Taxi Cab Confusion
Ever since young suburban taxi drivers started pushing out the hutong resident older generation, cab rides have been getting gradually less interesting. But there’s always the exception.
A couple days ago I was going about my business, on my way to meet some friends for dinner, when my taxi driver and I pulled up to a red light, where he took out his phone and started texting. This didn’t bother me so much, because apparently I’m completely numb to the insanity of Beijing. We were in the turn lane and I was not convinced he was paying attention to the light. Just as I was worried that he was too transfixed on his phone to watch the traffic, he caught me off-guard with a most odd request. Apparently the fellow seemed to be having trouble finding a Chinese character–and decided I was just the man to help.
At first I was a little confused ,thinking that no driver would be strange enough to ask a foreigner for help typing a Chinese text message. You see, normally they think foreigners are 70% brain-dead. Then it occurred to me, perhaps he didn’t realize that I was a foreigner. Finally I decided he just wasn’t terribly bright, or might even be illiterate.
Part of his text was already written, but he wanted the to type the character “祥” and wasn’t sure how to type it. He repeated the character very carefully to me, explaining the left and right radicals. As I stared at him, with what I can only describe as a dirt-dumb look on my face, he finally asked, “Do you understand?” It was at this moment that I realized he knew I was a foreigner, and yet inexplicably was asking me to help him type Chinese characters into his phone.
Dutifully I took the phone and typed in the corresponding letters, scrolling until I found the correct character. I showed him to make sure I had chosen wisely, and a smile broke out over his face. Clearly please with himself he announced that we had arrived at my destination. As we pulled over to the side of the road for me to get out we politely began to chat. Our words separated, the two of us temporarily at an impasse in our bizarre, budding relationship. With nothing left to say, I felt like we needed closure, and extended reached out to him. We had a warm two-hand shake, as I pondered how we had gotten to that point.
Just before I reached for the taxi door, I asked him for his card. I’m not exactly sure why I did that, but he had one and gave it to me. It was the free type, with the logo and information of a travel agent on the back. I looked over the card carefully and then stuck it in my pocket as I closed the door.
I wonder if he does that with all his foreign customers.
dezzza responds:
Posted: February 20th, 2008 at 9:08 am →
no surprise here…especially if this cab driver is a bit older (40s and up) as the older generations didn’t grow up learning pinyin or are just plain bad at it. as a foreigner in china, i assume he figured you had studied chinese (since you spoke it to him?) and your pinyin would be probably be better than his. unless he was using the stroke order input method on his mobile?
Serwat responds:
Posted: February 20th, 2008 at 10:38 am →
That’s a great bizzarro story, even considering dezzza’s possible explanation. Thanks for sharing.
Rebekah responds:
Posted: February 21st, 2008 at 11:05 am →
Aw, very cute story. Sounds like one of those weird epiphany moments that you sometimes have and walk away shaking your head. I think I might stick it on the ChinaTravel.net forum today. It gives lots of warm, fuzzy feelings.