#01-036: Giving Directions - Advanced Vocabulary

Part of Shenzhen's Luohu District, marked for this lesson

---

Note: Most English learners know "go straight" and "turn left." In this lesson we'll learn some advanced vocabulary for giving directions. (This lesson was written when I lived in Shenzhen, China, but it should work anywhere!)

---

Get Ready: Think of two places you know, like your house, and your school or work. Tell someone how to get from one to the other.

---

[Bob calls Heather on his mobile]

Bob: Hey, Heather, how do I get to Shenzhen Reservoir?

Heather: Where are you now?

Bob: I'm just around the corner from the Chang'an Hotel.

Heather: Are you on Wenjin Lu?

Bob: Yeah, south of the gas station. I can see a sculpture kitty-corner from me.

Heather: OK, head up Wenjin and veer right at the Y-intersection of Aiguo Road.

Bob: How far to the Y?

Heather: It's one long block. There are a couple of T-intersections along the way, where little streets dead-end into Wenjin. Once you're on Aiguo, keep going. The reservoir is straight ahead.

Here are some of the terms Bob and Heather used:

1. around the corner from: We often hear "on the corner" or "at the corner." "Around the corner" is a little different. The Science Museum (Ke Xue Guan) is around the corner from the Metro exit; that is, the exit is on Shennan, and the museum is on Shangbu Lu.
2. kitty-corner: sometimes "cater-corner." If you are on the southwest corner, the northeast corner is "kitty-corner" from you.
3. head: We often use this instead of "go."
4. veer: The intersection at Wenjin and Aiguo isn't a 90-degree corner (a right angle). So when you get to it, you don't really turn, you sort of just adjust your course a little. A similar term is to "angle towards or away from" something. You can say that a bus was veering toward you or angling toward you, deviating from his path. Whichever you use, you'd better move!
5. Y-intersection: Where three streets meet, and none is at a right angle. Shenzhen has lots of these; Wenjin and Aiguo (where the giant harp is) is a good example.
6. long block: You may have learned about "blocks" in a directions lesson. When Heather says a "long block," she means don't count the little streets. If you are in central Shenzhen, from Shennan to Hongli is a "long block."
7. T-intersection and dead-end: Where two streets meet in a T-shape, one of them "dead-ends" into the other; that is, it doesn't continue, it ends there. This is a verb usage. As a noun, however, it usually indicates that the road ends with no alternatives; another word for this is "cul-de-sac." When I was a boy, we played ball in a dead-end near our house, because it had little traffic.

--------

Read more: https://www.wikihow.com/Give-Directions#Mapping-Out-Distances-and-Compass-Directions

---

Practice: Look at the picture below. Match the illustrations to the descriptions above. One description will not be used.

Answers are in the first comment below.

---

Submitted to the Shenzhen Daily for November 13, 2007

This lesson received 842 visits on my old site between January, 2012, and June, 2021.