This is what happens to me for being so fair-skinned and looking like I’m from who knows where. I’ve been asked if I’m Lebanese, Jewish, Portuguese, etc. Latina? Not that often.
I stop at the McDonald’s drive-thru any given day of last week and see they have “Buy one McCafé, get one free” promotion going on. So I ask the girl to give me a latte and a mocha. I make sure I got it right about the free coffee, she says it’s OK and I proceed to the 1st window. I pay for the goods without questioning the price, and when I go to the pick-up window they are all going cuckoo because apparently they charged me for two coffees and they are NOT going to tell me. They are all talking in Spanish, assuming that I won’t understand. Well, dudes, I do!
Next thing you know I’m asking the manager “Are you going to charge me for the second coffee? Wasn’t I supposed to get it for free?” – He starts babbling, obviously surprised that I speak Spanish, and the rest of the staff look at each other like they’re in front of a Marian apparition or something. So I tell them it’s a shame they think they can fool customers like that. The coffee issue was taken care of, but next time I hear a Spanish accent on that speaker, I will speak Spanish, too. Don’t they hear my own freaking accent?
That’s hilarious. Way to catch them in the act. Keep Mickey D’s honest!
Nope. It takes a while of being around another language to start detecting accents, it takes even more time to detect accents in a second language.
I think this story is pretty funny. I also love it when people think that Robert does not speak Spanish because he happens to be so tall and black.
I saw Logtar speak Spanish today AND being understood, so now I know he is not faking it as I thought before
People do that in front of my big fair skin/haired brother all the time. He isn’t as fluent as you or your hubby but he is still pretty good. Despite ethnicity I find it funny that so many Spanish speakers asume their ability is unique.
Been a long time since I would say I was conversant, but a couple years back some Latino gentlemen were talking, in Spanish, about my friend. The exact phrase was “the blonde bitch with the tits”. I still understand enough to get offended. When I caught the guys eye and said “yo hablo” he shushed his buddies & didn’t look up for the rest of his lunch. Glad I remember words like bitch, cuz if he was talking bout his spoon I woulda been lost.
Yeeeah. I’m going to need the address of that McD’s so I can never go there again. On second thought, maybe I’ll just never go to any McD’s again.
This is interesting to me because I just did a brief PT stint at McD’s this June/July. I was the only white girl working there, which was fine by me and I got along with all my coworkers except one. She was a shift manager who barely spoke or understood English, which isn’t something I care about, except that it was difficult for me to understand what she was trying to communicate, especially since she got frustrated easily and gave up after 5 seconds.
I have taken Spanish classes and been to Mexico, so I understand Spanish very well by listening, even if I can’t remember most of my terms. This woman thought that I couldn’t understand her if she spoke in Spanish and walked around mocking me to my other coworkers. Luckily I only had to work with her one hellish evening.
Guess the switching to Spanish trick is one that McD employees think they can get away alot!
I think people have finally become droids working at fast food joints. So glad I got out when I did.