The cafeteria's on the Microsoft campus are pretty decent most of the time. Sometimes the lines can take a while, so I usually choose where I eat based on that. Today I went early so I chose The Pasta ya Gotcha, who's lines can get slow. I usually order the Texas Tijuana Taco Penne or just Taco Penne for short. It's pretty good, it's easy for them to make, and they sell a lot of it. Instead of ordering the Taco Penne, I decided to give the Penne Puttanesca a try.
For those of you who don't know, Puttanesca is basically a tomato sauce. So I go up to the counter and give the girl my order, but being an English speaking person, I had a hard time with the pronunciation. I can't really spell out what I sounded like but it was roughly, "putschensciahss." I expected the girl to laugh at my bad pronunciation, correct me, and then make it. Instead she stared at me blankly. So, I tried saying it more clearly, basically enunciating each of the letters, "Putt-an-es-ca." She still had no clue. I tried pointing at the menu, and saying "the one on at the bottom of the menu." But it's hung above the counter so that the people who work there can't see it. She turned to the other guy working, who thought I wanted to know how much it cost. "No," I responded, "I want the Penne Putt-an-es-ca. How do you say it?" After some more hand waving and pointing they eventually figured out what I wanted and started to make it.
Since I was obviously still mispronouncing it, I wanted to know how to say it so they would understand if I ever ordered it again. So I asked, "How do you say it?" pointing to what she was cooking. She then said, "You don't want." with a thick Spanish accent, thinking I had changed my mind. "No, no I want it." waving my hands, letting her know to keep making it. At this point the other guy goes to the back to grab a third person. Now you would think, this third person would be the manager or at least someone who spoke English. But you would be wrong with that thought. The third person came out, and I asked "How do you say Putt-an-es-ca?" he also had no clue what I was talking about, and after a few more attempts at communication, I finally just waved him off with a "never mind." I took what they made me, and resolved myself to only ordering the Taco Penne from then on.
Bitch! If you work in a service industry, learn to speak the mother fucking language!
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