In other weird incident a few weeks ago, I got in a taxi to escape an quickening downpour on my way home from work. I got into the taxi late at night with an umbrella that I quickly stowed away. I told my directions to the driver, and he sped off to the location requested.
On the way to the destination, we were following a small white compact car. Eventually we came to a stop. The white car got in left turn lane at an intersection behind another vehicle. For some reason, the vehicle was was stopped in front of the white car despite having a green turn light. The white car in front of our taxi then swerved out into the next lane in front of us sped through the intersection in front of us, then tried to turn left again in front of the stopped vehicle that wasn’t turning with the proper light. This caused us to be stopped in the middle of intersection and a large bus barreling down on us in the rear. The buses air brakes hissed, and everyone came to a stop as we waited for the white car to turn.
This sent my taxi cab driver into a fit of cursing. He bemoaned the fact that women drivers were allowed on the road. Sure enough, as we passed, the white car was being driven by a woman. He then went off on another tangent about how dangerous it was for people that drove that way. Never mind the fact that he didn’t obey most of the posted speed limits, turned illegally on a previous red light, and sped through another light.
I was simply happy I hadn’t been in an accident and was nodding along, dropping the occasional Korean phrase like, "That’s right", or a sympathetic, "Ung," a Korean "I’m listening, continue on" sound I’ve even picked up in my English speaking after being here so long. I had very little idea what he was actually talking about, but I guessed it had to do with the weather, the traffic, and whatever else pisses off taxi drivers. I was the confessional this guy never had, and he kept spewing out regional Korean with a dialect I could barely understand.
Eventually, when it came to get out of the taxi and pay, I handed over my money and the driver looked up in the rear view mirror. He was shocked and said, "You are a foreigner?! I had no idea!" He had been talking to me the entire time and didn’t bother to look up or realize I didn’t know what the hell he was saying. I don’t think for a second I could have passes as a fluent Korean in any other situation.
