Ha! Even when you find them you have trouble.
I was in a coffee shop in Amsterdam with some Dopers (Coldfire was our fabulous host) and got up to use the bathroom. I stood there looking “H” or “D” . . . . hmmmm. . . .
I picked “H” for “HERS” thinking that “D” stood for “DUDES”.
It soon became obviously clear that I guessed wrong, IYKWIM.
My biggest problem wasn’t finding the bathrooms or even figuring out which one was “sex” appropriate during a whirlwind trip to Paris and Geneva.
It was figuring out how to flush the damn toilet when I was done.
[sub](Some had handles, some had chains, some had a button type thing that you pressed on the floor, some had a button type thing you pressed on the tank, some had a button type thing you pressed behind the tank…)[/sub]
I love European toilets (trying hard not to make a dumb “you’re a pee’n joke”)!!! The toilet in my dad’s house in Germany has this little waterless ledge thingy where the poop and pee lands. Once you flush, water comes gushing out over the ledge and pushes everthing off like a waterfall and down into the tiny little bowl.
WTF is that about?
I have to admit that it did make bathroom time sorta fun and exciting.
Diane, I gotta say that you have consistently over the years proved yourself to be one of the ugliest and most mean-spirited Dopers we have. Your first post here is a perfect example of what I mean. If you find IDBB and lezlers as offensive as you seem to, why not ignore them?
You are the exemplification of what sucks about this board.
Now, you will either go ahead and spew your usual brand of invective, interspersed with how you couldn’t care less about my opinion of you because I’m an idiot and an asshole and I dress funny, or you will take the “high road” and say that you couldn’t be bothered to spew your usual brand of invective because I am an idiot and an asshole and I dress funny. (insert rolleyes/whatever emoticon here)
Why don’t you go throw rocks at the cats that come in your yard, or stick razorblades in apples or something?
Oh yeah, I forgot this one. Or you will go and dig up a bunch of my old posts to prove that I am an idiot and an asshole and I dress funny. That, in retrospect, is what seems most likely to me.
So let me get this clear. You’re telling me what an asshole I am because I because I told someone else what an asshole they were being.
Hummmm . . . .
If this board sucks, why are you still here?
Respectfully, I disagree. When everyone in the country has a college degree, we’ll have college degree’d folks working in retail since that is still a necessary component of business.
A higher education is no longer the ticket that it used to be for such reasons, sadly, and I’d caution following such advice only to land another “McJob” as it were while saddled with debt to boot - as many recent grads have done.
In such a scenario however, we can assume the customers would at least be educated enough to order coherently though. 
Because if you don’t say anything now, their ignorant shit will continue.
“Learn the damn language.”
Please.
What if they are in the process of learning it.? Do you expect them to come over and be fluent immediately?
WOW, that’s odd.
I have rarely, if ever taken the time or effort to dig up old posts (I would say never but I can’t be certain - you can go look if it’ll turn your crank). I usually respond to someone that is being said in the current thread and see no reason to dig through old B.S.
I am getting really tired that anyone who gets offended or hurt by the bigotted bullshit that has been said here over the last few months and says something in their own defense it gets mocked or called the PC Police or Offederati. It’s like they are expected to roll over and accept the abusive words.
I have had very good friends and fellow Dopers who have been on the SDMB for years leave because of the hateful stupidity that has taken over. People who have been repeatedly hurt by the words “fat ass”, “retard”, “trailer trash”. Those who continue using those terms, knowing that it offends and hurts, they are the fuckholes who make this place suck.
It wasn’t all that long ago that a 5 page pile on would have be the result of someone saying “learn the fuckin language”. Now it is looked upon as no big deal. It’s fucking ugly and hateful and it makes me angry and sad that more and more Dopers are accepting that type of bullshit instead of trying to cure a bit of ignorance and show the OP where they are wrong.
Look around? How many old regs do you not see anymore? I still talk to most of them IRL, e-mail, and LJ. I know why they left the SDMB, do you? Do you know how much quality is lost every time one of them leaves this place?
Those who know me know that I am not an evil bitch asshole. I am quite the opposite, really. If I seem mean spirited and mean here it is because I have lost all patience with the assholes who I believe are bringing this place down to the level it is quickly sinking.
I think their bigotted ignorant shit will continue no matter what is said. I really wonder why any of us bother.
I’d just like to make clear that I neither endorsed nor did I take issue with IDBB’s rant. So please don’t assume that because I told her she was going to get flamed that I agree with her position.
Actually as I was reading the rant, I couldn’t help but think “is she crazy? Doesn’t she realize saying this shit is going to get her flamed beyond recognition?” It doesn’t matter whether or not I agree with it. That’s why I posted. The second post I made was out of actual curiosity. If posting a disclaimer before a rant will keep the offenderati at bay, then that’s a good tactic to employ if you want to rant and not worry about the PC Police.
That, of course was before Diane came riding in hurling personal insults right and left like she usually does. Like I said before, if you really want to see people change their posting styles Diane, because it bothers you so damn much, then perhaps you should consider a better communication style than running in, throwing out random personal insults and running out. Catch more flies with honey and all that.
Now THAT is funny. Let me be catty, insulting, rude, and asshoe-ish to you and then insinuate that you are even MORE of an asshole unless you take the “high road.”
Perhaps you should learn where the high road is before you give someone else directions to it.
When did it become “being PC” to NOT be a ranting Ted Nugent sound alike bigot, I wonder?
::I musta missed the memo…damned TPS reports…
Back to the OP:
IDBB:
[ul][li]I know you hate your job. I also work retail (at a customer service counter, no less), so I can sympathize. You need to learn the following and learn it well: The customers will never change. The only way you can cope with a service job is to change your own attitude. Customers will always be awful and your bosses will always be difficult, and you are the only one who can change. My first year in retail, lo those 8 (!) years ago, was very difficult until I realized that my attitude had to change, because no one else would. As soon as I realized that my internal reactions were making my life difficult, I began to let the customers’ behaviors go. These days, I don’t let my customers affect my mood, because the customers are temporary and will pass.[/li][li]As to the language barrier, I find your statements ill-informed. Perhaps you are unaware of this, but the US does not have an official language. There are many places in this country where one can easily live life everyday without ever speaking or hearing a word of English. As a person who lives in Florida, I am surprised that you as a Texan don’t have any familiarity with Spanish at all. I encounter several Spanish-only speakers everyday at work, but I don’t get mad at them. How am I to know how long they’ve been here? If I can’t find a functionally bilingual coworker, my limited Spanish and my customer’s limited English is usually enough to function. If you approach the situation with good humor (there’s that attitude thing again), your customer will usually pick up on that and try to work with you to get what he or she needs. As to your not speaking Spanish, would it be really difficult for you to learn common words used in your specific job in Spanish, such as pollo, hamburguesa, and queso?[/li][li]As to lezlers’ opinion that service employees need to speak English that has been dragged in from the other, older thread: Lezlers, I don’t remember if you stated that language ability was necessary to all jobs in the service world, but it is not. I have seen several of our people hired who barely spoke English, as baggers and as janitorial staff. Most of them were new arrivals in our country, and their employment was very important to them in developing their language skills. Many began unable to speak English past “Paper or plastic?” and can now (a couple of years later) function perfectly well in English. These kinds of jobs are important for language immersion – how better to learn conversational English than to watch and listen to 400 or so people a day conversing?[/li][/ul]
So that means what…you don’t give a damn about this thread , that you just came in here to stir the shit and tweak someones nose??? Hell if that is an accurate reading of your intent then you will deserve every flame you are gonna get…
Maybe you should follow your own advice…pot kettle you know…
Just my opinion…Keith
That’s a big part of the reason I don’t want to go back to school, as it were. I am WORKING on getting a higher paying, more customer oriented retail job where I’m doing MORE than just standing there saying “Would you like fries with that?” a zillion times a day.
Bambi–I know very little Spanish (took one semester of it waaaaaaaaaay back in middle school) despite living with a Spanish speaking person (my stepfather) and being forced to watch Telemundo for a good portion of my life. I honestly don’t see the point in learning Spanish when I know hopefully within the next three or four months, I’ll be out of this job and that will no longer be a problem.
And you brought up a good point. The US does NOT have an official language it’s true. Perhaps we should. I mean, the majority of us do speak English. It would only make sense to make English our national language, the way other countries have made their native language their official language.
IDBB
Saying someones going to get flamed isn’t stirring up shit, it’s stating the obvious. Not to mention giving warning. You know, she may have wanted to go back and clarify some of the things she said or look back and think “yeah, I probably am gonna get flamed for this, maybe I should say something before the shitstorm starts…” Not to mention the fact that saying someone is going to get flamed is hardly considered a personal insult. Calling someone an idiot and a bigot, however, is.
And Zette, give me a freakin’ break. People on these boards use the term “bigot” with way too much reckless abandon. You’ve beyond taken the seriousness away from the word.
Bambi, I was referring to workers that are put in positions dependent on communicating with customers. So basically, there’s nothing we don’t agree on in your post.
beats the hell outta me. Of course, I also wonder why folks are proud to sound like ignorant assholes, too.
Growing up in L.A., I was accustomed to people not speaking English very well. I knew that some of them were working very hard to make a living and probably didn’t have a lot of time to study English. I also was led to believe that many non-English speakers wanted to learn, but the English classes were full up, so they were on a waiting list.
All these things I understood, and still do. I never would dream of being rude to someone who is struggling with English.
However, there are some non-English speakers who have been in the USA for over 5, 10, 20 years ore more and have never learned. Well, OK, so maybe they live in a little insulated environment where they never need to learn English. Fine by me. Absolutely no skin off my nose. But wait! Some of these people who have been here over 5, 10, 20 years ore more are telling me I should learn their language. They’ve been in the USA a long time, they apparently realize that they are at a disadvantage because they cannot communicate with everyone that they want to communicate with, so they bitch because everyone else won’t learn their language? What?
Give me a break. I am not particularly highly motivated to learn a second language, simply because someone else can’t be bothered. (I’d love to learn a second language for its own sake, but not because someone else won’t be bothered. Sorry.) I mean–they can not learn English for all I care–that’s fine–but they have to figure out a way to get by without my help. I can’t feel obligated to learn the umpteen different languages that are be spoken by various non-English-speaking people in the USA.
That’s my beef with a few (selected) members of the non-English-speaking crowd in the USA. I am thankfully aware that most people don’t feel this way, which is a relief. But such an attitude (as I described above) does really grate on my nerves.
another point, IDBB - knowing a second language (especially Spanish, for those in the US) is a highly marketable skill and in some cases is required, even waaaay up north in Michigan.
So, if you’re truly serious about wanting a better job, then I’d suggest that you examine several different avenues toward that, and not be so dismissive of them.