[PRCo] Re: A Great Brussels Museum Video

[Herb Brannon]

On Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 20:18, Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>wrote:
> Thanks to Jack May who alerted me to this item ...
> No it isn't Pittsburgh.   So what.
>
>
> .
>
> The interiors of Brussels cars are easy to pick out.   You will see some
> pictures views of a narrow PCC with do not talk to the motorman signs in two
> languages:  Ne pas parler au Wattman (French) on the left ... and Niet
> ........ sparken on the right (Flemish).   The old rules used to be that if
> you wanted a job driving a bus or a streetcar in Brussels, you had to
> bilingual or you simply were not qualified.   Can you imagine Dallas or New
> York or San Diego or Los Angeles telling bus drivers they need to speak
> Spanish and English if they want to drive bus?   Or the bus drivers serving
> Alhambra (CA) need Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish and English?
>
> Mientras que no es necesario, el conocimiento del español hizo sin duda mi
trabajo conducir el autobús mucho más fácil en Florida y Texas.


[Translated:  While not required, the knowledge of Spanish certainly made my
job driving the bus much easier in both Florida and Texas.]

Being able to converse in Spanish even helped in Cleveland. Knowledge of
English and Spanish in most FL and TX transit systems, now days, does give
one an edge over English-only applicants. Dallas' DART does ask what
alternate languages an applicant speaks/reads/writes, as does Houston Metro,
Austins' Capital Metro, Chicagos' CTA and Philadelphias' SEPTA. So.......it
is not the usual cut and dried unintelligent masses becoming bus/rail
operators as you make it out to seem. Many transit systems do want bilingual
operations employees.

>
> http://www.digitaletramfoto.nl/video/2010/201009/20100919-01.htm
>
> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Brussels_Tramway_Museum
>
>


-- 
Herb Brannon
In Cuyahoga Valley National Park