[PRCo] Re: Bilingual bus drivers

[Herb Brannon]

I was able to really send "shock waves", albeit good shock waves through some Hispanic drivers a few years ago when I lived in Austin, TX. We were all sitting in the operators lounge, playing some silly game which required that scores be kept for each player. I was the only "Anglo" in the group. Bear in mind, however, all these guys were my good work buddies. They would switch from English to Spanish, and back and forth. At one point, one guy told a joke, in Spanish. When the punch line came I laughed along with them. (The punch line was, "And look, Henry has the pen.") So, thinking quickly, I figured I better say the punch line to prove that I understood what was said, and not just laughing along with them. So I said, "Si, la pluma es con Enrique", or Yes, the pen is with Henry. I never saw four chins drop to the floor so fast and such a look of surprise come over four people at the same time. It was really priceless...........I wish I would have had a camera to record the
 moment. At that time I then knew that those years of taking Spanish were really worth it.  ;-)
   
  Fred is correct. Learn the language of those who make you uncomfortable and you will become comfortable in their presence. This works for everyone. For the past two days I have been working the 15-Union/Harvard and most trips I am the only White person on the bus. However, I am just as comfortable driving the 15 as I am driving the 75X-North Olmstead. I know the vernacular and that some things being said, while the average White would think something "bad or obscene" is going to happen, only indicate the "grassroots" (for lack of a better term) method of speech which goes along with the inner city lifestyle in a large American city. Then too one learns in some situations not to "talk down" to the people around one while at the same time not parroting their speech. I always can tell a White driver who is actually afraid of some of the inner city crowd when they (the driver) starts talking like an inner city Black when they are in conversation with Black people. Just be
 yourself, learn the language or method of speech and this life, in this day and age, is much easier to navigate through.
   
  I now give the soapbox back to Fred III.
Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:
  You know how I feel on this. In Brussels it is policy that bus 
drivers and trolley motormen and subway staff speak both French and 
Flemish. And I think it is fantastic that Herb can greet his 
passengers in Cleveland in both Spanish and English. Because the 
west Germans, during our occupation, taught English in the schools 
starting in the third grade, many and perhaps more than 50% of the 
transit personnel in Germany spoke German and English. In 
Switzerland, because they have four national languages, most people 
in public service occupations speak multiple languages.
But somehow, in Canada, this seems to be forcing the issue the wrong 
way. Should not the policy be requiring everyone to learn the other 
language starting in the third grade ... then in fifty years the 
problem would go away. That would also be my solution to Spanish and 
English in the U. S. If three-quarters of the people eventually 
speak both languages, then you don't fear without reason that the 
other person is speak behind your back about you.

You cannot force 40-year-old bus drivers to learn a new language. 
It doesn't work. You can get them to learn a few sentences. Then 
when the stranger asks what you don't know, you're dead in the 
water. But you can put signs under the drivers name on the bus 
that proclaim that this driver speaks Spanish and English. You 
could ask for drivers who do speak the other language to volunteer to 
work those neighborhoods.



Ottawa man lobbies for bilingual bus drivers

Last Updated: Friday, December 7, 2007 | 5:47 PM ET
CBC News
Ottawa bus drivers might greet riders with a "hello," but a "bonjour" 
is rare, and that's not fair, says one francophone passenger.

Michel Thibodeau has launched an official complaint against OC 
Transpo, the city's public transit company, demanding that it enforce 
its policy of treating francophones and anglophones equally.

That entails greeting passengers, calling out stops and making 
announcements in both languages, he said.

"So that francophones don't feel left out," he added.

The company should ensure new drivers are bilingual and current 
drivers should get language training so they can at least greet 
passengers in French, he said.

The City of Ottawa's French services department is currently looking 
into the complaint. Thibodeau said he expects to hear from them next 
week.

Bilingual drivers would be ideal, said OC Transpo head Alain Mercier, 
and the company is making an effort to offer more services in both 
languages.

"It certainly is a challenge to work towards bilingualism with the 
2,000 people in our organization," he said.

And while the people hired by the company aren't guaranteed to be 
bilingual, the vehicles they use will be.

All new buses will be soon be equipped with a system that 
automatically calls out major stops in both French and English, 
Mercier said.





Herb Brannon