Taxi Driver History Lesson
The following is a conversation I had with the hotel taxi driver on Monday morning in Manila. I was surreptitiously making notes throughout so I know I got it down pretty much word for word!
Taxi Driver
Me
“Where are you from?”
“London.. England.”
“Are they the same country?”
“London is the capital of England.”
“But what about France?”
“Sorry?”
“Are England and France the same country?”
“Er.. no, they are different countries but close by.”
“I see. So do they speak English in France?”
“No, they speak French.”
“Really? That is interesting. But they speak English in America – why is that?”
“Because the people who colonised America were English.”
“And the Americans had slaves in London.”
(losing it slightly) “Come again?”
“I know this from history lessons. Americans had slaves in London.”
“Er.. actually they had African slaves in America.”
“Ah yes. Black people. I know that. But the English went to America because they were slaves?”
“No… er…some of them weren’t allowed to practice their religion though so that’s why they went.”
“I see. And what religion do you have in England?”
“Anglicans mainly.”
“I’ve never heard of that. Anyway, why does the King of Brunei bow to the English queen?”
“Sorry?” (reeling from the non sequitur)
“The King of Brunei comes to London to bow to the queen. I saw it on TV.”
“I don’t think so…”
“But isn’t the English queen the most important one in the world?”
(scrabbling) “Well we used to have an Empire… there’s the Commonwealth and kings sometimes attend meetings for that I think.”
“Yes, I see. And the queen is the grand-daughter of King Arthur.”
“Well there wasn’t actually a real King Arthur, it’s a legend.”
“What??! No King Arthur? What do you mean?”
(feeling bad) “Well there might have been one, but no-one really knows.”
“So who is the queen’s grand father?”
“Er.. I dunno.. some other king.”
“So King Arthur is not real… but the musketeers were real? They worked for the king?”
(clutching at straws) “Well kind of, it was based on real people.”
“So the musketeers worked for the English king.”
“No, the French one.”
“What? They were not English?”
“No. French.”
“And the English and the French are fighting?”
“They used to. Not recently. More recently we all fought the Germans, for a change.”
“Ah yes of course I know that. I watch “Combat” – the allied forces are always fighting in that. It is good you know history – not all guests know history like you.”
Jo 11 July 2007
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