No Toothpicks at MacDonalds

[mhendo]

@Liberal

They’re similar in writing, but they sound very different, especially when you factor in the American tendency to pronounce initial Ts softer than Ts after sibilants and to pronounce middle Ts in vowel clusters as Ds. The Spanish “ah” sound is very different from the English diphthong long A. And the Spanish “eh” is much different from the English Schwa that ends the word. And if the article is added (Spanish almost never uses a noun without its article), then it gets worse. Even if the words were spelled exactly the same way, they would be pronounced differently.

Sure but, in my experience at least, the pronunciation is close enough—especially in a restaurant where the range of predicable words is fairly limited—that most people would probably pick it up.

Actually, now that i think about it, part of my own experience might come from the fact that, as someone who speaks with an Australian accent, i say tom-ah-to rather than tom-ay-to. My own pronunciation is probably closer to the Spanish than the standard American pronunciation.

[Liberal]

Good point, Mhendo. Most Americans do say it the way you said they do, plus the other vowels are more of a schwa than an o — barely discernable, something like this: tuh-MAY-duh.

[World_Eater]

@Casey1505

Why not just use one of the stale french fries under your seat?

Hilarous!

I’ve been laughing for about 5 minutes now.

[DiosaBellissima]

I’m probably going to get dog piled for this, but…

Why is it wrong to expect someone who works in a customer service position (probably dealing with hundreds of people a day) to be able to communicate properly with most of their customers? It isn’t even a “speak English!” rant, it’s a “communicate with your customers” rant. If said McDonalds was in the middle of a heavily Spanish speaking part of town, then it makes sense that everyone there should speak Spanish. If you are in a predominately English-speaking area, it makes sense that the server would speak English.

[RTFirefly]

@mhendo

as someone who speaks with an Australian accent, i say tom-ah-to rather than tom-ay-to.

Let’s call the whole thing off.

[danceswithcats]

@RTFirefly

Let’s call the whole thing off.

Bwahahahahaha!

[missbunny]

@Mr. Roboto

I acquiesced got my chow and grabbed a table. After eating, I approached the counter and asked for a toothpick. The Helper said, “I don’t know”…I said, “you don’t know what?” she said, “O.K. thankyou”, I asked “Where’s my Toothpick” She smiled and said, “O.K. thankyou” I said, Can I have a ToothPick Please? She turned and huddled with 2 other workers and came back and said, " We don’t Got"

WTF?

What’s so “WTF” about it? That they don’t have toothpicks or that the counterperson didn’t understand you? I can understand wanting them to be able to understand your questions but providing toothpicks isn’t a requirement.