Subway Adventures: Was that Me?
I’ve just created a new category, “Subway Adventures,” and I’ve tagged a few posts with it. Today I had a very minor incident in the subway which seems blogworthy. Koreans stand in orderly lines when they wait for the subay. The train comes in, and inevitably little old people will go right up the middle, between the lines, and enter the trains first. I never stop them, or middle aged people, either, but today a uniformed student of about, maybe 14, did that. Suddenly, my hand reached out and grabbed the hook of his backpack! His legs moved, but he didn’t go anywhere. Then I pulled him back quite smoothly, shook my head at him, and then boarded the train first! Usually, I’m Mr. Nice Guy, but for that one moment something got the better of me. I didn’t say anything, and except for a two or three syllable word that I didn’t quite catch, the student didn’t either.
I felt ever so slightly bad about it, so I confessed to my Tuesday/Thursday morning class. To my relief, they thought that the story I told and mimed for them was hilarious!
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Tuesday, March 28th, 2006 @ 12:03 pm
Good on you Nathan. Have to teach these young people a lesson! I would have done just the same and probably would have felt a bit bad, but only for a second!
Tuesday, March 28th, 2006 @ 6:40 pm
Nathan,
I’ve done the same thing in Tokyo a few times.
However, You should see how the Chinese form a line! I don’t think they’ve been taught how to line up to get into a train. It can be a pretty awful site. Same goes for boarding buses.
Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 @ 7:33 am
The sad thing is that he won’t have learned anything. If he thought about it at all, he would just be left shaking his head that some weird foreigner pulled/pushed him out of the way so that the foreigner could get on the subway first – just reinforcing his belief that foreigners have no manners. But, I’ve been there too, Nathan. Your big test will be when the offender is the same height and weight as you.
Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 @ 8:23 am
I like to through an elbow on my way out of the subway when people inevitably try to get on before anyone has even left the car.
Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 @ 2:04 pm
I’m with sumiyoshipilgrim! I’ve taken to exiting the subway like I have the biggest arms in the world: elbows out professional weight-lifter style.
Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 @ 11:20 pm
Gentlemen, I’m glad I’m not alone!
Tuesday, April 4th, 2006 @ 7:53 am
It must have been a bit awkward. Had you been your age (or preferably a bit older) and Korean, everyone would have understood—not so much that you were trying to teach him some manners, but that you were asserting your prerogative as his senior to get on first! No doubt some middle-aged or elderly people who saw you understood your intention. But to the student—and possibly to some other silly whippersnappers, sadly you might have just came across as a rude foreigner (as Wanderer28 mentioned). Had I done what you did (not that I would have had the guts to), I would have wanted to an explanation in Korean (like, “Learn some manners!” or if I were a native Korean ajeossi or harabeoji, “Show some respect to your elders!”), but since off the top of my head I can’t think of the words for “manners” or “respect” that wouldn’t have worked out anyhow…. (end rambling mode).
Tuesday, April 4th, 2006 @ 7:58 am
…Maybe something like, 안 기다리고 먼저 타? (Which I’m sure is not idiomatic, despite my best intentions): “You get on first without waiting!?” Or to end the sentence politely (!), 안 기다리고 먼저 타요?
…But I’d want to make sure first that three of his 동창 (classmate) buddies weren’t just behind him!