26 June 2009

the bilingual bus

Last couple of days brings a new addition to the bus announcement system - a male voice providing information in Spanish. The lady voice that announces the next stop and route transfers still vocalizes. The new, bilingual announcements seem to include more topical items. For example, on July 1, rates increase on the buses and light rail and that seems to be the current announcement focus. Interestingly, the English and Spanish versions don't come back-to-back. I heard the Spanish version at least 3 times before ever hearing it in English. One time, I heard the words "Valley Metro" in the middle of the Spanish announcement and never heard those words in, what I presumed to be, the English counterpart. Since my Spanish vocabulary is almost non-existent, the conspiracy theorist in me wants to know why I didn't hear valley metro in both languages? What did I miss?

Informational signs posted on the buses have always been in both languages and it never made sense that the lady voice info came only in English. Oh well, something for me to ponder and, maybe, I can sharpen my ear and learn a bit more Spanish. Riding the bus really does offer a variety of educational opportunities.

4 comments:

cogidubnus said...

Come back M....all is forgiven...

PS How was England?

Anonymous said...

Are you still riding? It's been a long time now.

cogidubnus said...

Bye Bye M...'m kind of sad to lose you this way...

Busboy said...

I don't know how it is we're losing you, but I'm sad, too. Best of luck.