Mistake/Wrong

I was in a cab last night and had yet another amazing conversation with my cab driver. This happens to me all the time. I have written about it before. There was the Bangladeshi man who opened up to me all of his excitement about the marriage that had been arranged for him by his mother and how excited he was to go back to Bangladesh and meet his wife. There was the Armenian man who talked to me about his homeland (and I said, from the backseat, “What are your feelings on Mount Ararat?” and he was like, “Wow. You know a lot about Armenia…” hahahaha) and how much he loved his homeland, and then, when he dropped me off – got out of the cab to give me a huge hug. There was the Iranian man who – I have no idea how (well, of course I have an idea – it was ME who started it because I can’t help myself) – started talking to me about Iran’s relations with America, and we talked about oil, and I, because I am crazy, brought up “1953 and Mossadegh” and he literally stopped in mid-sentence, looked at me through the rear view mirror and tears had flooded his eyes. I wonder if he thought I was a CIA operative. He said, “Nobody here knows about Mossadegh.” It would be like me being in Kazakhstan and having some cab driver know all about Alexander Hamilton. I replied, “Well, I’m not nobody. I know everything.” The cabbie then told me all about “old Mossy” and I was in heaven.

Last night, the cab driver, out of nowhere, began opening up his problems to me about the English courses he was taking. He is from Egypt and he has been in America for three years. He is a high school biology teacher – or was, in Egypt – but now, because of the language and other things – he drives a cab in America. He is working hard to improve his English so he can try to get a job teaching biology again. I told him I thought his English was pretty damn good, but he shook his head sadly. Then began a very interesting conversation about learning a new language – and how difficult it was to learn English, in particular. He said, “The problem is is that I still have to translate. When you are talking to me, I still have to translate what you say into Arabic and then back into English in my head – and by that point you have already spoken too much and I am way far behind.” I told him it was that way when I tried to speak French to a French person. I am translating everything. It takes way too long.

He said, “The hard thing about English is that you have so many words that mean the same thing, but you don’t use in same way.”

I love this crap. “Like what?” I asked. “What words?”

He said, “Okay. Like ‘mistake’ and ‘wrong’. They kind of mean the same thing – but I get them mixed up – and instead of saying ‘I make mistake’ I keep saying ‘I make wrong’.”

“Ohh, okay, I get it.”

“You know what I mean?”

“Interesting, because if you said to me, ‘I make wrong’ – I would know what you were saying, English is flexible that way – but you’re right – the correct term is ‘mistake’.”

“And there is so much in English that is like that. The other thing is that in Arabic, there is nothing that is silent. You speak all letters. In English, you have all these letters that are supposed to be silent – silent e, silent g …”

“Oh man. I know. I can’t even imagine trying to learn all that stuff if I spoke another language.”

“Then there are also things like – ‘Manhattan'” – (and he said it in a New York accent – where the double-T is silent – so it comes out like Manha-in. Very good imitation. I burst out laughing. He did too.) He said, “What is that? “Manha-in! Where did the Ts go??”

I said, “Well, that one you don’t have to worry about. ‘Manha-in’ is an accent – a regionalism – the Ts are supposed to be there, so you’re safe with that one.”

I asked, “Are you enjoying the classes?”

“Yes! I just have no time to study! I have to cram it in whenever I can.”

Immigrants. God bless them.

The entire cab ride ended when he pulled up on my street, and, I am not kidding, I sat there and conjugated a verb for him. He had mentioned being confused about tenses – and hell, I get confused about tenses – but along with everything else I have been doing, I have been continuing my independent study of Latin, and I’m re-learning all those old rules. So there we were, at 11:30 at night, with rain on the cab window, and I conjugated “Love” for him, and he took notes, making a little chart on a pad of paper.

When I got out of the car, I said, “Have a good rest of your shift. Hope you don’t make any wrongs.” and he burst into laughter.

I love people.

I have so much to pray for, so many people to keep in mind … but I will make sure to pray for that Egyptian cab driver, that someday soon he is back in a high school classroom, teaching kids how to dissect a frog. That’s obviously where he should be.

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11 Responses to Mistake/Wrong

  1. Betsy says:

    Lovely

  2. Reba says:

    My mother is like that: other passengers just gravitate towards her on planes and buses, she gets stopped by people when she’s out walking the dog. It’s become a bit of a family joke, but we’re all a little jealous. Samuel Johnson says something about the value of spontaneous friendship…
    Anyway, I was thinking of you because the Guardian Writers’ Room column featured Nicholas Mosley yesterday. I’m glad I stopped by to read that entry!

  3. nina says:

    I love this so much. Made my morning.

  4. Melissa169a says:

    God, I miss NYC! I now live across the river, 15 minutes away, come to the city often, but since learning to drive at 47, I am terrified of getting into a cab. For 28 years, each and every time I left my midtown west building, my arm would swing up automatically in that gesture that means only one thing: “Please come pick me up and we’ll have fun talking and I’ll tip you, I promise!”

    Loved this piece and it brought back the best years of my life. Thank you.

  5. ted says:

    Superb post, Sheila.

  6. De says:

    I have tears. Beautiful.

  7. Alli says:

    I wish I lived in a big city! I’ve never even been in a cab.

  8. just1beth says:

    Beautiful. You even got a cabbie to turn up Neil Diamond once,too!!

  9. red says:

    Beth – best cab ride in the entire history of cab rides.

  10. Alex says:

    I love this. The funny thing is, I use words all the time that are grammatically incorrect. I remember being chastised once on my Blog for using the word “Literally” by a reader when something I was describing wasn’t “literal”.

    You know what?

    I don’t care.

    That’s the way I speak. And if you Literally can’t understand me because you need Literal translation, then you can Literally bite me.

    (By the way….I banned that guy.)

  11. red says:

    Oh Alex, don’t even get me started on the “it’s not really LITERAL” snots. I use “literally” when I mean “metaphorically” because I think it is funnier to say “My head LITERALLY burst into flames.”

    I ban anyone who consistently doesn’t get my humor.

    I have no problem with that. Drips. All of ’em.

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