
Mm-hmm.
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've been going around in circles for the past hour.
Will you just please stop and ask for directions?
We are not lost.
I'm just taking the scenic route.
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 St.
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're looking for is the second building on the right.
Thanks.
See, was that hard?
If you would only listen to me more often, you'd be better off.
All right, so we've got some great phrases coming up in Fluency Builder.
Fluency Builder.
So the first phrase that we're going to 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...
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.
All right, 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 going to 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.
So your mouth is a trap.
It's kind of like a trap.
In this case, shut your trap is a set phrase and it means shut up.
Be quiet.
Stop talking.
So how can we say this in a nicer way?
For example, I've heard people say your yap.
Shut your yap.
Yeah, shut your yapper.
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.
That's very direct though, right?
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 going to 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 to be happier or in some way better.
So, for example, if I earned more money, I think I'd be better off.
Okay.
I'd have a nicer life.
To be happier, maybe more successful.
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, 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.
All right.
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've been going around in circles for the past hour.
Will you just please stop and ask for directions?
We are not lost.
I'm just taking the scenic route.
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 St.
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're 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.
All right, 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, it means I don't know where I'm going.
I need help.
So this is one problem.
The other problem is sometimes directions are bad.
Okay.
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.
I know someone who lives in Costa Rica and her address is go down the main street to 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.
Yeah, it happens.
These instructions can be very confusing and very vague, like you said.
So I think there's a couple different problems, potentially.
I also heard a joke the other day about 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 going to say, why?
Because he's going in circles?
All right.
So if you have any questions about today's lessons 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 our website, EnglishPod.com.
All right.
We'll see you guys there.
Bye.
Bye.
