Does anyone speak English here? (1 Viewer)

[easyt65]

My wife and I took my 8yo daughter to the beach, staying with friends this weekend near Myrtle Beach, S.C., in a little place called Garden City. We got up early on Sunday morning, went walking along the beach looking for shells, then out onto the pier, where we saw sharks coming up after a bait bucket/live well where a fisherman was keeping his catch - dangling off the pier and into the water. After a while, we went over to a cafe/diner across the street from the pier. The place was packed and advertised 5 Cent coffee, so we decided to give it a try.

We sart down at the counter (my 8yo wanting to sit on the stools), but we were told by a guy behind the cash register (who we would find out later was not only aparently the owner but the only one behind the counter/who worked there who spoke English) that we would have to order at the other end of the long counter, but a young woman walked up and gave us coffee.

My wife asked the waitress to pour half of the coffee out of her cup because she likes a lot of milk in her coffee. The woman took the cup, filled the remining 1/2 inch of the cup up with more coffee, then returned the cup to my wife. My wife tried to communicate with her....and got a blank stare. Being by the front door, my wife finally turned, stepped out the door, and poured half the cup out into the street and returned. The waitress gave us a nasty look and walked off.

The cook, obviously not American, was working his tail off to get all the orders prepared. The whole time we sat there, which was a while, the owner had to keep going back to the cook and explain the English writing on the order slips - customers kept comig up complaining that their orders were wrong.

My daughter wanted a toasted bagel with butter. I wanted 2 scrammbled eggs with cheese, baccon, grits, and toast. My wife wanted country ham, eggs, and toast.

When they finally got around to fixing ours, my wife said to me, 'They didn't put the cheese on your eggs.' It had been so long now that I did not care and told my wife so. After our order was complete, the cook set it off to the side - he was only 4 feet from us to begin with. The food sat there....and sat there.

I asked the cook for our food - no comptrehension.
I asked the waitress for our food - no comprehension.
I finally flagged down the owner - he handed us our food, which was room temperature at best by this time.

Oh, I found my cheese - the cook had thrown a slide of American cheese down and poured the grits on top!

Oh...and we STILL didn't have utensils or napkins yet because no one spoke English and understood what we wanted. When the owner came by and we got his attention, he gruffly gathered up the items and almost threw them on the table in passing.

We ate our cold breakfast - my daughter ate 2 bites of her bagel. It was horrible. The whole experience had been horrible.

As I told my wife, the worst part was not getting bad service. If I get bad service from someone who has trouble understanding me but they are apologetic and actually trying to do a good job, then I tolerate more. I'll try to meet them 1/2 way and maybe even give them another shot sometime. No, the worst part was that these people made this a horrible experience because they did not speak English, they made no effort to try or to make it appear they were apologetic/sorry the service was so lousy as a result, and when we actually asked for things like utensils to eat out cold breakfast they gavce us dirty looks and acted like we were putting THEM out!

I don't look for trouble, but after that inident I am seriously looking into checking with authorities to see if any of those people are illegal immigrants and having them fired and/or rounded up! If they are illegal, they shouldn't be working there because it is against the law. If they are legal, I will voice my opinion that they should be fired and then never go back.

That burns me up, though - learn to speak English, for Pete's sake!

Before anyone accuses me of being a racist or whatever, let me tell everyone that I travel abroad a LOT. Every time I travel somewhere new even for a short time, I bust my butt to try to learn the language and to adapt to that country's culture. IMO, if you are going to come here to live and work for a long time, at least make some attempt to learn the language!

Sorry - had to get that unbelievably painful experience off my chest!

 

[::Major_Baker::]

and you are blaming them employees, instead of the owner/manager that made the poor choice of hiring entirely non-english speakers?

that's lame.

Don't go back there, make a statement. But don't blame in on the guys trying to make a buck to feed their families. How is it their fault, for not being able to learn English that well? Maybe they are working hard at it, but are having trouble? Would you like for some of your tax money to go to help teach them english?

And, you travel abroad alot? Not anywhere in Latin America, I assume, otherwise you could have said "es posible para recibir solo medio taza de cafe? Gracias."

 

[easyt65]

and you are blaming them employees, instead of the owner/manager that made the poor choice of hiring entirely non-english speakers?

that's lame.

Don't go back there, make a statement. But don't blame in on the guys trying to make a buck to feed their families. How is it their fault, for not being able to learn English that well? Maybe they are working hard at it, but are having trouble? Would you like for some of your tax money to go to help teach them english?

And, you travel abroad alot? Not anywhere in Latin America, I assume, otherwise you could have said "es posible para recibir solo medio taza de cafe? Gracias."

1st of all, I don't blame the employees alone. The owner, who gave me just as many dirty looks as his employees, is just as much to blame if not more so for breaking the law by hiring illegals.

And Last, but not least - who said these employees were Mexican or from latin America, Major? Tsk, Tsk - all illegals are not from mexico, and you should not assume that anyone who can't speak English in a story/incident must automatically speak Spanish. Spanish would not have been a problem, but....For your information, they were from Europe - my guess, based upon dialect and a word or 2 I caught, from some place like Lithuania.

 

[::Major_Baker::]

1st of all, I don't blame the employees alone. The owner, who gave me just as many dirty looks as his employees, is just as much to blame if not more so for breaking the law by hiring illegals.

And Last, but not least - who said these employees were Mexican or from latin America, Major? Tsk, Tsk - all illegals are not from mexico, and you should not assume that anyone who can't speak English in a story/incident must automatically speak Spanish. Spanish would not have been a problem, but....For your information, they were from Europe - my guess, based upon dialect and a word or 2 I caught, from some place like Lithuania.

I assumed, shame on me., Most immigration agruments have been centered around hispanics lately.

But when watching the cook perform his duties, how could you tell that he was 'obviously not american'? His 'eastern european' features? :roll:

But easyT, I must ask how you know they were illegal immigrants?
Just because they do not speak english does not mean they are necessarliy illegals.
tsk tsk back at you.

 

[easyt65]

I assumed, shame on me., Most immigration agruments have been centered around hispanics lately.

But when watching the cook perform his duties, how could you tell that he was 'obviously not american'? His 'eastern european' features? :roll:

But easyT, I must ask how you know they were illegal immigrants?
Just because they do not speak english does not mean they are necessarliy illegals.
tsk tsk back at you.

The cook's dialect and language made it obvious that he was not American - remember, he was only about 4 feet from me, so I could hear pretty well.

As far as knowing they were illegal or not, I do not know - which is why I said I am tempted to inquire, to find out for sure and then decide what I should do about the situation. As I wrote, IF illegal, I would have the option of turning in the employeror not, and if they were citiznes or 'legal' I could complain and/or simply not eat there again. As I wrote inthe initial post:

I don't look for trouble, but after that inident I am seriously looking into checking with authorities to see if any of those people are illegal immigrants and having them fired and/or rounded up! If they are illegal, they shouldn't be working there because it is against the law. If they are legal, I will voice my opinion that they should be fired and then never go back.

 

[::Major_Baker::]

The cook's dialect and language made it obvious that he was not American - remember, he was only about 4 feet from me, so I could hear pretty well.

As far as knowing they were illegal or not, I do not know - which is why I said I am tempted to inquire, to find out for sure and then decide what I should do about the situation. As I wrote, IF illegal, I would have the option of turning in the employeror not, and if they were citiznes or 'legal' I could complain and/or simply not eat there again. As I wrote inthe initial post:

I don't look for trouble, but after that inident I am seriously looking into checking with authorities to see if any of those people are illegal immigrants and having them fired and/or rounded up! If they are illegal, they shouldn't be working there because it is against the law. If they are legal, I will voice my opinion that they should be fired and then never go back.

And in your second post, you wrote this:

1st of all, I don't blame the employees alone. The owner, who gave me just as many dirty looks as his employees, is just as much to blame if not more so for breaking the law by hiring illegals.

Just assumption, huh?


Honestly though, shouldn't this just be about not supporting a business because of poor managemnt choices?
It sounds as if you were faulting those that cannot speak english well, and that is not fair.

 

[Iriemon]

...
I don't look for trouble, but after that inident I am seriously looking into checking with authorities to see if any of those people are illegal immigrants and having them fired and/or rounded up! If they are illegal, they shouldn't be working there because it is against the law. If they are legal, I will voice my opinion that they should be fired and then never go back.

...

I think you should. Wetbacks who won't give you decent service deserve to be deported.

 

[MrFungus420]

and you are blaming them employees, instead of the owner/manager that made the poor choice of hiring entirely non-english speakers?

that's lame.

It seems that he is blaming both the employer for doing so, and the employees for their attitude.

I've worked in an ethnic restaurant before, I had to learn what everything was, I had to learn both the "native" name for the dishes, and be able to explain them in English. At the very least, they should know what the menu items are in English.

Don't go back there, make a statement.

I'd go one step further and tell the owner exactly why you wouldn't go back.

But don't blame in on the guys trying to make a buck to feed their families.

If they are here illegally, I have no sympathy.

How is it their fault, for not being able to learn English that well? Maybe they are working hard at it, but are having trouble? Would you like for some of your tax money to go to help teach them english?

And, you travel abroad alot? Not anywhere in Latin America, I assume, otherwise you could have said "es posible para recibir solo medio taza de cafe? Gracias."

Ah, so you expect him to be able to communicate in the language of a country that he is visiting, but you don't expect people working and living (at least I would assume that they are living here if they are working in SC) in this country to be able to speak the language?

I also note that you make the assumption that the people were from a Latin American country.

 

[jfuh]

If you have an issue with them not speaking English and you not understanding what they're saying, here's an idea. Don't go there.

 

[americanwoman]

1st of all, I don't blame the employees alone. The owner, who gave me just as many dirty looks as his employees, is just as much to blame if not more so for breaking the law by hiring illegals.
.

The owner gave you dirty looks? Thats just incredible! His/Her business will probably soon go down the drain. Of course they may save a couple dollars hiring non-English speaking employees but it won't make up for all those customers not coming in anymore.

This makes me laugh because I just went to a diner to have breakfast on Sunday and their was the help wanted sign for a cook with a big sign under it.. Must speak and understand English... and that is why we go there.

Originally posted by ::Major_Baker::
How is it their fault, for not being able to learn English that well? Maybe they are working hard at it, but are having trouble? Would you like for some of your tax money to go to help teach them english?

It is their fault for not being able to understand English because it doesn't seem like they are even trying to communicate.

 

[Diogenes]

On my last trip through the San Francisco airport (early nineties), I discovered that I don't know enough Farsi (or whatever it is that Iranians speak) to even ask the staff for directions. It's very annoying to feel like a stranger in my own country, and I have gone out of my way to avoid going back. Too many of these folks don't even seem to try to learn the language.

 

[doughgirl]

I live in Arizona........

Try to find one Mcdonalds, ARbys, Burger King,.....etc where someone taking your order speaks English. In fact they have big pictures on the counters so you can just point. Going through the drive up window is impossible. We are in AMERICA......................AND THE PRIMARY LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.

Last weekend we went to Rocky Point, Mexico...........we could hardly find one person who spoke ENGLISH..............they are not to blame as they are living in MEXICO AND IT IS THE PRIMARY LANGUAGE THERE.
So we did the best we could.

If you live and work in Mexico...........learn to speak the language, MEXICAN. If you live and work in America.........learn the language, ENGLISH.

 

[::Major_Baker::]

I live in Arizona........

Try to find one Mcdonalds, ARbys, Burger King,.....etc where someone taking your order speaks English. In fact they have big pictures on the counters so you can just point. Going through the drive up window is impossible. We are in AMERICA......................AND THE PRIMARY LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.

Last weekend we went to Rocky Point, Mexico...........we could hardly find one person who spoke ENGLISH..............they are not to blame as they are living in MEXICO AND IT IS THE PRIMARY LANGUAGE THERE.
So we did the best we could.

If you live and work in Mexico...........learn to speak the language, MEXICAN. If you live and work in America.........learn the language, ENGLISH.

It's SPANISH, not 'mexican', you dimwit.

 

[::Major_Baker::]

It seems that he is blaming both the employer for doing so, and the employees for their attitude.

I've worked in an ethnic restaurant before, I had to learn what everything was, I had to learn both the "native" name for the dishes, and be able to explain them in English. At the very least, they should know what the menu items are in English.

How long did it take you to learn? Perhaps the workers just recently started there?

If they are here illegally, I have no sympathy.

Well, me neither.
But what percentage of Eastern Europeans do you figure are here illegally? Not quite as easy to swim the atlantic as it is to cross the rio grande....is it.
Just a thought.

Ah, so you expect him to be able to communicate in the language of a country that he is visiting, but you don't expect people working and living (at least I would assume that they are living here if they are working in SC) in this country to be able to speak the language?

The key is, that he had no idea how long these guys had been there, what language programs (if any) were available to them, etc.
He just assumed that they should speak perfect english since they were in this country.

I also note that you make the assumption that the people were from a Latin American country.

Oh shut-up! Like it is an unfair assumption when 95% of the immigration debate has been focused around hispanics....the demonstrations, etc.

 

[::Major_Baker::]

On my last trip through the San Francisco airport (early nineties), I discovered that I don't know enough Farsi (or whatever it is that Iranians speak) to even ask the staff for directions. It's very annoying to feel like a stranger in my own country, and I have gone out of my way to avoid going back. Too many of these folks don't even seem to try to learn the language.

It's Persian, not Farsi.

Yes, stay home! Avoid traveling.
You'll learn so much more about life by doing so.

 

[Kelzie]

It's SPANISH, not 'mexican', you dimwit.

None of that.

It's Persian, not Farsi.

Not actually true. It's called Persian in the States, Farsi by those who speak it. Guess you could say both are true.

 

[Diogenes]

It's SPANISH, not 'mexican', you dimwit.

Oh shut-up! Like it is an unfair assumption when 95% of the immigration debate has been focused around hispanics....the demonstrations, etc.

Yes, stay home! Avoid traveling.
You'll learn so much more about life by doing so.

My goodness! Aren't we a ray of sunshine this morning! :mrgreen:

 

[::Major_Baker::]

My goodness! Aren't we a ray of sunshine this morning! :mrgreen:

I can't help it when ignorance is all around me. It irritates me.

"mexican' for christs sakes? Most grade school kids know that it is 'spanish' that most latin americans speak.

 

[Patrickt]

This complaint isn't limited to the U.S. I live in Mexico and a lot of Americans complain about people here not speaking English.

 

[::Major_Baker::]

This complaint isn't limited to the U.S. I live in Mexico and a lot of Americans complain about people here not speaking English.

The nerve, to not speak English in Mexico...

 

[MrFungus420]

How long did it take you to learn? Perhaps the workers just recently started there?

It took a couple of hours. It's not a matter of learning an entire language, but a very specific set of words.

Well, me neither.
But what percentage of Eastern Europeans do you figure are here illegally? Not quite as easy to swim the atlantic as it is to cross the rio grande....is it.
Just a thought.

Irrelevent. My opinions about illegal aliens are about all illegal aliens, no matter their country of origin.

The key is, that he had no idea how long these guys had been there, what language programs (if any) were available to them, etc.
He just assumed that they should speak perfect english since they were in this country.

No, the complaint was that they were totally incapable of communicating in English, not that they couldn't speak perfect English.

I'm willing to bet that if there would have been even some level of pidgin English, it would have mitigated the majorty of the complaint. Even if it would have just been "Sorry...No English...I get boss"

Oh shut-up! Like it is an unfair assumption when 95% of the immigration debate has been focused around hispanics....the demonstrations, etc.

Unfair or not, it is an assumption.

As I've said, my opinions about illegal aliens are about all illegal aliens. I make no distinction based on the country of origin or ethnicity.

 

[MrFungus420]

It's Persian, not Farsi.

Let's see...

"Far·si (färs)
n. pl. Far·sis
1. The modern Iranian language, dating from about the ninth century a.d., that is the national language of Iran and is written in an Arabic alphabet; Persian.
2.
a. A native speaker of Farsi.
b. A member of the predominant ethnic group of Iran." (from www.thefreedictionary.com )

"from about the ninth century", and we are now in the 21st century.

It looks like you're about 12 centuries out of date on what the language is called...

Yes, stay home! Avoid traveling.
You'll learn so much more about life by doing so.

In your last few posts, we've seen petty insults, racial assumptions and you telling someone they were wrong when they weren't.

Assuming that you travel, it doesn't seem like that helps much...

Maybe you should try staying at home, you might learn a thing or two...

 

[MrFungus420]

I can't help it when ignorance is all around me. It irritates me.

Like not knowing that the language is "Farsi"?

Or ignorantly assuming that illegal alien problems must deal with hispanics?

 

[Kelzie]

Let's see...

"Far·si (färs)
n. pl. Far·sis
1. The modern Iranian language, dating from about the ninth century a.d., that is the national language of Iran and is written in an Arabic alphabet; Persian.
2.
a. A native speaker of Farsi.
b. A member of the predominant ethnic group of Iran." (from www.thefreedictionary.com )

"from about the ninth century", and we are now in the 21st century.

It looks like you're about 12 centuries out of date on what the language is called...



In your last few posts, we've seen petty insults, racial assumptions and you telling someone they were wrong when they weren't.

Assuming that you travel, it doesn't seem like that helps much...

Maybe you should try staying at home, you might learn a thing or two...

Oh ho....snap. :2wave:

 

[jfuh]

This complaint isn't limited to the U.S. I live in Mexico and a lot of Americans complain about people here not speaking English.

Excellent point, there's this general arrogance with a few americans not too dissimilar from that of some French.
"Why can't you speak English?"
Ironically, if you ask any English person, they'll say American's speak english improperly.