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Why shouldn't we make a big deal about encouraging immigrants to assimilate. If they want what America has to offer that's great. If thye want to replicate the hellholes they come from that's nor great.
Encouraging is ver different than forcing! I have seen some nasty encounters with people bent out of shape hearing some worker speak Spanish. Nah. Leave people alone, things work out. Control freaks.
The cabby's English was rough and his manners rougher. It wasn't strictly a language problem but imagine if now I try to dictate a cabby's route and he doesn't understand a word I say? And I did bet out of the cab when he was obviously not obeying my instructions.
In New York many people normally walk between destinations that are either too short for subway rides or not amenable to subway travel. For example I was once going from 32nd Street and Park Avenue to Sixth Avenue and 18th Street. I tried to subway it down but the connection to the crosstown "L" train took a long time. On the way back I walked to Grand Central. But if the weather were bad I would have taken a cab.
It may be too late once the door is closed and the meter is running.
I've lived in New York my entire life. Outside of trips from JFK and business-related trips, I've taken a taxi once in my life. Weather is just something muddle through. Perhaps I'm just cheaper... I'll walk in the rain/snow/hurricane before I spend a few dollars on a cab ride.
It might be too late or it might not be. Since it's New York, chances are there's a whole bunch of red lights to get out at. I wouldn't care if the meter already started if it didn't seem like the driver comprehended.
If this actually becomes an issue, people will simply take Uber, as others noted above, where language doesn't matter.
I want learning English to be the next thing to a requirement. Not quite mandatory because of free speech concerns but effectively mandatory. For example why did most penniless immigrants in the early part of the 1900's go to night school to learn English while working by day?
So they can earn more money with more job opportunities? Isn't that the case here too? Cab drivers are encouraged to learn English already. Not having to pass an English proficiency exam doesn't change this. It just allows those who have not mastered the language already to start driving a yellow cab (as opposed to having to drive for Uber).
Nah, I'm addressing the rhetoric of This is the US, everyone should speak English. Which is true enough now, but ignores the facts on the ground in 1492CE, or when the Portuguese, French, Dutch, British, etc. hit the Americas beaches. @ that point, the European languages/cultures were definitely in the minority, & stayed that way for decades, @ least (& they are still minorities in most of Central & South America) - & yet, even then, the Europeans concluded that their relative lack of numbers didn't matter. Why is that? What is the justification for that decision?
On the taxis - I suspect that cab drivers simply don't make a lot of money, relative to other service jobs that people could take. If that's true, & the job is a relatively low-paying, & doesn't require a lot of skills - then the people you get applying are basically entry-level - which means, yes - you're going to get applicants with low language skills in English (likely), who may or may not be good drivers, who may or may not know their way around NYC (or wherever the job is).
It's like the effect of restricting women to nursing & teaching in the US - as long as that true, good nurses & teachers crowded out the ones who weren't proficient, or couldn't fake it. As more & more job sectors opened to women, there isn't as much performance pressure in the traditional jobs as there used to be. Medium & indifferent nurses & teachers can coast more than they used to be able to.
Once again, there was no United States in 1492. If the Oneida tribe of what is currently New York state recognized land ownership and enforced boundaries, then any Dutch or English who wanted to live beside them should've learned their language. But outposts of explorers and forest-dwelling tribes 600 years ago have nothing to do with taxi drivers in 2016.
Taxi driving is low-paying on paper (if you look up statistics based on what their unions report), but if you've ever paid cab fare in NYC you'd know these numbers are off. Compare it to a job we know is low-paying, entry-level, minimum wage: working McDonald's. The McDonald's employee makes the same whether her restaurant is crazy busy or hardly gets any customers. She has no chance for tips. She will not make more at McDonald's locations as opposed to cabbies who earn premium fares at airports. And she cannot manipulate her earnings like cabbies who take circuitous routes to drive up fares. I am convinced this is just to make it easier for low-skilled and likely illegal immigrants to work in our country. Citizens and legal immigrant job seekers be damned.
You don't need to know english to simply drive someone. "Hi, I'm going to 5555 Park Place". Driver plugs in "5555 Park Place" into GPS & off they go. I don't speak french but I'm sure if I was a cab driver in Paris, hearing "5555 Champs Elysees" is the only thing I need to hear & off I drive.
You would think so, but it doesn't always work out that way. I can't remember the exact address so I'll substitute a name, but I told cabbie in New York "123 Apple Street" and he took me to the intersection of 123rd St. and Apple St. He had an accent but appeared English-fluent. He never asked me to repeat myself and gave no indication that my instructions could've been ambiguous.
It sucks, but immigrants are the main people that are willing to deal with the danger of cab driving.
Don't like it? Download the Uber app and stop crying.
Believe it or not everyone doesn't have a smartphone, particularly older people. Why should you have to rely on an app to get around one of the most visited cities in the world? My message to non-English speakers who want to drive cabs in New York is learn English and stop crying.
Believe it or not everyone doesn't have a smartphone, particularly older people. Why should you have to rely on an app to get around one of the most visited cities in the world? My message to non-English speakers who want to drive cabs in New York is learn English and stop crying.
NY's message to you is stop crying and get a smart phone.
NY's message to you is stop crying and get a smart phone.
I have a smartphone, and when I travel to NYC I will be using it to order a ride from Lyft or Uber so the joke's on them.
Funny you've completely ignored all the other massive reasons this is bad....
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