Why are NYers so sensitive about what visitors call their transport system?
 

I really don't mean to start a skirmish here, but I just read another post where an out-of-towner looking for a NY hotel happened to give the location in regard to a public transportation stop. She/He referred to the location as a "Metro stop". Of course, someone replying had to add the "p.s. NY doesn't have a metro, we have a subway" remark. I find this post script unnecessary and even, off-putting.

Perhaps the OP is from a city where the public transport is in fact, called The Metro. Should they for ever be taken to task for inadvertently referring to NYs system by the same? In casual conversation, one says what one is familiar with. What difference does it make in this case? The excuse that the OP would not be able to get a NYer to understand the reference is obviously incorrect as everyone (including the responder) recognized the reference and responded appropriately with a hotel suggestion.

When do the school teacher corrections stop? If a NYer visits San Francisco or London or DC, would it be generous or kind to constantly correct their references? I was taught that correcting others speech (writing) was an act of rudeness. As ambassadors of our respective cities, I suggest we be a bit more forgiving of our visitors.

Because if you go around asking for things with the wrong name you might end up in the wrong place. There is a rail line called Metro North which goes from NYC to points north.

However, that logic doesn't hold up. Everyone understood perfectly what the poster was asking. Any NYer knows there is no Metro North "stop" at 28th Street. I think you give natives too little credit for being smart enough to interpret such an innocent remark.

While rudeness isn't warranted, I'm thinking along the same lines as vjpblovesitaly.
If you ask many New Yorkers on the street about a "metro stop" you'll get a blank look. And some will try to be helpful and direct you to Grand Central to pick up Metro North. Same as if you ask where you can buy a hoagie or torpedo{sandwich] , where to buy "pop" (soda) or other things that just aren't called that here.


(Actually I think the parenthetical ""p.s. NY doesn't have a metro, we have a subway" was pretty gentle. I object more when someone refuses to answer at all but just corrects something without any other useful information)

All I can add is that DC area residents will correct you if you call their Metro the subway. While correcting people is indeed rude, I would argue that correcting an important point of information is an exception to that rule. It IS important to know what a thing is called; no crime in being wrong, but if no one ever corrects you, you will sound ignorant for a long time. This is like the your-zipper-is-down argument. Is it rude to tell someone their clothing is awry? Yes, technically, but wouldn't you want to know if your zipper is down?

I'm in the camp that if you are going to ask on the streets of NY where the metro is, you may not get the answer. Yes, WE know what is being said, but it isn't necessarily rude to tell the OP that he/she is using the wrong term for the city.

It is not rude to correct someone. There are various reasons why it is important for people to know the correct name.

a. people who write on travel boards are more in tune with errors tourists make. The average person on the street ( many who themselves, speak English as a second language) may not understand

b. Most New Yorkers are proud of their city. There is nothing wrong with us asking people to correctly identify what they are seeing and doing.

Just to make it more confusing, you board the subway using your <b>Metro</b>card, and the whole thing is run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

If I was in Washington, DC and I asked where the nearest Subway was, shouldn't I expect to be sent to a sandwich shop?

NYC is a big place with a lot of people not from here and English isn't their first language. (Maybe not even their 2nd or 3rd.) Everyone knows "subway." Everyone isn't going to know what you mean by the Metro or Underground.

To add even further confusion, if you ask where the subway is while in California, you'll get directed to a sandwich shop.

""p.s. NY doesn't have a metro, we have a subway" remark. I find this post script unnecessary and even, off-putting."

And another person might find this bit of information as beneficial and well intentioned.

<<<All I can add is that DC area residents will correct you if you call their Metro the subway>>>

In San Francisco, there are so many public transportation options that you have to get it right or you won't get where you want to go (there's BART, which is the subway, which isn't always "sub" anything, and there's Muni, but Muni consists of busses, trolleys, street cars and cable cars, and they all run different routes). I don't think it's rude to make the correction, I think it may <i>sound</i> rude depending on how the correction is worded.

Don't forget the MuniBart which is the bus that turns onto a subway. (Or at least that's what my BIL called it when he told me to take that back down towards my hotel at 3rd and Market from a restaurant near the Castro.)

Dear FC, I am sorry your name is TC:

I would hate to get that wrong.

It must be said that many NY'ers also call it the train.

It is the same when people visit NY and they say they want to visit Greenwich when they mean Greenwich Village. If they said Greenwich even the most earnest and kindest NY'er would send them to Connecticut. So that needs an immediate correction.

What I find most curious things about these threads is the lack of relativism. When people visit Paris they are indoctrinated with such amenities as when you enter a store always say, "Bon Jour" with a cheery Julia Child lilt and do not touch the merchandise, but if you visit NY, it is what the hey, they are NY'ers what difference does it make.

My real name has a French equivalent. Let's say for example my name is John. In France, they think nothing of calling me "Jean" and pronouncing it as such. But, no New Yorker that I know would call a Frenchman named Jean, "John." But, somehow we're the ones with the attitude.

<<<Don't forget the MuniBart which is the bus that turns onto a subway. (Or at least that's what my BIL called it when he told me to take that back down towards my hotel at 3rd and Market from a restaurant near the Castro.)>>>

Well, sort of! (Some of the Muni cars - what Muni refers as "light rail", although noone else does) do go underground for part of their route, and share stations with BART, but they're not the same as, nor part of, the BART system. Completely different set of tracks).

In a similar vein, my pronunciation of certain area names has been corrected many a time over the years as we have moved from state to state. It's a bit embarrassing to have to be corrected, but I was always glad to know the right way to say it, and would have hated finding out years later that I was walking around sounding like a doofus.

To bring it back to NYC, don't call it Houston like the city in Texas, it's pronounced "House-ton" Street.

It's also 6th Avenue. Only tourists call it Avenue of the Americas.

<<Muni consists of busses>>

That's pretty fresh of Muni, isn't it? :*

I guess I show I'm over 30 when I confess that I got a chuckle out of your post, sf7307. My English teachers stressed that "buses" is the plural of "bus" and "busses" is the plural of "buss" (as in kiss). Looks like some references consider "busses" an acceptable alternative to "buses" these days, but it still never fails to amuse me.

Happy traveling!

Telling someone the correct terminology isn;t rude - it's helpful.

While people on this board may know that subways are called Metros in some places, many people on the streets of NY will not. So someone asking for a Metro could end up at Grand Central (for MetroNorth), or one of the chain of Metro delis. Or nowhere.

Similarly the people who refer to Greenwich when they mean Greenwich Village or The Village need to be corrected - or someone can easily send them to Greenwich CT. (Grand Central again.)

As for the Metropolitan Transit Authority - that is known s the MTA - and most locals probably never talk about it - or have ever heard the full name.

This is not sensitivity - just providing correct factual information.