Today I stopped by Marina, the local Asian market, to pick up some groceries for dinner. As the checkout clerk started to ring up my first bag of dumpling, I see this woman in her mid 40s came running and stopped at my checkout counter. She then, very loudly in Mandarin (in a thick mainland accent), asked the checkout lady to ring her up first because she was late to pick up her son. She then said, "just tell this woman (that would be me) that I was here first!" She thought I couldn't understand the language...
Wow, I was so shocked! Manners, people! Manners!! This is the one thing that my teachers and elders emphasized in school when I was growing up, and is one of the virtues that the Chinese cultural prized upon. Yet there I was, after witnessing numerous almost-accidents in Marina's parking lot because people couldn't wait for one extra second...and then this Chinese lady tried to cut in front of me in the checkout line. I know she just assumed I didn't speak the language, but if she could've just asked me to let her go first, I would've probably let her.
Same thing with working at the store. A lot of our customers are Asian...and even if you don't speak English very well, you should at least show some friggin' manners. Yet some just walk in, stand next to the front door thinking they are in some imaginary line, that help will magically appear. I know some people believe that when they walk into a retail store, they are "superior", and will pull some BS like the customers are always right. But all that aside, a simple greeting and a thank you at the end will do just fine. I
Oh and how did I respond to this rudeness at Marina? I turned to the woman and told her off in Mandarin of course.
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