Philadelphia, PA was a poor town that also had major security and safety issues. Many stores including our restaurant have installed bullet-proof glass separating the kitchen from the dining area, as well as the cashier table and everything else.
Many chefs of the restaurant are Chinese immigrants who don't know how to speak English. Of the nine employees, Fang spoke the best English. But even so, this only meant conversational English with specific restaurant word usage and dish names on the menu.
One day, a middle-aged six-foot man ordered $1.25 of wonton soup to go. The wonton soup is one pint in size. It contained three wontons, shredded pork, scallion, and fried noodles.
“No noodles”, the customer said. Fang nodded, and she called into the kitchen in Mandarin saying no fried noodles.
Five minutes later, the wonton soup was ready, and Fang handed it to the customer.
The customer took the order out of the to-go bag and examined the pint. “No noodles, I said no noodles.”
“You see,” Fang leaned in, attempting to explain, “there’s no fried noodles.”
“Not ‘no fried noodles’, ‘no noodles,’” the man pressed, now staring into Fang’s eyes.
“What do you mean by no noodles, there’s none --”
“I. Said. No. Noodles.” The man shouted, his spit bounced back and forth among the air particles. His neck turned red, and he started yelling.
This man’s response received looks of embarrassment from other customers, as they lowered their heads and continued eating. Soon, Fang was surrounded by chefs to see what is going on, “怎么了，怎么了? (What happened, what happened?)”
“他一直强调这说不要面，不要面。但我们里面又没有放面。” Fang was confused as she explained to the chefs who just got more confused.
Out of panic, Fang grabbed the nearest to-go chopstick and picked out the shredded pork. It was the only thing she could think of at the spot.
“That’s pork, I said no noodles.” His arms were swinging in the air. The man’s voice only continued to rise as his tone only demonstrated threat, violence, and anger, but Fang had no choice but to stand taller -- she was the only one who knew to speak English.
“Try this, try this,” the chefs suggested. Next, Fang took out the wonton. Nope. Scallion? Nope. And even dumping the soup? Nope. Everyone was confused and shocked with big eyes, but the man only continued to yell emphasizing “No noodles. No noodles.” Three chefs and one cashier, a total of 4 brains couldn’t figure out one wonton soup.
“算了算了，跟他讲我们不做他生意了,” one chef said as the other two nodded. But Fang didn’t have the balls to say that.
At the end, it was basically just a container.
“If you guys don’t speak English, don’t stay in America, go back to your country.” The customer snapped.
Fang froze. Everyone was silenced, including the chefs that don’t speak English just by how nasty the words sounded. They didn’t understand what the man said, but they did understand the deadly look in Fang’s eyes -- it spoke fear.
But also a crash of dignity.
It was an insult. The type of insult that stabs her to the very core.
Sometimes after that experience, she found out the “noodles” the customer referenced to was the that the the wonton skin -- the thin, delicate sheets of flour wrapped around the wonton
Since that night, no matter how late Fang gets off from work (11PM-1AM), she would always persist in studying one hour of English. Just one English book, a dictionary, and a pencil.
Personal Insight from Fang:
You could have told us any other way, and we would have tried our very best to do whatever we can if you are just willing to explain. It is very possible that the very people standing in front of you today escaped their country just so they can live. No one can immediately fit into a new environment and completely understand the language and culture. It was already hard fitting in, and the transitioning process takes time. You don’t have to understand what it is like being in their shoes because you never will. But just by being sympathetic, you wouldn’t be giving such a hard time to everyone else.
Comments