As some of you may have read, one of my jobs is at the local movie theatre. Now, I'm a pretty stoic motherfucker when it comes to dealing with customers. I accept that the general public is full of idiots and that part of what I get paid for is to educate them about what's happening at the cinema. I have a pretty high threshold for getting pissed off. I even had a guy last summer chuck a cup of ice at me because he was upset about the temperature of his water, and I actually had a good laugh about it on the spot. But last night, one fucker managed to piss me off, and I'm still pissed off. So this <pc>Hispanic-American gentleman</pc> and his wife come up to the ticket booth, and he starts asking me about the marquee outside. He's going on about the blank slot and what might be there, but I can't understand exactly what he's asking because his accent is pretty thick. So I just skip to the point and say, "Well, behind me on this board is what we have showing this evening. What can I get you?" Not good enough. He keeps going on about some title he saw on one of the marquees--which one, he can't tell me, because they both have different content--but again, I can't understand what he's saying anyway. After the fact I figured out that he was asking about Land of the Lost, which doesn't open for a week, and so I had very little knowledge of it to begin with. So I keep asking questions asking him to clarify, and he keeps saying stuff that I just can't discern, and I ended up just repeating, "I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean." To which he comments, "What language you speak?" (Slight shock.) "Umm, I speak English, sir." "Well, you need to go back to school then." Are you fucking kidding me? I can't even discern a simple movie title through your fucking beaner accent, and you're telling me that *I* need to go back to school to learn fucking English!? Get the fuck out. Of course, while the above went through my head, I struggled to remain polite until he finally up and left without buying anything. Go fucking drown in your taco mix, motherfucker.
I've highlighted the key facts in red. You embarrassed him in front of his woman, an affront that machismo demands he repay.
I wouldn't even say it's 'machismo'. I've had similar experience - not at the theater - but out and about in society and someone with a thick accent attempts to ask me a question, which I can't understand. And, I think I'm a fairly understanding person. I listen carefully. I'm not in a hurry for him/her to move on. Yet, after 13 times and I still can't understand what the point they are trying to convey, it's not my fault. ETA: Even my 5 year old gets angry when he can't properly express his thoughts.
Reminds of once when I was in Korea around 1995 or so.....I called up the theater on post, and asked what was playing. The guy said "Booty for Gus." I had never heard of that movie. So, I asked again.... "Booty for Gus." Finally I figured out what he was saying.... "Beautiful Girls."
Interestingly enough, though she doesn't speak any foreign languages, my wife has this unusual ability to understand the barbarous babblings of furrin people. She's even become close friends with a few people at her various jobs who barely speak English. She says they somehow manage to understand each other with lots of gesturing (she IS Italian) like it was a game of charades.
I'm horrible at understanding accents, even though I've traveled a fair amount. One Kenyan on the track team in college used to get so pissed when he had to repeat himself that really all I can remember him saying is "Fuck! Shit! Listen to me!"
I have a friend like that. She works for a Russian pain doctor and she's the only one who can understand him. She makes quite a bit of money for an office manager.
'G' = 'gee', to rhyme with pee. 'J' = 'jay', to rhyme with pay. Apparently, in Scotland, that's too damn simple. They have a letter called 'Jai', to rhyme with 'I'. I cannot remember for the life of me which it is. I think I was about to go for 'J', but then increasingly frustrated customer then repeated himself and said 'Gee', because IT MADE EVEN LESS SENSE.
Oh, that Edinburgh burr -! I deal with a lot of accents in my work, but that one stumps me. I have a friend from Ediburgh, and I love him dearly, but whenever we meet up, he has to bring another friend to "translate," especially in a noisy restaurant, because I really canna understand him.
Me and my nephew took a taxi from downtown Edinburgh to the Edinburgh airport to pick up a rental car. On the way, the driver was talking to us. My nephew asked what language he was speaking; I told him: English. He asked where we were going, and I said we were going to see the rail bridge at the Firth of Forth. As I recall, he pronounced 'rail' like 'real'...
Good research for writing Scotty! When I was about 12, a cousin from Scotland came to visit us. I did nothing but piss him off, 'cause everything he said was followed by me saying "What?!"
Hm, I love the Scottish accent and don't seem to have a problem understanding it. We've had some German tourists come in that I've had a problem with, but they don't seem to get angry when I ask them to repeat themselves.
You know, I don't understand some people either. But I'm a sagitarrius so I can understand foreign language barriers without a problem. Anyway, it rather sucks when you have someone with a thick accent ask you a question and you don't understand what the hell they are saying. You can't read their mind! I hate it when there's a language barrier. That happened to me at college. Most of the Central Americans didn't speak very good English and talked to each other in Spanish. To me, that's rude to be doing it in front of a so-called American friend that doesn't understand the language very well. What are we supposed to do about that??? Bow down to them!?!
