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Taxi Ettiquette is Universal

This is a lesson in 'jumping to conclusions'.

My Gemini impatient self on many occasion has reacted too quickly and not allowed myself to actually THINK about what the situation is.

I'm not sure if I make a good first impression but I know that I'm bad at getting them. Thank goodness for my D-o-meter, which is mostly always right about people, sometimes to my annoyance.

(As a side note, there have been people I have continued to try and think differently of FOR YEARS, stubborning insisting that he is not right. And yet, he always is)

So it comes as no surprise that when I got out of a cabby last week, indignant and annoyed at his lack of helpfullness.

Here is a little how it went

A: Anyong-haseyo

Cabbie: (grunt)

A: (in my best non-Korean accent say my building name) Aparta, (then my area name)

Cabbie: (lots of Korean)

A: uhh (see above)

Cabbie (lots more Korean)

A: (finally give in and bust out the small piece of paper that has our Korean address written on it or perhaps it just says 'take this dumbass foreigner to this address')

Cabbie: (grunt and what I think sounds like a knowing nod)

But then he proceeded to simply ask me to direct him to my house. Would have been smart of me to learn 'left here' and 'right here' but hey, I'm busy filling my days trying to figure out how to get kindergartens to not only converse fluently in another language but also to not pummel each other during English class.

He was so annoyed - even more so when I didn't have exact change and he muttered things in Korean, things if I was in Canada I KNOW I would have understood from a rude cabbie but here, I'm at a loss, and got out of the cab.

I felt so defeated. I had not even been able to say the words to get me home. How was I going to survive?

All the cab drivers in this city are jerks, I thought. They don't like foreingers, they're unhelpful and theyr'e rude.

Two days later it was with trepidation that I chose to take another taxi home.

It went a little something like this.

A: Anyong-haseyo

Cabbie: Annyong-haseyo

A:(pleasantly surprised again in my best non-Korean accent say my building name) Aparta, (then my area name)Aparta,

Cabbie: (knowing nod, repeating the EXACT phrase I had just said and we were on our way)

I smiled all the way home and tipped the guy for not being a grunter and making me feel like I DID know what I was talking about.

The moral of the story?

There are dickhead cab drivers everywhere.

Comments

Anonymous said…
A
GP and MS here and we know what you're saying. (Although we really don't know what Anyong-haseyo means) Happy taxi rides to you.

xxxooo

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