Woman at city stop: “A Chinese boy at the back of the tram needs to get to Longview Road in North Balwyn. I think it’s near the end of the line.”
Me: “Okay.” *makes mental note to research Longview Road on phone at terminus*
Chinese boy at end of line: *wanders around stop aimlessly*
Me: “Are you looking for Longview Road?”
Chinese boy: *nods*
Me: *researches Longview Road on phone*
Me: “Longview Road is two stops back. If you jump back on the tram I can take you there. It will be on the right when you get off.”
Chinese boy: *nods*
Chinese boy: *walks down stop and looks at a pole, with clearly no intent to get back on the tram*
Me: 「朗维尤路是两个站的距离。跟我来，如果你喜欢。」
Chinese boy: *emphatic grunt of sudden realisation and understanding*
Chinese boy: *gets back on the tram*
I believe this belongs on notalwaysright.com.
Yeah, I suppose I have rather heavily plagiarised their format here. 😛
I didn’t know you spoke Chinese!
How’s tram driving treating you?
Yeah, it’s treating me well enough. It’s nice not to have to worry about work when you’re not there. The whole cars-being-totally-ignorant thing does kinda grate at times though, especially when people are almost severely injured as a result.
Hoping to transfer soon, too. Currently on 109s and 48s, but wouldn’t mind moving over to Southbank and doing the 96s and City Circles.
96: my personal favourite.
Since when do you speak Mandarin?
Google’s translation app can speak the results.. Maybe that’s it?
Hahahaha…that’s my boy! You tell ’em! ;P
Did you flash your phone screen at the young man?
Okay, fine—the above transcript does omit a minor detail. My Chinese stint was really me plugging text into Google Translate on my phone’s browser and then showing it to the guy. 😛