Friday, August 10, 2007

English Is Required

JEEBUS!!

I'm not against immigration. However, I would never consider moving to a country where I didn't know the language enough to function. Apparently the McDonald's next to my work hired a new crew of Spanish-only speakers. Personally if I was hiring someone to work the drive-thru in an American city, English would be a requirement - and not just passing English, but fluent.

The girl at the drive-thru barely had passing English. I'm willing to bet that she is currently enrolled in English as a Second Language classes. Therefore, she would not be the best pick to work a system that makes it difficult to understand even American-born English speakers. All I wanted was a large UNsweet iced tea. That's it. Not rocket science.

"Large sweet tea, is that all?"

"No, a large UNsweet tea."

"OK, a large sweet tea."

"NO! an UNsweet tea. No sugar. Plain iced tea. Not sweetened."

"Large sweet tea. Come to the window."

So I get to the window and there is a guy standing there clarifying everything. I told him Unsweet tea and he corrected the order and took my money. Little did I know the incompetency was just beginning. I pulled to the second window.

The girl at the window was putting my drink into a drink carrier as I pulled up. One drink. In a drink carrier. I told her it wasn't necessary, then she handed me my drink. OK, I have a "thing". When someone hands me a drink through the window I prefer that the drink be on the inside of the cup, not all over the outside.

I understand that sometimes it is hard to get all of the drink into the mouth of the cup - I'm not insensitive to the special needs of some people. But if that should happen, at least have the sense to wipe it off before handing it through the window. It wasn't like it was hard to miss. Seriously, the cup was covered in tea. So, I asked for a napkin to wipe off the cup.

"Huh?"

"Can I have a napkin to wipe off the cup. It's covered in tea."

"What?"

"A NAPKIN!"

At this point she turned to her manager who asked me what I needed. I told him and before giving me my napkin he explained to the girls that they should wipe off the cups. I just wanted my fucking napkin. I didn't want to sit there listening to this little training moment. I was already late. After the little speech, the girl at the window looked at me blankly like she'd never seen me before.

"Napkin"

There was a faint recognition and the manager handed me a napkin. As I pulled away from the window I took a sip. SWEET FUCKING TEA!!!

7 comments:

Mark Floyd-Thaut said...

Have you ever seen Tea fly? I would have marched right in there and gave the manager what for.

Rinny said...

Amen! Maybe it would be beneficial to go on a campaign. We are in America. We speak English here. People in Europe think you are rude if you don't speak their native language, or at least make an attempt, when visiting. Why should we be any different. Bring us your weak, tired, hungry, etc., but for the love of all that is Holy and good please speak English!

troglodytis said...

when ordering tea, you NEVER pull away from the drive thru without tasting.

it's the third rule of fast food tea buying, duh. trust or disgust got the better of you.

Anonymous said...

You know we're outnumbered in Texas now. It's only going to get worse. It makes me crazy when I call the bank or whatever, and I have to press a button because I want them to speak to me in English. WTF?!?

Elizabeth Mai said...

Well, I'll just add, that it's also a bad idea to put a deaf guy at the drive through. Yes, I'm serious - the McD's over here has a deaf guy who thinks he can read lips and converse at the pick-up window. Sometimes I go just to get a good laugh. Is there really no other place in the store he could work???

Anonymous said...

You knew it was inevitable that your tea was going to be the sweetest ever--LOL.

Anonymous said...

So the lawn guy I pay $8 to mow my grass read this while walking by the window, and of course he told my $3/hr maid and now guess who has to clean his own house and mow his own lawn.....
thanks a lot.....now I just have to make sure my $100/week nanny doesn't hear about this....