I gave two sets of foreigners directions yesterday. What the heck are tourists doing in St Leonards anyway^[1]? They both wanted to know where the train station was, which worked out, because for once I actually was able to give directions! Usually people are asking me where so-and-so street is, and I have a terrible memory for street names. Anyway, I was on the Pacific Highway and it was pretty easy to point “that-a-way” but I had trouble communicating “on the other side of the street.” I kept worrying from their looks of incomprehension that they might have thought I was saying turn left. One set was Japanese (guessing based on the script used on their Sydney tourist guide book) and the other was a French couple (guessing based on accent), yet both had trouble with “on the other side of the street” and since I was the one constant in both conversations I take it for me not being clear enough. If either set had been Russian I could have said “на лева”; I actually remember that. Human languages are so hard.

1. I mean that in a why would they want to be there kind of way, not a they don’t belong there kind of way