Ugh

June gloom has settled over Santa Ana.  And right now, the weather reflects how I feel - just oogie all over.  

I think I'm gonna give yoga a pass tonight and be one with the couch and some chicken soup.

Culture Wars

I’m not about to bullshit you by saying that there is any rhyme or reason to how my mind works.  Let’s just say that the map to my brain probably begins to fade away towards the edges - just where you begin to see warnings stating “here there be dragons”.  In any case, as I plugged away today at work, combing through invoices, contracts, and various amendment drafts, I remembered a situation not long ago illustrating some of the problems we as ‘civilized’ beings encounter when it comes to classes between cultures.

 

Driving along one day, looking for a smog inspection station, I saw the signs ahead of me.  Just as one car pulled out of the garage in front of me, I pulled in to the spot pointed out by the station attendant.  The attendant, an elderly Asian man, handed me a clipboard and in extremely broken English, directed me to fill it out.  Fortunately, the language gap was not a problem.  He knew why I was there, and I was able to figure out the process. 

 

Sitting in the waiting room/lobby, I noticed one of the other employees beginning to shut things down.  Looking at the sign on the door, I noticed that I had just made it on time, with five minutes to spare.  Just as my attendant entered the lobby following the inspection to my Jeep, an Anglo woman came into the lobby through the front door, with her daughter in tow.  “We Kosed”, the man said in his broken English.  Exasperated, the woman curtly asked him to repeat himself.  “We kosed.  We kosed,” he said more distinctly and more emphatically.  “Fine!” the woman said sternly.  “I will just TAKE my business somewhere ELSE!”

 

Now I don’t know about you, but I wanted to kick the woman’s ass!  The attendant wasn’t being rude to her.  The shop hours were clearly posted on the door, and she arrived too late.  Whose fault was that?  He was not being rude to her when he spoke to her.  He just did not speak clear English.  She spoke clear enough English, and her body language clearly communicated her pissiness. 

 

Just because he was obviously not born here does not make him lesser.

Just because he doesn’t speak clear English does not make him stupid.

 

Heck, it isn’t like he had been picking her blackberries.