Many years ago I strolled into a Manhattan coffee shop. It had a long counter and stools that swiveled. There were people ordering takeout, others were setting down, like me, for a bite . From a distance I noticed a tourist who was hoping to order something, but did not speak English. Despite the location, not far from several tourist sights, the waitress seemed to have had little contact with foreign speakers; her impatience with the customer was palpable. It was almost comical, but instead distressing, to hear the waitress raise her voice as if the volume of her words would magically bridge the gap toward understanding. The continued look of incomprehension upon the foreigner’s face should have been enough to dissuade her, but it didn’t.
Fortunately someone nearby intervened, progress was made, the order was taken.
It seemed odd to me that a waitress working in one of the most visited cities in the world would be so ill equipped to cope with an out-of-towner. Perhaps she was new or having a bad day or perhaps she needed to experience at least once for herself the challenge of negotiating simple tasks in a foreign land. It might have encouraged her to be more patient.