To expect a taxi driver to speak English, understand English and no we're they're going ??

[BoppitChamp]

Not to spend an 20 minutes driving round in circles because he couldnt understand my directions, he didnt have a clue where he was going. Seriously.

He then (by pointing at the meter) tried to charge me extra for the privelige.

I told him where to stick it and knocked £1 off what I usually pay for my wasted time.

I'm not convinced she actually got in a taxi. Poor bloke was probably pointing at his clock going "get out of my car, I've been driving you 'round in circles' for twenty minutes now you drunken fool.'

Ummm I just did?!

no you just said twat x 10

you only came out with it when you were called on it

If you get into a cab in England you take it for granted the driver can speak & understand English. Minimum requirements imo. The potential passenger may not know her semantics from her modifiers, and may have had a few drinks, but that's totally irrelevant.

BC; Yanbu, and I'm sorry you've had the piss taken out of you by pedantic aresholes. Take no notice of them. You are right, they are wrong.

Whereas if you get into a cab in Wales, Scotland or N Ireland, god knows what you'll end up with - we like to live verrrrry dangerously up here

A taxi driver should certainly know where he is going and not go round in circles and be unable to find the address and then try to charge you for it!

Are any of you seriously suggesting that that is acceptable? Really? That's ok?

The language thing, well, it depends. Someone must have a good enough grasp of whatever language is spoken in whatever country they are in to be able to do whatever job they have.

Obviously.

Or they can't do it!

So if he wasn't chatting away in queen's english YABU.

If you were saying I want to go to the Odeon and he couldn't understand the words "I want to go to the" then YANBU.

ykwim, if I get into a cab I expect the driver to understand what I'm saying, jesus christ, I can't believe anyone would find the op unreasonable - but some of you are like sniffer dogs, if you get the slightest whiff of something you think you can call racist, you're there...teeth out, eyes glowing...

Pathetic...

Yes, the driver should have known where he was going.
And probably would have, had the OP been coherent enough to explain it properly to him.
Poor bloke, probably thought she was going to chuck all over his car.

I know what you mean but the rest of the UK speaks english too, you know

FWIW I agree - if someone works in the UK then I expect them to understand basic level english. I would imagine you'd probably need a fairly good grasp of the language to be a taxi driver though, otherwise you wouldn't be able to give your customers the 'benefit' of your taxi driver's opinion!

Okaaay, Appletrees. I used Twat as a catch all:

OP ranting about foreigner who can't speak English + OP makes spelling and grammar mistakes in hilariously thick manner + wants loads of 'yes that's a disgrace and anyone who disagrees is ludicrously politically correct' responses = Twat

Anyone whose opinion I care about would know what I meant by 'twat' without elaboration.

And daftpunk's response is exactly what I mean.

Pathetic right back atcha DP.

YANBU.
But, did you write the instructions down for him and is that why he was confused?

proudnglad;

No, she wasn't ranting about a foreigner who can't speak English, she was complaning about someone employed in the customer service industry who couldn't speak or understand English. BIG difference.

Not that you care.

I managed to catch a few hours and sleep and woke up, thought of this thread and \link{http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/g/v/2/respect-are-country.jpg&imgrefurl=mediamatters.org/blog/201001210054&usg=__CxyADGANowzI4Z5J30VgbWaiiLM=&h=604&w=221&sz=26&hl=en&start=0&sig2=Kk_nJxgCSvW9OAZA1kjLiw&zoom=1&tbnid=o2pvTat3z_eppM:&tbnh=176&tbnw=66&ei=HQGnTLXkE8P54Aaaq62lDA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drespect%2Bare%2Bcountry%2Bspeak%2Benglish%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D643%26tbs%3Disch:10,182&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=574&vpy=11&dur=6732&hovh=371&hovw=136&tx=80&ty=147&oei=HQGnTLXkE8P54Aaaq62lDA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0&biw=1366&bih=643\this} sign

I did once get into a taxi not that long ago and someone else had to give the taxi driver instructions as to where I was going as I was too incoherent to make myself clear.

And he was definitely English, I do remember the taxi driver, he's a regular that's picked me up/dropped me off before and speaks perfectly good English

yanbu

Proudnglad - if she had not made the grammatically errors in her post would you still have called her a twat? Incidentially, I'm not sure why you choose to use a vagina as a way of insulting another woman, but there we go...nowt as queer as folk and all that

grammatical even, before you call me a twat x 10!

Oh come on, the OP was pissed and will have a good laugh at the irony when she wakes up. Any of us could have written the mistakes in the OP, it doesn't make her racist but she'll feel a bit . That's all it is.

I wasn't saying the OP was unreasonable at all to expect the taxi driver to understand her and know the way.

Even if she was pished and shlurring I think that's an important quality in a taxi driver - ability to interpret drunkards and get them home. The very reason we gets taxis is so we can drink and have someone else drive!

LRD I do think you are unreasonable to say 'any one of us could have written the mistakes in the OP'. The title has 'no we're' for 'know where'. I strongly disagree that any one of us might have written that!

the title made me giggle but actually the subject is very seriously, i once thought i was going to be attacked on my own in a minicab in london by a driver who kept going the wrong way.

It was late at night and i was torn between wondering if he really didn't understand ANY english (including the street name of a major street in the area) or he actually was deliberately driving me off down the wrong way for goodness knows what reasons.

I was actually very scared and i am not easily scared at all.

Ok, Trillian, I'll revise that: I could have written the OP in my pissed state, and so I believe could several of us!

I don't assume the OP's English is normally that terrible, but nor do I think she came across as racist. I certainly don't understand how taking the mickey out of someone who's admitted they were pissed and is mis-typing, is tantamount to mocking her education.

It is all very strange.

OP you weren't in Wales were you? :)

Best thread title ever

Not racist, but definitely funny. Not that my english is perfect. I make endless mistakes with apostrow.. apostrofe... These things ==> '

The OP is NBU though because being able to understand instructions and knowing the way is the job of the driver. It's fine to be useless at some things, but not if you are taking money to do them.

still chuckling at this thread.I work for a taxi company as a dispatcher and believe me the punters are the most trouble not the drivers,some are so pissed you can't make out a word they say and forget asking them for directions.The cabbie wasted your time,he probably had a dispatcher wondering where the hell he was.

"Anyone whose opinion I care about would know what I meant by 'twat' without elaboration."

that's rather ludicrous tbh

I reckon you should say straight out, this feels really racist. Why too scared to do that? Because it would have given the OP a chance to say, actually no, not true at all. or even yes, were she inclined. That's obviously what people were and may still be thinking.

fwiw: I think reasonable to expect a taxi driver to know enough English to offer a decent service: totally and completely unreasonable to expect everyone living in the UK to speak good or any English: reasonable not to want to pay for driver's mistakes.

It's so bad to pisstake for someone's poor education, it really is. That's not saying it doesn't matter.