English around the world: Sho’t left, sho’t right, after robot

Heute geht es in unserer Rubrik „English around the world“ nach Südafrika! Hier erfahrt ihr, welche Ausdrücke ihr bei Taxifahrten in Südafrika beherrschen müsst.

By Carol Richards

“Sho’t left, sho’t right, after robot”

South Africa

South Africa has 11 official languages, and taxis are very popular, accounting for 65 % of all transport. Because of these reasons, South African taxi drivers created their own special terms to communicate with passengers. In South Africa, the traffic lights are known as “robots”. Tell the taxi driver, “after robot” if you want to say “at the next traffic light”. If you want the driver to stop at the next right then say “sho’t right”. If you want to stop at the next left, then say, “sho’t left”. However, you can also say “sho’t left” to let the taxi driver know that you are making a short journey!