An open letter to the taxi drivers of Gwangju, South Korea

Attention all taxi drivers:

Lately, I have been experiencing some incredibly rude, childish and immature behaviour on the part of several of you who I have hired to take me to work. My expectation when I enter a taxi is that you will bring me to my final destination and give me the respect that any normal human being deserves, and if I specify any particular roads, that you take them as long as the turn that I give you is not illegal. In return, it is reasonable to expect that I pay you the money that the meter indicates that I owe you. Therefore, I would like the following behaviours, which I have been on the receiving end of several times, to cease, effective immediately:

1. Complaining, chewing me out, insulting me or otherwise being a pain about where I want to go or the directions that I ask you to take. First of all, the second you start the meter, you're on my time. I don't give half a rat's ass where YOU want the intended destination to be; go there on your own time. As long as that meter is displaying any amount other than zero, you have entered into a business agreement with me in which you take me all the way to my intended destination, and you get paid in proportion to how far you drove. Any deviation from that on your part is breaking your end of the bargain, and spending the entire drive bitching and moaning about where you have to take me is not only unprofessional but incredibly rude. The intended destination and the way to get there is as non-negotiable as the fare; if you want to complain to my face about the destination and start shouting put-downs at me, then I have every right to complain to your face about the lousy service I'm getting and to tell you to shut the hell up and to stop acting like a baby. By becoming a taxi driver, unless you are a complete idiot, you should have assumed that your job would be to take people to where THEY want to go, not just destinations that are close to some place where you can easily stop and pick up a snack or something. Also, just looking at me, you can easily tell that I am not Korean, so the fact that I am making an effort to speak in your language should be met with far more respect than whining and insulting me. I'm not asking for worship or to be "above you;" I'm just asking that you do not talk down to me. In addition to this, I have not been in the city for years and years and years, so it is ridiculous to expect that I know 50 bazillion ways to go between my apartment and work (not to mention there aren't that many ways to and from work to begin with). I am a human being, not a dog turd that you scraped off your shoe; I expect to be treated like the former rather than the latter. The way you have been treating me is acting like you're doing me a favour and getting no compensation for it. If that's what you really want -- if you want it to be you just doing me a favour and you getting nothing in return or if you want the destination to be where you want to go instead of where I want to go, then don't bother starting the meter or asking me for money at the end. I'm starting to wonder if you act this way towards other Koreans ...

2. Trying to dump me off before my intended destination when I am telling you to go the whole way. I am paying you to go all the way to the end. In addition to that, my leg is injured, as you can clearly see by the fact that I am walking around on crutches. I can understand if you think that it is the intended destination, but the obvious eagerness to get rid of me is incredibly rude. If I were doing something like kicking your seat the whole way or loudly singing the song that gets on everybody's nerves or if I smelled like a foot, I'd be a bit more lenient with this, but considering that I shower and that unless I'm drunk (which is never true when I'm on my way to or from work, which has been the case almost every time this has happened), I'm generally well-behaved in the taxi, so there is no excuse for this.

3. Taking wrong turns/turning early/turning late when I'm giving you instructions in Korean or completely ignoring my directions altogether. Stop assuming that I "meant" the other direction. I know "left" and "right" in Korean, and I am telling you "left" and "right" in Korean. If I did not know them, I'd just say them in English and hope for the best. To assume I meant the other direction seems like a thinly-veiled excuse to just go wherever you want instead. Also, the world is not Windows Vista. I should not be asked to confirm over and over whether "left" or "right" is actually the direction that I want to go. The fact that I have to confirm about 10 times whether or not what I said is indeed which direction that I want to go has caused lots of missed turns, leading to me getting lost. In addition to that, unless I had specified it before, when I say "turn left/right," I mean "turn left/right here," not "turn left/right whenever the hell you feel like it, whether it's one street past where I want to go or somewhere a couple of hours down the road." Once again, I refer you to the fact that by starting the meter, you are on my time, and you are to go wherever I want you to go. I am not hiring you guys to drive me to some random place and leave me there. I am hiring you to drive me to a specific destination of my choosing. I am very particular about where I want to end up, and I should be because that's the entire reason why I'm paying you to drive, and if you are not willing to live up to your end of the deal, it is unreasonable to expect me to live up to my end of the deal.

If you don't like the idea of driving people to where they want to go, you should not have become taxi drivers, as the job description is to bring taxi drivers to their respective destinations. When I am spending money on a taxi, I am paying for a drive to where I want to go. I am NOT paying for a situation where I'm constantly belittled and otherwise treated like garbage all because of some whiny, immature driver who doesn't like the fact that he has to drive me to work instead of somewhere he wants to go. If I was that desperate for more belittling and more insults, I would encourage my students to tell MORE fat jokes instead of discouraging them altogether. If you want to go there, go there in your own car, and don't ask me to pay you to take me to someplace other than where I want to go. The fact that you're acting this way towards me is ridiculous and babyish, and if you're not going to show me even a basic level of respect, why should I show you any respect? The terms of the agreement that you're entering into by starting the meter are that you bring me to wherever I want to go, and in return, I pay you. If you don't like those terms, then by all means, feel free to not start the meter. I wouldn't mind a little complaining if the ride was completely free. However, the fact that I am paying for it means that I should not be having to take crap from some stranger. To those of you who are not engaging in such immature behaviour, thank you for your services and your politeness. However, for those of you who are, listen up, and listen well: you have no right to treat me the way you have been treating me. You are not doing me an uncompensated favour. Stop acting like you are.

Sincerely,
Shintarou Inuzuka