Taxi Cab Confessions: Why Beijing Drivers Don't Speak English

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God, leave the poor drivers alone. When I was living in Korea and Japan, I used taxis a lot and always spoke to the cab drivers in their language (I speak and read Japanese, but my Korean is basically tourist survival level, though I can read Hangul). They have a hard enough time navigating their streets without some foreigner telling them what language to speak.

Moreover, if you speak a second language, it can take a fair amount of your brainpower to use and do you really want a driver translating something in his head from Mandarin to english while he is at the wheel? All that does is increase the distractions he has to deal with.

One other thing: in Korea, or at least according to my former students there, being a taxi driver is thought as well of by general society as being a janitor or retail clerk here in the U.S. In other words, it is held in low esteem, the province of folks not smart or able enough to work for big companies. It may be that way in China, I don't know. So all you do by asking them to speak english is further make them feel bad about themselves by pointing out something else they can't do.


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