Well, you will need good luck at one airfield in SE England where ATC managed to "control" two light aircraft transiting their zone such that they were on reciprocal courses and only seperated by 50 feet vertically !
The same Controller also has a perchant for telling you the type of aircraft you may be in conflict with plus where it is coming from/ going to (Airfield names). I would prefer to to have its likely course described by clock face relevent to me (ATC have radar at this field) or if thats not possible due to workload descibe by the cardinal points East - West, NE - SW etc. plus last reported altitude or transponder mode C info. The type of Aircraft is only relevent if its something fast eg. F16) or bloody big eg. 747. Apart from that, ATC generally do a very good job.