asking for directions and understanding the answer
module: on a trip
okay. sixteen lessons in. new module too — "on a trip." we've done grocery store, we've done ordering food. now let's get you somewhere without getting lost, or at least lost with a plan.
asking for directions is the easy half. you can learn "¿dónde está...?" in about four minutes, iykyk, we basically covered it back in lesson one for the grocery store. the hard half is what happens after you ask. somebody answers you. fast. in spanish. and now you're standing there nodding like you understood, and you did not understand.
that's the actual lesson today. not the asking. the listening.
the ask, quick review
"¿dónde está...?" — where is... "¿cómo llego a...?" — how do i get to...
use the second one when you want the whole route, not just a point on a map. "¿cómo llego a la farmacia?" — how do i get to the pharmacy.
say both out loud right now before you keep reading. actually say them. not in your head.
the part everybody sluffs
here's the thing nobody tells beginners: the answer is going to come at you full speed with words you don't know yet, and your brain is going to want to just smile and walk away confused. don't do that. you have tools.
- "más despacio, por favor" — slower, please
- "¿puede repetir?" — can you repeat that
- "no entiendo" — i don't understand
we covered these back in an earlier lesson too, and i'll keep bringing them back because this is my whole opinion about teaching: most classes save the "i don't understand" phrases for week twelve, like you're supposed to just muscle through confusion until you've earned the right to admit you're lost. i teach them week one, and i'm bringing them back here because directions is where you'll actually need them most. someone gives you six sentences of turns and landmarks, and you need to be able to say "wait, slower" without dying of embarrassment.
the direction words themselves
these are the ones that matter. learn ten, not two hundred — that's the whole approach of this class, and vocab dumps don't work anyway. you memorize two hundred words and still can't get anywhere.
- derecho / recto — straight ahead
- a la derecha — to the right
- a la izquierda — to the left
- la cuadra — the block ("dos cuadras" — two blocks)
- la esquina — the corner
- cerca / lejos — close / far
- al lado de — next to
- enfrente de — across from
that's it. that's the list. say each one out loud five times right now. not sluffing the vowels — "derecha" and "izquierda" both want your mouth to do real work, don't mumble past them.
practice this at home
set up a fake map. draw four or five streets on a piece of paper, mark a couple buildings — call one "la farmacia," one "el banco," whatever. then ask yourself, out loud, "¿cómo llego al banco?" and answer yourself out loud too, using the words above. feels dumb. do it anyway. that's basically the whole method.
melody caught me doing something like this at the kitchen table — not directions, verb drills — and now she does this bit where she repeats stuff back to me in a silly voice, and somewhere along the way her accent got better than mine, which bugs me more than it should. but here's the point of that: she wasn't scared to say it wrong first. that's the whole game. you say it wrong, out loud, in front of somebody, and wrong gets smaller every time. kids are just better at not caring how dumb it sounds.
listening for the shape, not every word
when someone answers you, you will not catch every word. that's fine. you're listening for the shape of the directions: a direction word (derecha, izquierda, derecho), a distance (cuadra, cerca, lejos), maybe a landmark (al lado de, enfrente de). if you catch "a la derecha, dos cuadras" out of a whole paragraph, you got enough. go.
if you catch nothing, that's what "más despacio" is for. use it. nobody's annoyed at you for asking again. i promise the alternative — nodding and walking off confidently in the wrong direction — is worse, and i've done it, so i know.
a real caution here
if you're actually navigating somewhere on foot or in a car using directions somebody gave you, don't trust it blind, especially at night or somewhere unfamiliar. cross-check with your phone map if you've got signal. directions from a stranger are a good practice tool and a fine backup, but they're not gps. use both.
before next time
practice the ten direction words until they don't feel weird in your mouth, and try the fake-map exercise at least once out loud, even if nobody's home to hear you being ridiculous. ✨