NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm not really sure if it gets much worse than this...
Goin Shoppin (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,250604,00.html)

holy crap! that's terrible, poor woman :(

that is terrifying. :eek: *refuses to use public transportation*

Can you imagine how confused she would be. Damn. Then she's arrested and sent away and no one will talk to her. My only question is...why didn't she ever pick up any other languages?

that is terrifying. :eek: *refuses to use public transportation*

but you can read, and speak...

but you can read, and speak...

I can only read 5 languages and speak 4.... it's still a big risk.

I'm not really sure if it gets much worse than this...
Goin Shoppin (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,250604,00.html)

Holy shit, man.

I can only read 5 languages and speak 4.... it's still a big risk.

lol, well i've only used public transport in europe and english speaking countries. but i don't speak german and i got on fine there. i know public transport is desperately underfunded and inadequate in the US but it really doesn't have to be. it's really not hard to get a decent network going, if my dad can manage it anyone can! most decent networks provide really intuitive schematic maps so all you need to know is the name of your start and end points.

i only end up on the wrong side of Sydney when i did that

Can you imagine how confused she would be. Damn. Then she's arrested and sent away and no one will talk to her. My only question is...why didn't she ever pick up any other languages?

well many people's mobility within and between communities was very limited until quite recently, particularly in regions where communication networks are rather under-developed and prone to frequent shut-downs by weather and earth movements. older people like this lady who have been used to surviving quite sufficiently within their own communities for most of their lives will unlikely feel any need to leave those communities even when communications are improved. so there is little compulsion for them to learn any other languages or dialects besides their own, particularly if they are illiterate anyway.

Call Tom Hanks, we have a sequel to The Terminal...

Man alive that sucks and is really really weird.

Wonder what the first thing that poor woman did when she got back home was...
Personally I would go straight to bed.

:eek:

I'm not really sure if it gets much worse than this...
Goin Shoppin (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,250604,00.html)

God!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's so unfair...

Can you imagine how confused she would be. Damn. Then she's arrested and sent away and no one will talk to her. My only question is...why didn't she ever pick up any other languages?

Because she's from a third world country and education sucks there?

This makes me think of 'Bring him home' from Les Miserables.

This makes me think of 'Bring him home' from Les Miserables.
I was thinking of Charlie on the MTA...

The best sight I've ever come across while traveling, was when I got off a train in Bhatinda, Punjab. There was a driver standing on the platform, holding a sign with my name on it.

I for one am very happy for her and her family to be reunited after such a long time. I'm simply very glad and thankful that her involuntary exile has ended after such a long time and she is now able to take her children into her arms again.

Sometimes, it takes a long, long time - but in the end, things turn out well.

That is the essence that I take from this story, and that gives me tremendous hope.

I for one am very happy for her and her family to be reunited after such a long time. I'm simply very glad and thankful that her involuntary exile has ended after such a long time and she is now able to take her children into her arms again.

Sometimes, it takes a long, long time - but in the end, things turn out well.

That is the essence that I take from this story, and that gives me tremendous hope.

i don't think i can even begin to comprehend the elation she must have felt to finally see her family again. what an ordeal though!

Ouch... I've had a few times of getting on the wrong train or wrong stop due to not being able to read some kanji, but nothing even close to that.

well many people's mobility within and between communities was very limited until quite recently, particularly in regions where communication networks are rather under-developed and prone to frequent shut-downs by weather and earth movements. older people like this lady who have been used to surviving quite sufficiently within their own communities for most of their lives will unlikely feel any need to leave those communities even when communications are improved. so there is little compulsion for them to learn any other languages or dialects besides their own, particularly if they are illiterate anyway.

so you are in another country for 30 something years and you don't really even try to pick up the language, I mean come on uncivilized tribes in the deep heart of Africa and south America have learned to pick up other languages, and even some chimps have learned sign language.

Personally I think she was trying to get away from the 8 children she had to take care of.

so you are in another country for 30 something years and you don't really even try to pick up the language, I mean come on uncivilized tribes in the deep heart of Africa and south America have learned to pick up other languages, and even some chimps have learned sign language.

Personally I think she was trying to get away from the 8 children she had to take care of.

well the article said that she was utterly intimidated by the bustle of the city, as one might well be if you'd spent your entire 50 odd years in a small isolated village. the first five years of her wandering were spent as a beggar, no-one speaks to beggars. once arrested officials could not identify her language and so did not speak to her. at this point she was obviously still entirely intimidated as the article says she did not speak more than mutterings. it's likely she'd have developed some sort of mental illness by that point as well, considering her age and clear inability to comprehend or deal with her situation.

edit: and uncivilised is the wrong word. what you mean is pre-literate.

I was thinking of Charlie on the MTA...

The best sight I've ever come across while traveling, was when I got off a train in Bhatinda, Punjab. There was a driver standing on the platform, holding a sign with my name on it.

Good ole Charlie. :)

Ouch... I've had a few times of getting on the wrong train or wrong stop due to not being able to read some kanji, but nothing even close to that.

The worst was catching the wrong train on the wrong line. It was the last train and I didn't have the cash for a taxi (this being the pre-konbini ATM days), so I ended up having to walk home from a strange station. I was lucky - it only took three hours.

well the article said that she was utterly intimidated by the bustle of the city, as one might well be if you'd spent your entire 50 odd years in a small isolated village. the first five years of her wandering were spent as a beggar, no-one speaks to beggars. once arrested officials could not identify her language and so did not speak to her. at this point she was obviously still entirely intimidated as the article says she did not speak more than mutterings. it's likely she'd have developed some sort of mental illness by that point as well, considering her age and clear inability to comprehend or deal with her situation.

edit: and uncivilised is the wrong word. what you mean is pre-literate.

Indeed I suspect some sort of mental illness.

The worst was catching the wrong train on the wrong line. It was the last train and I didn't have the cash for a taxi (this being the pre-konbini ATM days), so I ended up having to walk home from a strange station. I was lucky - it only took three hours.


Ah yes. We used to have some ladies in the travel office that would print out the trains in Kanji for us. It's amazing how much the handwritten Kanji for nishi-Atsugi can look like the printed Kanji for Atsugi. Fortunately, I did have money for a cab and it wasn't a long ride.

so you are in another country for 30 something years and you don't really even try to pick up the language, I mean come on uncivilized tribes in the deep heart of Africa and south America have learned to pick up other languages, and even some chimps have learned sign language.

Personally I think she was trying to get away from the 8 children she had to take care of.

that's what I'm saying. Something doesn't fit right. You don't have to be educated to pick up a language. You just have to hear it continuously and make an attempt. Weird.

I'm not really sure if it gets much worse than this...


Gosh. And I thought that Paris Metro maps are over-complicated...

Then again, it's Faux News.

The worst was catching the wrong train on the wrong line. It was the last train and I didn't have the cash for a taxi (this being the pre-konbini ATM days), so I ended up having to walk home from a strange station. I was lucky - it only took three hours.
My fav close call didn't end with me on the wrong train, but with a heavily armed police escort to a Tokyo Metro station. I'm still not sure if the policeman was just being nice and fullfiling a traditional police duty in helping lost people or if he really just wanted to get the large American with the overly large backback to stop walking in circles around the Prime Minister's Official Residence.

that's what I'm saying. Something doesn't fit right. You don't have to be educated to pick up a language. You just have to hear it continuously and make an attempt. Weird.
You forget though, communication is a two way street that needs two people. If everyone around her had decided that she was crazy and mumbling, they may have stopped talking to her.

I can only read 5 languages and speak 4.... it's still a big risk.

which is 4 languages read and 3 spoken more than me. somehow, tho. I doubt that would happen to you while you're in the American Heartland. :fluffle:

IF it does, drop me an e-mail and i'll come pick you up.