This tattooed ah pek walked up to me randomly in Dhoby Ghaut station and asked me in hokkien, 'how do i go to sengkang?' 'take the train there' i replied. He answered in hokkien again' wa mm zai' so i told him that i would bring him to the train platform that has the train that goes to sengkang.
This ah pek couldnt understand english at all. He had no idea when to alight the train. And the thing is i would be alighting at Kovan, 3 stops before his destination. How was i going to direct him i thought to myself. So like a very thoughtful nice teenager, i begun asking the people around if anyone would be alighting at sengkang as well, and if they could help the ah pek. No one. Moreover, the language barrier was not making it any easier for me to explain things to him. I wanted to helped him, but on the other hand i had to go home already. The far easier option obviously would be for me to take the train with him to SengKang and then coming back to Kovan. But it was going to be wayy beyond my reach home time.
So i asked the young man beside me to explain to him everything in hokkien. See if he could help. And sure it did! The ahpek finally got it.
BUT the thing is i wasnt able to help this ah pek. Things would be much easier had been more fluent in hokkien.
Hope the ah pek saw some sincerity in my willingness to help. That alone would be good enough to make my day.
Although looking at the sweaty back earlier in the day already made my day. LOL.
This ah pek couldnt understand english at all. He had no idea when to alight the train. And the thing is i would be alighting at Kovan, 3 stops before his destination. How was i going to direct him i thought to myself. So like a very thoughtful nice teenager, i begun asking the people around if anyone would be alighting at sengkang as well, and if they could help the ah pek. No one. Moreover, the language barrier was not making it any easier for me to explain things to him. I wanted to helped him, but on the other hand i had to go home already. The far easier option obviously would be for me to take the train with him to SengKang and then coming back to Kovan. But it was going to be wayy beyond my reach home time.
So i asked the young man beside me to explain to him everything in hokkien. See if he could help. And sure it did! The ahpek finally got it.
BUT the thing is i wasnt able to help this ah pek. Things would be much easier had been more fluent in hokkien.
Hope the ah pek saw some sincerity in my willingness to help. That alone would be good enough to make my day.
Although looking at the sweaty back earlier in the day already made my day. LOL.