"This way" vs "That way"

[Tom]

Hi

Could you please tell me if "that way" and "this way" are synonymous? For example:

[Yankee]

Hi Tom

The difference is sometimes only a matter of perspective with no change in the basic meaning.

One thing I can say about my German ESL students, however, is that they generally use this much too often.

So, tell me, what do you already know about the difference between this and that in terms of the speaker's perspective?

Amy
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Alan]

Hi Tom,

'This' and 'that' often equate to 'here and 'there'. In other words 'this' is here and 'that' is there. In your sentence 'that' refers to what has been said previously in the other sentence. 'This' might suggest not what I have just said but what I'm going to say. Look at the two (these) sentence:

That sounded interesting (what you have just said).
This will surprise you (what I am gouing to say now).

A
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story A day in the life of a student teacher

[Jamie (K)]

Tom, if you're using these expressions to talk about physical direction, see if you can find an English-Urdu dictionary that has really archaic English in it. (This should not be hard. A dictionary people use for studying English literature will probably work.) Look up the English words "hither" and "thither". I'll bet there's an exact Urdu equivalent for each of them. If you find the translations, then know that "hither" means something very close to "this way", and "thither" means something like "that way".

Sometimes "walk this way" can mean "follow me". However, in old movies there's frequently a gag where a maitre d' in an elegant hotel, or a butler, has a very funny way of walking. He'll tell guests, "Please, walk this way," meaning, "Please, follow me." The guests misunderstand it as meaning, "Please, walk in the same strange manner I do," and they all follow him with the same funny walk.