Gibberish

You know what I hate ? When it’s 1am on a dead shift and I haven’t spoken to anyone for nearly an hour. So I hop out of the cab and light a cigarette, hoping the damn rank might start moving. It’s either that or some friendly, distracting discourse.

The cabbie behind, also bored, gets out and approaches me. With a warm smile he asks, "Vu canna de wensrin..?" Then follows numerous attempts on my part in trying to comprehend utter gibberish. Finally he gives up, shrugs despondently and walks away.

I feel lousy because as hard as I tried he was impossible to understand, so imagine how dejected he feels. What should be a congenial chat between colleagues becomes an exercise in mutual embarrassment. An all too frequent condition amongst cabbies.

When I obtained my license a language tester actually said of immigrant drivers, "They’ll get the hang of the lingo once they’re on the road." He worked for the Adult Migrant Section of TAFE, on behalf of the taxi authority. "We call it reverse discrimination," he explained to me. "Because they’re from a minority culture we give them a break on the English test." Admittedly, that was ten years ago.

Of course it’s total bullshit. Unless immigrant drivers seriously study English they have little chance of becoming proficient, at least to a passable level of conversation with a majority of the population. Whilst these drivers may be able to correctly pronounce localities and fares, you can forget about an easy, relaxing chat. That's what I hate.

Cabbies in language jam.

Comments

[SurferCam]

Adrian, why should you feel uncomfortable because he couldn't speak English?

[Dataceptionist]

Any well meaning person will feel embarrassed for the other person if they're in a similar situation and one party can't understand the other, for all good intents and purposes.

[Miles]

It is possible to learn another language without seriously studying it - I learnt german simply by living in the country for a number of months. You do have to try though - I was constantly writing down how to say things and looking up words (and asking how you'd say stuff). The problem is a lot of people can't be stuffed. You see a lot of english speakers in other countries who just cannot be bothered learning the language, not even a little bit of it, it's tragic.

[Anthony]

Learning German is easy - just pretend you're shouting at a dog.

[Sakura]

It's always difficult and yeah it is an uncomfortable position to be in. I agree with Miles, you just gotta make an effort. Although having said that I have been in Scotland for 2 and a half years and sometimes I still can't understand a bloody word they're saying! I just nod and smile at them and have no clue what they've just said to me. Doesn't help when your drunk either.
Have a good weekend !

[Aurelius]

A sad story Adrian. So frustrating.

[steve at the pub]

Once I had the excruciating experience of riding in a Sydney cab where the driver, though a nice lad, had not a word of English.

Taped to the steering wheel was a series of phrases in Korean script, but phonetically English. He would read from these according to what he thought the situation was. (eg, "uich ee, reputoo raito?")

He had not a hope of understanding anything except gestures. I was supposed to either find the destination in the Gregory's for him, or point in either direction as we approached an intersection.

I did glean from him that he had been in Australia 6 days.

[John]

We are well on the road to the lowest denominator here as well,or the race to the bottom.
"You show me I drive"
The Non Nationals only have to get 30% to pass the PSV test while we have to score over 80%.
We hear that social welfare will help them with the cost of the car while we get no help.
I must be a real taxi driver ...all I do is moan..