Today, at 8:35AM, under the heavy rains, I spotted a black 'For Foreigner Taxi' along the Hannam-dong main road with its LED signage on its roof saying, 'OPEN'. I took the sign to mean that it's 'empty'.
And as the taxi was on the outer lane, next to the sidewalk, going to the direction of Itaewon with the traffic stopped, I walked towards it and opened the door. I found that the taxi had no passenger, but the driver immediately blurted it out Korean words which included '외국인', meaning 'foreigner'.
I told him, '외국사람요' (I'm a foreigner). But he continued to speak in Korean, and I only recognized the word 'call'.
With his two excuses, I finally concluded that this driver of a 'for foreigner only' taxi didn't want me as a passenger that day. And I resigned to the idea, that I may stand there soaking under the rain for a longer time waiting for an alternative transportation to work.
I hope that the driver of that 'for foreigner taxi' with the plate number 서울34자1063, who drove through Hannam-dong this rainy morning and who dissed the wet, helpless passenger, may have a drier day inside his taxi.
Dear Alphonse,
ReplyDeleteGreetings from buzz KOREA administration team! We enjoyed your aspiring stories in Korea uploaded to your blog
In a week, buzz KOREA(www.ibuzzkorea.com) is hosting a familiarization tour for bloggers currently residing in Korea. There will be many fun experiences like eating Ssambap (Korean tacos using leaves rather than tortillas), learning Samulnori (Traditional Korean percussion music), and visiting Bukchon Hanok village (A cluster of traditional Korean architecture) together. The reason we are preparing such event is to create more of the rich online contents about Korean culture and spread them through social networking sites such as blog, facebook, and twitter. It will be our great pleasure to have you at this event. After the event, we would like you to create contents about this experience and publish it on your blog.
Proposed date for the tour is July 20th(or 22nd), and the event will last from 10am to 5pm. We would like to know whether you are available on either day. Please let us know through the email event@ibuzzkorea.com. Also, if you are participating, please provide us with your contact information. The schedule is tentative; we might modify the schedule if the date we proposed is not available to accommodate many people. We believe that this familiarization tour will be a great opportunity for you and other bloggers to have fun and to broaden your perspective about Korea.
Thank you.
Date and time
Wed, July 20th or Fri, July 22nd from 10am to 5pm
Fam-tour program summary
Bukchon Hanok village tour – Ssambap lunch – Samulnori experience
Well, that was real rude of him...can't believe some people can be so rude.
ReplyDeleteNice to read your blog. I enjoy your very informative articles. I hope he is not being racist. Maybe he has the notion that foreigners are those who are Caucasians pertaining to the white or dark skin people. I guess the driver needs re orientation about the how comprehensive and broad the word foreigner can get. A Korean who was born and raised in the US and travelled to Korea and would want to ride his taxi has all the right to board his cab! He might get the same treatment from that driver! Ms Dee here.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ms Dee. A lot of taxi and bus drivers in Seoul actually need a lot of orientation.
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