Talk:2010-10-19 48 8

Feel free to tell Robyn how she should have done better, or to correct her German.

Better than Robyn? Impossible! It's a wonderful report. :)

"I'm guessing there are no request stops in Germany, where you pull down the signpost, or at night set out a flare, to get the train to stop to pick you up." - Yes there are. You have to push a button to make the train stop. There are stop request buttons inside these trains too. I find the concept of setting up a flare at night incredibly cute - At a station like that, I wouldn't even think of having to mess with the train signals! I have to visit Canada! -- relet 11:23, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Note that passenger travel by train is pretty rare in Canada, except for a few commuter and interurban routes. It's possible that it's been ten or fifteen years since I rode an actual train in Canada. It may have been thirty years ago that I last used a request stop, and I was disappointed at the time that it wasn't night, so I didn't get to use a flare. -Robyn 12:35, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Do you have to bring the flare or are those provided at the station? Koepfel _talk 14:01, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

I think you have to bring your own. I tried to find out something online about it, but I couldn't find anything about flagging down a train at night. I did find some information about request stops. You can arrange to have the train stop in the middle of the bush in a park to get out with your canoe, but there has to be a portage visible. -Robyn 15:43, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Whoa, that gets better every time you tell me the story, but I doubt it can get better than that. Now you say you can are expected to stop a train at night using a flare you brought? And board with your canoe? Canada, here I come! No wonder you people are so awesome geohashers. You must eat crazy for breakfast. -- relet 16:22, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Oh - hm. I guess I have enthusiastically read over the 'request stops' part in the middle. So you probably never said that. But I would so want it to happen. :D -- relet 16:28, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

I'd never heard the bit about the canoes before, just found it looking for confirmation of the flares. Now *I* want to do it, too. -Robyn 16:54, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Bonus points if you do that at a stop where no water can be found for the next 100km. But I guess there's one thing Canada doesn't have. -- relet 17:46, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

I don't think words can describe how happy this report made me. It's like reading a summary of every geohash I did for the 8 months I was there. Heck, it's like reading a summary of every time I went outside fot the 8 months I was there! Thank you for putting into words what I could only feebly complain about to others! And I'm so happy you made it! -- [[user:thepiguy]] 17:19, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

The whole time I was out, I kept thinking, "Is this what it was like for pi?" I'm glad to be sharing your experience, albeit a little late. -Robyn 07:43, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

*cough* well, I remember this a little bit different for pi's stay. He wasn't able to ask "Bitte. Wo ... Bahn?" or something like that, I had to almost use brute force to make him say "My name is..." in German after a few months. A little more effort in learning German might have helped him a lot. ;-) Ja, so war es. Wehe, du versuchst, dich herauszureden!

Ich verstehe ein bisschen Deutsch! If you hadn't made you language so difficult to pronounce, maybe I would have used it more! Besides, all you really need is a good Sprechen Sie Englisch?, and maybe Ich spreche kein Deutsch. in case they beat you to the draw. But Danatar is correct, I pretty much avoided conversation at all cost... Maybe next time. -- [[user:thepiguy]] 18:58, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

I like this report very very much. It's great to see how things we take for granted and what we consider as "I don't know how else it could be done" are a mystery for somebody with a different background. I won't correct your German. We can understand most of it and it's a source of much good-natured amusement. I will take a look at the things I didn't understand the next time I see e.g. an emergency telephone. If the ticket vending machine looks like a Canadian income tax form to you, do you want so see a German income tax form? (answer at your own risk) - Danatar 09:54, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Edit: I found the income tax forms online: this is a list of all forms including special cases like winegrowing or alimony. I had to fill out this, this, this and this form.

Seems like your session has timed out, Danatar -- relet 16:22, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Great report :). Haven't been able to hash for ages so when a report as descriptive and engaging as this comes along you let me live vicariously :P -- Ephphatha 00:30, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

I'm so fascinated by the differences among countries. I'm glad you enjoyed the ride. -Robyn 07:43, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

The O-symbol on the schedule means that before the O, all stations are listed, after it only the most important stations. Since some trains stop over 50 times or more, the list would be too long without this. Koepfel _talk 14:01, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

After having read your report, I tried out the language options on DB's ticket robots yesterday. I can confirm that hitting one of the flags on the first screen will not switch to another language. Deutsche Bahn currently promotes the new and improved ticket robots and has advertising leaflets everywhere to tell you how good they are. Despite the promotional effort, the User Interface obviously still is a big failure because after playing with the touchscreen, I found out how it works:

• The first screen is just the welcome image. It advertises that the robot is capable of speaking foreign languages by showing some flags. Hitting this screen anywhere, onto a flag or at some other field, will always just get you to the next screen, no selections can be made at this point.
• The next screen has some more small flags at the bottom, and this is where you can actually make the bot speak other languages... This is weird, and I am sure that many customers will share your exact experience.