Speaking of Speaking...
January 13th 2008 14:17
During my visit to San Francisco last week, I had an interesting (and very informative) experience. Court took longer than we expected and it was necessary to get to the train depot in a hurry (or wind up stranded in Frisco for the night!) Having no idea where to go, we hailed a cab. We showed him the train schedule and gave him the address of the station we needed to get to. Should have been pretty simple, right? HAH! He drove us around for about 20 minutes, passing the same buildings twice (or three times...)
It didn't matter how carefully we pronounced "Emeryville", he repeated "Ferry Building" back to us. Talk about a failure to communicate! By the time he dropped us at the Ferry Building, it cost almost $30.00 and he didn't take credit cards.
We ultimately found another cabbie who did speak English and was able to get us to the train in the nick of time. It's too bad we didn't know enough about BART!
The message here, folks, is that it DOES matter for people to speak English in an English-speaking country. Suppose we'd needed to get to a hospital and the cabbie thought we meant Fisherman's Wharf? Is the average citizen expected to learn every language in the world so they can communicate with all those who choose not to learn English?
Before anyone gets excited and starts accusing me of being anti-Mexican or anti-Muslim or any other "anti's" they can think of, the cabbie was Chinese! I have no idea whether or not he was illegal. I do know he should never have been driving a taxi without being able to speak the language of his passengers.
It didn't matter how carefully we pronounced "Emeryville", he repeated "Ferry Building" back to us. Talk about a failure to communicate! By the time he dropped us at the Ferry Building, it cost almost $30.00 and he didn't take credit cards.
We ultimately found another cabbie who did speak English and was able to get us to the train in the nick of time. It's too bad we didn't know enough about BART!
The message here, folks, is that it DOES matter for people to speak English in an English-speaking country. Suppose we'd needed to get to a hospital and the cabbie thought we meant Fisherman's Wharf? Is the average citizen expected to learn every language in the world so they can communicate with all those who choose not to learn English?
Before anyone gets excited and starts accusing me of being anti-Mexican or anti-Muslim or any other "anti's" they can think of, the cabbie was Chinese! I have no idea whether or not he was illegal. I do know he should never have been driving a taxi without being able to speak the language of his passengers.
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Comment by Anonymous
Considering how many jobs are being exported to china though your grandson will probably end up as an illegal immigrant, in China no less
Comment by S.L. Bradish
As for my grandson, (not that he's any of your business), he's not likely to go to another country illegally (having considerable respect for law) and if he does travel abroad, he'll be able to speak the language adequately.
Comment by Lester Caudill
Round Politics
A lot of people will miss the point here, that it does matter that and imergent needs to learn English if they are to live, and productively function in America.
It's to everyone's best interest, and safety for them to learn to speak English.
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by S.L. Bradish
Comment by Lester Caudill
Round Politics
Comment by Dr. Wiz-Kid
I want a taxi driver of all people to speak english in America just as I would expect them to speak the native tongue of the land should I be a visitor to a foreign country. This is because I travel a lot and I make it a point of learning the language to a certain extent before entering that country as respect to the citizens and convenience to me.
If I visited a country and had learned the language only to have the cab driver speak another that I didn't understand I would be thoroughly irritated, lost and confused. I see no bigotry there. I think that if you are going to work with the public, especially in transportation, you had better learn the language.
Comment by S.L. Bradish