I’ve not been in a taxi for a long while. Today that ended with one of the more polite drivers I can remember having. His phone rang and he apologetically asked if he could answer it.
Anyway, we were talking about the Expo (big surprise there) and he mentioned this book the drivers were given in order to learn some English. He practiced a few phrases on me and I gave him a couple more to work on. The odd thing was this book, which unfortunately he didn’t have with him, was written in Shanghainese. Really, I asked. Yep. All in Shanghainese in order to teach the drivers English. I didn’t think to ask him how exactly it was written, since it seems if it were going to use characters, then the choice of Wu certainly wouldn’t have been one for the sake of literacy. I mean, characters are characters. And I don’t think he was putting me on. Time didn’t permit me pushing the issue, so I had to get out with many an unanswered question. It’s something to bring up the next time I get in a taxi.
I’d love to get my hands on the booklet. More of a pamphlet really, as he described it. Has anyone heard of this?
Wow, you should definitely get your hands on that! Presumably most of the cabbies have them?
And then scan it and put it up here!
That’s what I’m hoping for. You’ll see it here if I can get it.
I thought the other EXPO thing was bad by saying, “GU DE MAO NING” for good morning. But Shanghainese??? crazy.
gu de mao ning isn’t all bad. certainly not any worse than “knee how”.