Describing kanji radicals (部首) - is straightforward: to the name of the radical you append the name for the position it inhabits. The left hand position has the suffix へん、or べん、so for example when the kanji for person 人 （ひと、にん）appears as a radical on the left hand side, as in 体 （からだ）it is called にんべん。This makes it easy to describe kanji - to describe 体 you can just say "にんべん に 本”. This method of explanation comes into its own when describing the kanji which make up peoples' names, where there can be numerous kanji combinations for any given name (and even more for personal names). Let's pick Sato (also written Satou or Satoh - it is up to the person and what romaji system they choose to use). This name can be written with a whole swag of kanji, to whit:
佐籐, 左藤 , 佐當, 左刀 , 左東 , 沙藤 , 砂東 , 砂糖 , 邪東 - the first two versions being the most common.
If we look at the first kanji in 佐藤 we see it is made up of 人 in the へん／べん position, ie にんべん。It is sitting next to the kanji for left, 左 （ひだり). To describe this kanji to someone we would say "にんべん に ひだり”. Now some bright spark will say "Couldn't you just describe the first kanji by reference to another kanji combination, eg 佐 is the first kanji in Saga-ken so you could say ”佐賀県 の さ”. My answer is yes - you sure can - there are many ways to skin a cat. There are also lots of people (Japanese nationals included) who don't know the kanji for each prefecture (try asking someone to write the kanji for Ehime..) and sometimes it is just easier to break the kanji down when describing it.
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