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Taipei cab drivers brushing up their linguistic skills

A taxi displays a sticker awarded to a driver who completed an English proficiency test in Taipei last week. PHOTO: MO YAN-CHIH, TAIPEI TIMES

Taxi drivers in Taiwan are often described in travel guides or other sources of information for foreigners as a group which does not speak English. Foreign visitors are usually advised to write down their destination or hotel name in Chinese before taking a cab.

The hassle of preparing a Chinese note, however, is rendered redundant if visitors hail a taxi that belongs to the English Taxi Drivers Association (ETA), whose members have passed English proficiency tests held by the Taipei City Government.

"We hope that the association will help our foreign friends who don't speak Chinese to find transportation without any language barriers," ETA general-director Tony Jiang (江仙舟) told the Taipei Times.

Established in 2002, the association has attracted more than 130 members who have all attended the English-language training program for taxi drivers provided by the Taipei City Drivers' Training Center in Neihu District.

The program, launched in 2001, with the goal of getting all of Taipei's cab drivers to speak English, requires participants to complete 14 hours of courses and then pass a speaking test before they receive a certificate and a sticker that reads "Yes, I speak English," which they can display prominently on their cabs for easy identification.

"Many passengers become my loyal customers because I speak their languages."

Benny Wang, multilingual Taipei taxi driver

According to the training center, more than 1,000 drivers have been awarded the certificate since the launch of the program. Although the city government has considered allowing certified drivers to charge foreign passengers 10 to 20 percent higher fares, the proposal has not yet been put into effect.

ETA member Benny Wang (王強), who speaks English, Japanese and Spanish, thanks to previous work experience in a number of different countries, said that having foreign-language skills is a great advantage for taxi drivers.

"Many passengers become my loyal customers because I speak their languages. They even bring me new customers by telling their friends about my service," he said.

Wang said more than half of his business comes from loyal customers, who are either foreign business people or visitors.

While many taxi drivers complain about driving around without customers, Wang's linguistic skills have helped keep his business steady.

But not all ETA members have found their foreign language-speaking ability helpful to their business, and many blamed this on the city government.

"People who need the English service don't know how to find us. The association is a civil group and does not have any budget for promotion. The city's transportation department should give us a hand," ETA president Simon Chen (陳枝方) said.

Chen said the transportation department, fearful of complaints from other taxi drivers, did not grant certified drivers exclusive right to wait for passengers in places with many foreigners, such as hotels or airports. He also claimed it failed to help promote the English-speaking taxi services to foreign visitors.

"We were excited about the program when we joined it, hoping our English language ability would help our business. But the results have been disappointing," Chen said.

Jiang suggested that the department should establish an English taxi locating system for foreign visitors to enable them to find the service easily.

Although frustrated with the city government's limited assistance, most of the ETA members are still proud of their language skills and continue their efforts to improve their English to provide foreign customers with better service.

In addition to attending English courses or English-speaking clubs, Jiang said the drivers often speak English with each other as daily practice, and some even read English newspapers everyday.

"A teacher from Taipei American School took my cab and was very surprised that I spoke English. She said next time she would take my taxi again. These experiences are always rewarding," said ETA member Cherry Lin (林櫻桃), who also speaks fluent Japanese.

Steve Wang (王三郎) said this group of taxi drivers were working hard to break down the stereotype of taxi drivers being rude and speaking no foreign languages.

"If the government doesn't make some effort to reward these drivers with a better training and management policy, few drivers will bother joining the program in the future," he added.
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