The Bus Driver Who Spoke Multiple Dialects

The ins and outs of the world here, translated…

It’s a good thing, that I don’t know how to drive, one of the perks being, becoming an “Expert Bus-Rider”.

When I received an invitation to teach, so long as I’m able to get there by public transportation, I’d signed on. Because, isn’t this, the dream “work-vacate program”? Being paid, and getting the opportunities to venture out, I’m so happy!

illustration from the papers online…

I’d carried the mindset of journeying, and so, as I planned out the routes, I’d, found the passages that has beautiful sights for me to see, the roads without that much traffic. For instance, from Taichung to Guguan, I can pass through the city of Fengyuan, into Dongshi, but I’d enjoyed the route that took me pass the New Sheshan Community, then turned toward Dongshi.

This path, so long as it’s not the flower seasons, it’d usually, quiet. And, as I rode to the mountain passes, with a bit altitude, my eyes were satisfied, so was, my nose, and even my ears, got their share of enjoyments as well. The bus slowly around the path, the echoes of the engine resonated all around, so, I’d not enjoyed the sounds of nature, but instead, the conversations of the driver and the passengers.

I got on in the metropolis of Taichung, the driver greeted the serviceman in Mandarin; as the bus started climbing uphill in Shinshe, the driver chatted it up in Taiwanese with the elderly farmers; after the driver turned toward Dongshi, he’d started using the Hakka dialect, to greet the elderly woman who went shopping; and, as we’d turned over Tienlen, the driver greeted the elderly man in the native tongues.

This is, the variations of dialects I wouldn’t get the chance of experiencing, if I were, driving myself! It’s, a good thing, we have, the busses to ride on!

Because the bus pass throughout the various regions of the city, that is why, there are, the multiple dialects, which is why this driver must be, fluent in an assortment of tongues and dialects, and this added to the passengers’ enjoyment of taking the busses, seeing how the driver interacts with everybody who gets on and off the busses.