Back in the swing of things already after the Christmas Holidays. Still nice to find the traffic is light and not a lot of passengers either. Nice change for a normally packed 99 B Line bus.
Funny story. Over the years I have encountered a lot of foreign speaking passengers who have questions to ask. Usually the questions involve places they would like to travel to and how they could possibly get there. Some of the requests have come with such a strong accent behind it that I have had much difficulty understanding exactly what they are asking me. Most troublesome for me have been questions asked by Asian folks whether they are Chinese, Korean, Hong Kongese, and others. Doesn't really matter the exact language they speak; no matter which it is, I still experience the same problems in understanding. Over the years I have become somewhat adept at interpreting their requests. To prove my point I will share with you some of the funniest sounding requests I have had in past years. Let me say before I begin that I hope no one interprets my remarks as discriminatory because they are certainly not intended that way. I love people from every race and truly enjoy the interactions I have on the bus with people from all over the world. They all have stories to tell and it is so fun listening to them. That said here is my funniest requests.
First of all the most common word I hear is which I interpret this way......"Hugo?"......which means in my world...."do you go?" This is often followed by words such as......"Beh Woo Mah"....which I discovered to mean......"Brentwood Mall."....or perhaps the words..."Mee Too Taw."....which means...... "Metrotown."....of course there has also been...."Roo Hee Mah."...which, as you may already have guessed means..."Lougheed Mall."
Today I heard another good one for the first time. I was between trips standing with my back to the front door while I chatted on my cell phone with my wife when I hear a knock on the door. I turn to see a middle aged Asian couple on the other side of the door both smiling broadly at me. I say to my wife, "hold on a sec honey," and I open the door. The Asian lady leans in and politely asks a question in very broken English that sounded to me something like this, "Hugo dis bus mensa T?" I pretty well caught on to the first few words, "do you go with this bus." The remainder was more of a challenge. I leaned closer to her and said, "I'm sorry, what was it you were looking for?" She repeats, "mensa T, mensa T." I am wracking my brain, what was it she said. I am embarrassed to ask again. I am thinking MacKenzie, Metrotown, a place to eat???? I have no idea. She sees my struggle and tries to clarify, "mensa T, mensa T, hugh no China tawn." "Aah!" I say, finally getting it. "Do you want to go to Main Street?" "Yes," she says delight written all over her face. "Yes, I can take you to Main Street," I say quite proud of my sleuthing abilities. Another interesting day.
I love it!
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