As Brian points out, Ye Olde Chosun is reporting that the foreigner taxis operated by Seoul are “enjoying popularity among their targeted customers.”
This surprised me, I must say, because only a couple of weeks ago, the Hankyung Shinmun reported that the taxis were a bust — in their first three weeks, they’d been used only 192 times, and most of the 120 taxis employed in the program had picked up maybe one or two passengers in that time. The Hankyung cited a lack of promotion for the poor results.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
If it’s from the local media, you gotta believe it to be 100% accurate!
Has anyone seen one of these? I haven’t spotted one yet~
Yup. Few and far between, but I’ve seen a couple. I sure wouldn’t want to pay more to ride in one.
You’re paying extra for the conversation. Where you prum? Engrishee teachuh?
You buy me lady drink!
Amazing, these koreans, the things they will do to try and impress westerners. I wish they had foreign taxis here in the U.S., — I can use the special treatment once in a while– but wait no need, alot of our tax drivers already come in multitudinous immigrant flavors.
Do the cabbies wear special”Best Foreigner Driver” uniforms to distinguish themselves from the hoi polloi. And are these uniforms padded to protect them from foreigner (namely USFK) violence?
“JW” I wish I could find *any* cab when I visit quite a few cities in the U.S., being that they are hard to find at all, not to mention pay for. Taxis here are so much better and that does impress me.
R Elgin
If you don’t mind paying a little extra, why don’t you carry around a few numbers for 콜택시? Especially in NYC, there are plenty of lightning quick chinese and korean taxi services waiting to appear at a moment’s notice.
Yes, if you call a taxi after 10 p.m. in any major city, the odds are that it would be a Korean answering. On New Year’s Eve, I was partying on the deep south side of the city, which is dangerous and residential, so there were NO taxis there! I googled Chicago and Call Taxi, and much to my surprise, the first 3 who picked up answered in Korean! I was too drunk for the first call and hung up, thought I was hallucinating that I was back in Seoul for the second, and finally arranged for a taxi on the third try. Haha.
Not in Hong Kong
Sorry, I’m applying my “where I live now is the center of the universe” mentality. any major U.S. city. Last time I checked, there weren’t too many Korean taxi drivers in Mauritania.
Yes, now that you qualify “major city” it does make more sense. In Kuala Lumpur, they don’t have Korean taxi drivers either, instead they have lots of Cantonese drivers…
“Last time I checked, there weren’t too many Korean taxi drivers in Mauritania.”
You’ve actually checked ?
There are a lot of Pakistani and wherever Muslim immigrants to Korea these days. I bet it won’t be far off for some of them to tumble to the fact that they speak English much better than any Korean cabbie, and decide to (try to) get into the taxi racket aiming for foreign guests.
Wow, didn’t know that. I wonder how much they make…
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