After reading about Expat Jane’s strange taxi ride I was inspired to post about my own Twilight Zone experience in the back of a Seoul cab.
I was in Itaewon, last week, in front of the Hamilton Hotel waiting to hail a taxi. One pulled over and I hopped in. After a “Omokgyo, juseyo” I settled back to enjoy what I thought would be a leisurely ride home. The cabbie turned on the radio adn tuned into an English speaking station. Cool, right? Nope, because on the radio at that moment was an English Language Lesson program. The host had a soothing chocolate voice with perfect diction. She made me want to take English lessons until she began the topic of the day: a news report about suspected pedophile Christopher Paul Neal. Bye-bye leisurely taxi ride.
The host read a report about Canadian Neal, three times, detailing his life and work as an English teacher in South Korea, the police raid on his Thailand hotel, and the internet photos he had scrambled. She then translated the report into English before discussing and explaining key words like molester, raid, and scrambled. I had my eyes closed and my head back during this pretending to be sleep.
I should have kept up the ruse, because the sound got turned down on the radio and I stupidly opened my eyes to see what was up and sure enough Mr. Cabbie was staring in the rear view mirror with an eagle eye trained right on me, waiting to practice his English.
Sure enough the first question that slipped from his lips was: “You…..(dramatic Pause) Canadian”?
“No, American,” I replied, feeling a bit ashamed that a tiny bit of me was happy that I could reveal my nationality without being the target of baleful glances, shaking heads, and wailing cries of “You elected that idiot, twice!”
“Ah, good, good.”
I braced for the next question.
“You…(even longer dramatic pause) English teacher”?
“Yes.”
His face scrunched up, he pursed his lips and immediately turned back up the volume. At this point the lesson had moved on to the word raid and how it meant for the police to forcibly enter someone’s home. Well, after the Korean explaination my cabbie blurted out, “Engilsh teachers, raid. Raid all English teachers!”
This was when I chimed in with a well timed, “Yogggie-o”.
He pulled over and I paid and escaped before he started to drive in circles and harangue me.
Do you have any crazy taxi stories? Share them!
