Headed in
The expression I picked for you today is “headed in.” You might remember we talked about a similar one in Lesson 45—that was called “head for .” But today, we’re talking about a strange little expression that we use when talking about movement.
Here’s how we form it. We say, a person or a thing is headed in a direction. And we almost always use the word “direction” in the sentence.
So here’s a really common phrase in English: “I think we’re headed in the wrong direction.” What that means is, “we are moving in the wrong direction.” Now this can mean two things. First, you could be walking down a street, or driving down a street, and trying to find something. And you might look around and think, we are moving—we are walking, we are driving—in the wrong direction.
But “We are headed in the wrong direction” might also mean, “We are not progressing well.” You might be making a lot of progress on a project. But if that progress is not leading to your goals, then you’re in trouble. Imagine you’re at work and you need to hire a company to improve your marketing. And all the companies that come in, they propose ideas that you’re not comfortable with.
You might say to your colleagues: I think we’re headed in the wrong direction on this project. Yes, you’re progressing. You contacted a lot of companies, they came in to pitch their ideas, you asked them questions. You’re moving. You’re progressing. But if it’s not toward your goals, you can say, “We’re headed in the wrong direction on this project.”
If you’re a manager, your team might come to you with questions or for advice. They might have started a project and they might want to know if they’re doing it right. You might review their work and determine that they’re doing a good job. In that case you can say, “I think you’re headed in the right direction.”
Is the country headed in the right direction or the wrong direction? This is a popular question for opinion polls. And a useless one, I might add. In the U.S., this was first asked in the early 1970s. And with few exceptions, Americans always say the country is headed in the wrong direction. But I bet few of us want to go back to how things were in the 1970s.
Today I said that India’s and China’s populations are headed in opposite directions . That means that China’s population will be going down, while India’s population will be going up. They are moving in opposite directions, or they are headed in opposite directions.
But let’s go back to the more physical world. You can also say, “headed in a person’s direction” if something is moving toward that person. If you look at a weather map, you might see a storm moving toward you. In the U.S., we have a broadly west-to-east weather pattern. And in Chicago, we would see a winter storm out over Iowa and it would move east toward Chicago. And when that happened, we would say, “A big storm is headed in our direction.”
If you’re meeting a friend, and you’re both moving around, you can say, “Stay where you are, I’m headed in your direction.” That means: you don’t move because I’m moving toward you. I’m going toward where you are. I’m headed in your direction.
Quote of the Week
Here’s a funny quote about India. It’s by an author, Arundhati Roy, who wrote a famous book called “The God of Small Things.” She said: “India lives in several centuries at the same time.” And listen, from my visits, I can confirm that sentiment! “India lives in several centuries at the same time.”
See you next time!
One of my favorite authors is an American author of Indian heritage. Her name is Jhumpa Lahiri; she was born in London, lived most of her life in the U.S., and her parents are from India. And if you’re looking for a good book, you can try “The Namesake.” That was also made into a movie.
Jhumpa Lahiri often writes about the struggle between Indian tradition and modernity, about immigration, about what it means to be in the second generation in America. Her books are really, really good. So if you’re a fan of literature, I highly, highly recommend “The Namesake,” or really anything by Jhumpa Lahiri.
That’s all for today’s Plain English, lesson number 568. Coming up on Thursday: we’ll do another travel episode. This time, we’ll be talking about New Orleans, Louisiana. I think you’ll like it. That’s Thursday on Plain English. See you then.
Learn more expressions like this
