Taxi driver talk game

[geraldc]

At the London meet up, we discussed how mormons were very good at learning Chinese, as if they got good, they could convert someone, and get a place in heaven. We commiserated with each other, that as we got better at Chinese, all it meant was we would have more topics to discuss with Chinese taxi drivers...

 

It did strike me, that you do spend a lot of time chatting to taxi drivers in China.

 

As soon as they hear me speak, they know I'm not local, and ask me where I'm from, this then basically meant I'd go into my family history, a minute on where my parents are from, why they moved to the UK, what language we spoke at home, etc. What line of business they were in, whether or not we ate Chinese food at home etc.

 

Then there was always the other stuff about giving directions etc.

 

 

Anyone up for a game where someone suggests topics that you need to weave into their conversation on their next taxi ride? Anyone willing to record their conversation and post it up for everyone to enjoy? There's also the plus that most of the time when you take a taxi home, you're pretty drunk, so more willing to chat...

[Lu]

I used to ask Taipei taxi drivers how much money they made. Since the topic is not taboo over there, might as well get some social insight. It varied somewhat of course, but it averaged at about 50,000 taibi, about the same amount I made at the time, except I didn't have to feed a whole family on that.

Just bouncing back the questions of are you married, do you have kids can also lead to interesting conversations. One Beijing taxi driver told me he had two children (姐姐弟弟？ I asked. Of course they were). He had to pay a big fine of course, didn't have the money so managed to borrow some. But he couldn't borrow even close to the full amount, so he went to the relevant official and managed to bargain the fine down.

[Shelley]

Interesting , as a side topic i think its the intensive all immerse teaching method they use rather than the fact that they are of a particular religion.

 

From what i understand its pretty intensive, but does seem to produce very good results.

[Touchstone57]

Please leave it for another thread - some people have been scarred, others have had their lives turned around by church.

 

On taxi drivers - I've heard a few times that being drunk develops fluency in a language. Anyone else think so?

 

Conversations I've actually had in the past with taxi drivers

- Marijuana use in China

- Why many western (white) women would prefer to been tanned and have darker skin (the driver just couldn't comprehend it, hao qi gui!)

- Talking about Russia/Vladmir putin

- Taxi drivers addiction to blue cheese

- A very creepy conversation about foreigners and the size of their appendages (a fascinating subject for the driver that I was not so comfortable with)

 

It takes some effort to steer away from the usual "where are you from" conversations, but it can be done.Something to try

-Perhaps fabricate an elaborate story about you and your life in China. i.e you are the CEO of Microsoft, or you have a business smuggling North Koreans across the border etc, all for speaking practice etc

[Lu]

I once had a rather philosophical conversation with a taxi driver in Taipei about whether one should assume people are good or bad and when you can trust someone. I needed to pick something up and then return to where I came from, and as I was enjoying the conversation I asked him to wait. He waited, thus demonstrating that, since I hadn't paid him yet, to some extent he did think some people could be trusted, although he had just argued against that.

In general my impression is that Taipei taxi drivers are a lot more talkative than Beijing ones, in Taipei I usually only need to make some offhand remark about what I had just been doing or where I'm going and we have a conversation going on. Beijing taxi drivers often don't even bother to grunt when I tell them my destination.

Generally, I get more varied conversations when I manage to steer the subject away from me and onto the driver himself (or occasionally herself).

[edelweis]

I hope some admin splits the thread soon. I am interested in the taxi stories. The other topic almost made me give up on this thread.

 

Unfortunately when I was in Beijing I was a total beginner and I didn't really have conversations with the drivers except to answer 四环五环？ with 不知道 (guess which one we took) or shout 等一下 once when the driver was lost in an industrial area for which I fortunately had a map to show him.

It's too bad because some of them were obviously willing to talk （你会说汉语吗？ 一点？） and one of them started excitedly explaining something with big gestures that took both his hands off the wheel one night on 四环 - and of course he was not looking at the road either, he was basically giving himself a crick in the neck trying to check whether I followed or not. At that time I really wished I knew how to tell him to mind his driving. (btw how do you say that?)

[imron]

I hope some admin splits the thread soon

Discussion about the Mormons split off here.