We took my mom out for breakfast to our local IHOP last weekend. All was fine and dandy until the waitress decided to inform me that the kitchen confused my order such that my seafood omelet would be delayed.
The waitress came to our table and then looked at the husband, who had earlier given the waitress all of our orders while mom and I were busy chatting. She glanced at me and then switched back to Jeff. "Does she speak English?" she asked, referring to me.
I guess, somehow something about me said "I do not speak English." Or was it maybe my earlier chatter in Arabic with mom? Oh well!
Linda, I like to order for the both of us. I consider it a gentlemanly, if old world, action. 🙂 But in addition, with 7amati there, I wanted to order for all of us. She feels more comfortable letting me do so. Although, her English is perfectly fine as well.
I understand this. With my Arabic skills, though I’m perfectly capable of ordering shwarma and the like, I’ll let the wife have at it unless I’m feeling like a challenge (not often the case when I’m hungry). Same goes in a Mexican place. ‘Tash is fluent, so I let her give it to them in Spanish.
Regardless, I think in these situations the waitress can choose to either embarrass herself or embarrass the patron. She would embarrass the patron if she spoke to them in English and they didn’t understand. So she chose to embarrass herself by asking me this question, to which I responded promptly with a smile: “No, she speaks English as well.”
I had to come out of my break from blogging to comment on this one guys.
“The waitress came to our table and then looked at the husband, who had earlier given the waitress all of our orders while mom and I were busy chatting.”
If this is what happened, then you cant blame the waitress for asking such a question. The fact that Jeff had placed all the orders, instead of natasha speaking for herself and giving the waitress her order, i think explains everything.
Natahsa, why didnt you just tell the waitress yourself what you wanted?
Thank God I moved, rayahit raasi min kol hal habal
Shortly after we moved to Central California from Montreal, I was out at a supermarket with my mother and my younger brothers. At one point, we found ourselves in the way of someone’s cart, and my mother asked us, in French, to move, so the woman could get by. After we got out of the way, the woman pushed past, smiled at my mother, and said “Gracias.”
She thought my mother had been speaking to us in Spanish.
Ignorant? Yes. Polite? Yes. Comic? We’ve been laughing about it ever since.
In my experience, most cultural misunderstandings and faux pas fall into this category. The problem is that it’s often difficult to tell (a difficulty increased by cultural difference) whether someone is being a good-natured doofus or a hateful a**hole.
I don’t think it was rude from her, if one don’t speak English that doesn’t mean he’s stupid
And everyone was ok with Spanish, so why not Arabic?
When was it said that it wasn’t okay to speak arabic?
Ali,
Amazing how the average American is so ignorant.
Nice stereotype. This is a good opportunity for me to point out how smart the average Arab is. Iraqis can’t defeat the US military, so they get even with Americans by defeating themselves. That’ll show us not to mess with Arabs, won’t it!? So clever.
When I was in Miami, no one spoke English at the IHOP, the Mall, the grocery store! And everyone was ok with Spanish, so why not Arabic?
You seem to be so smart that you saw Natasha say somebody called the police on her for speaking Arabic, or something? I applaud your reading comprehension! It’s obviously much higher than mine!
Ah, the average American wouldnt know Arabic from Farsi, from Urdu, from Hindi.
Did anyone ban you from speaking Arabic? Just asking !
Amazing how the average American is so ignorant. When I was in Miami, no one spoke English at the IHOP, the Mall, the grocery store! And everyone was ok with Spanish, so why not Arabic?