Bob's Angry Rants

Last night I was riding BART (our local mass-transit train) home from school and had one of the strangest announcers I've heard in a while. When you ride the train all the time, you become familiar with the various conductors and their personalities. I was riding the train at a different time that evening, though, and this one was new to me. She seemed to lack basic understanding of two important things.

First, she didn't really seem to understand how the PA worked. I say this because whenever she would announce something, she would yell at the top of her lungs as if she needed to make sure that everyone in the back could hear her. Regardless of her reasons, I must say that having somebody yell at you through a PA system is quite unpleasant.

The second thing that she didn't seem to have a grasp of was the English language. Now, I'm not one to advocate for making English an official language or anything like that, but in a job where you need to announce information to large numbers of people, it would seem like a pretty essential skill. And to be clear, it isn't just that this woman had a thick accent. No, she didn't even seem to have a basic understanding of the language. She was supposed to say "Dublin/Pleasanton train." What she screamed into the PA system was "DUBIPLET... DOUBLEPLEATON... DOOPLETANO!!!!!" Then, enigmatically about halfway between the Embarcadero and West Oakland stops, she screamed "TACO BELLLLL!!!!" She probably was trying to say something else, but it sure seemed to me like she was really excited about the new "x-treme gorditachanga grande" or whatever it is they're pushing over there.

Now, while I know that it is pretty rude and crass to laugh at an immigrant struggling with the language, I did it regardless. It was just so bizarre and surreal. Also, I can be pretty rude and crass at times, anyway. It certainly lightened my mood after a long day. So, non-English speaking, screaming BART conductor, I salute you for brightening my day. Kudos to you!