sf7307

Cranachin, did you just correct me? How rude! (just kidding )

china_cat

Adu, is that correct, that if you say "the train"in New York City they will assume you mean the subway? Its very regional then, because I grew up in the suburbs of NYC, and if you said the train, you meant Conrail, or LIRR or some other commuter rail. The subway was always just "the subway".

Here in Boston, we will correct you if you try to call our public transit system the metro, the trolley, or the subway. It's the T. And nothing else fits because the T includes underground trains, elevated trains, buses and trolleys. So you have to call it the T or people will get confused.

Ryan

"So you have to call it the T or people will get confused."

I hear they also tend to get a bit confused by a statment about the NY Yankees that doesn't end with the word "suck."

Parrothead

TC,
I agree with you that it's rude to correct someone's speech. Of course, if you do correct then using a pleasant tone is always better. It's obvious from most of the responses here that there is a local sensitivity to incorrect usage by tourists and visitors. But it is not specific to New Yorkers by any means.

I travel a lot and gladly accept the corrections of locals when they are kind about it. Personally, I prefer to "say it their way". I now say Little Italy like they do, Little It-ly. Likewise, Hawaii, Oregon and Nevada are all pronounced differently by the locals than the tourist masses.

In California, no one ever called the highway patrol motorcycles ChiPs, I am guilty of correcting a few visitors way back when that show was popular.

What would be rude, even cruel, IMO is if someone asked a New Yorker while standing in New York for directions to Greenwich and they were directed to Connecticut without that person even taking the time to clarify they were actually intending to go to Greenwich Village. I don't see how that could ever be described as an earnest and kind act. If someone asked me how to get to Concord, Dublin or San Jose (all SF Bay Area cities) I wouldn't send them to New Hampshire, Ireland or Costa Rica without clarification.

HappyTrvlr

It wasn't rude, it was helpful.
I also find it amazing that people I meet from places other than NYC tell they can't believe I'm from NY because I'm not rude,I'm nice, and I speak without a "New York accent"...I find that rude, their negative assumptions about New Yorkers. If you want meet people with big hearts, visit NY.

sf7307

>>

This cracked me up

And never occurred to me about CHiPs, "the CHP", maybe, but "CHiPs", never.

Fra_Diavolo

Should we distinguish between correcting an error in local usage, which non-natives would not be expected to know, from correcting a grammatical error or other mistake in standard English? Perhaps the one is actually helpful, while the other might be thought rude.

Cranachin

sf7307 - I was hoping you'd get a kick out of that!

nytraveler

New York natives do tend to cal the subway the train - as in the song "Take the A Train". (We tend to call the suburban trains by their name - LIRR, Jersey Transit or MetroNorth). But I do know that suburbanites will just call their own line "the train".

The subway lines are also called by the number or letter - (the B, the 6) or the line/designation (Broadway Local or Lex Ave Express). But NEVER the Metro.

gail

So when posters here talk about "direct" flights when they really mean non-stop, we should just let them get on a flight from east to west coast that stops in 3 places - or is it rude to correct that as well?

nyer

gail , even "when posters here talk about "direct" flights when they really mean non-stop" is different, I think because there's time to figure that out (one hopes) before you book the flight.

I think letting someone know the local customs,etiquette language, pronunciation quirks of a place is really a service. Look what the world would be like if we let common misconceptions go uncorrected
"Lies to tell tourists" http://current.newsweek.com/budgettr..._tourists.html

Aduchamp1

Adu, is that correct, that if you say "the train"in New York City they will assume you mean the subway? Its very regional then, because I grew up in the suburbs of NYC, and if you said the train, you meant Conrail, or LIRR or some other commuter rail. The subway was always just "the subway.
____________________________
Absolutelty. If you live in one of the burbs and say you are taking the train into the city, it means the LIRR, Metro North, or NJTransit because that is basically your only choice of train. As opposed to using your car or taking the bus. But in the city the train means the subways and then you must specify which communter line you are taking becasue they all have terminals in Manhattan. But the subway is our main source of transportation and when someone in NYC says they are taking the train, it only means the subway.

And people in the boroughs still stay I am going into the city when the mean Manhattan.

Aduchamp1

There is one defense of visitors. The stupid MTA calls it a Metrocard and why would they call it a Metrocard if everyone calls it called the subway? Those who are old used to be issued a bus pass or subway pass so you could take public transportation to school.

But bus pass sounds so 50 years ago.

TC

You sell yourselves, and your fellow residents short. Not once, in all my years of traveling to NY have I (or anyone i've spoken with) ever encountered a resident who was put off, stymied or confused by an innocent request for directions -- no matter how "incorrect" the terms. As residents, you probably don't ask for directional help so may not be totally aware that most NYers are kind, generous, and will in fact ask clarifying questions if needed in order to give accurate information. They WANT to give correct information. If a tourist asks for the location of the nearest Metro entrance and a resident sends them to the "Metro North" train station, who looks silly? If we're walking along with our camera and tourist map, ask someone one the street how to get to Greenwich, and they direct us to Connecticut -- again, who takes the blame for knowing nothing?

So I respectfully agree to disagree with those of you who insist that it's for our own good that you continue to nag at this subway issue. I think there are plenty of kind, generous, polite NYers who will help us find the Metro entrance to the Red Line or the Blue Line so that we might get to Greenwich in time for lunch

Fra_Diavolo

Actually, you want the IRT or the IND.

nyer

I get it TC. Some people will be (or act) clueless when asked a question, but most people are not going to intentionally direct people to the wrong place. But, considering how many people come to this foruma asking for the right way to dress, the right amount of tipping etc, think that maybe they'd prefer to feel a little more "in the know" and a little less self-perceived foolish. Don't be so quick to dismiss the value of feeling just a litle bit less out of place sometimes. Why not let people come to NY with some of that knowledge? There will still be plenty more to absorb once they're here

nytraveler

I fail to see how neglecting to correct mistaken information is a benefit. It's not more polite - it's just less helpful.

This is like a New Yorker going to London and asking for the subway. They will not send youto the Underground/Tube - they will send you to a pedestrain passage under the street at a major intersection.

part of travel is that language/naming is differnet - and learning what you need to know in the places you go. By your logic no one shuold learn a foreign language - since the locals will figure out how to respond to you in Egnlish - or it's their fault.

Idiocy!!!

TC

nyer, Maybe its just the way the subway "in the know" information is delivered on this forum that has me puzzled. If the OP had asked for the local terminology for the transportation system in NY, I have no problem with a frank response. Or even if the responder had politely said, "by the way, in NY we call our Metro the Subway". Its the rather snarky way in which that information is often delivered that comes across so unfriendly.....then the continued justification that visitors will be impossibly mislead by locals if they can't get it right. Sadly, I believe this attitude on open forums unrightfully perpetuates the rude NYers stereotype.

tenthumbs

How the correction is made determines whether or not it's rude. A "ps in DC we have a Metro, in NY we have a subway, in Boston we have a T, in London we have a Tube" is helpful. A "ps, you idiot, it's a subway, not a Metro!" is rude. As Ryan pointed out, if you ask for the nearest subway somewhere other than NY, you're likely to end up with directions to a sandwich shop. Using correct terminology will get you better directions.

I always find it helpful when someone politely corrects my butchered pronounciations. I live in California, where we have a city called Martinez....we pronounce it mar TEE nez. My sister lives in georgia in a town called Martinez......she pronounces it mar tin EZZ..............

Aduchamp1

I believe this attitude on open forums unrightfully perpetuates the rude NYers stereotype.

AYYY, go...have a wonderful time in our fair city.