Random incident at the bus stop
Today I was sitting at the bus stop in front of Fred Meyer when an old woman walked up to me. She looked like she was in her mid-70s. She was pulling one of those personal mini-carts loaded with her shopping from Fred Meyer. I was sitting there waiting for Damian, and a couple of teenage girls were there too.
The old woman spoke extremely accented English. I'm not even sure all the words she spoke were English. All I could make out was "downtown" and that she was asking a question.
For the record, I hate having to ask people to repeat themselves. Over the years I've reached the point where I will make assumptions about what the person said. Most of the time either I am right or it simply doesn't matter.
I assumed that she probably wanted a bus. I will list the reasons for this assumption. 1) We were at a bus stop. 2) The parking lot was behind us. She did not look like she was likely to have a car, or else why would she drag her stuff around in a mini-cart? 3) Downtown is a LONG way away (something like 8 miles) and I don't think most people would want to push a load of groceries that far. 4) It was cold, dark, and raining, and no sane person would want to walk very far at all in this weather.
I told her that she wanted the bus stop across the street, because this bus stop was going away from downtown. Well, you would have thought I'd just told her to "gtfo of mah country ya dirty immigrant!" because she promptly erupted like a volcano, yelling loudly that she had not asked for a bus, all she had asked was which way was downtown. I was momentarily stunned, because what the hell? I pointed in the direction of downtown, and said it was that way. She stomped off in a huff without so much as a thank-you.
The two teenage girls immediately burst out in that nervous "wtf just happened?" sort of laughter. I often see it on the bus when someone flips their shit for no obvious reason. Apparently the bus they wanted had just arrived, because they gathered up their things and left. One of them said "ah, sorry" in a sympathetic kind of way.
I've been around a lot of people who speak limited English at Nintendo. I almost always get along with them pretty well, and I am willing to be patient and try to understand what they want. No one would say I am intolerant or bigoted against foreign immigrants. I mean, hey, if she'd spoken more loudly and less garbled the first time, maybe I would have understood her better. Even if she'd spoken perfect English, I probably would have still directed her to the bus stop after telling her which way to go, because of the reasons I outlined above.
Was I wrong to assume she wanted a bus? It left me with a lot of questions. Like, how did she find Fred Meyer in the first place if she didn't know how to get home? (Although I do remember how easily I got confused when I first moved here, there is only one major street and a smaller cross-street at this Fred Meyer. Surely you would remember how you approached it?) Did she think I was being nasty with her because of her limited English? When I was in Europe, I was always apologetic and polite because hey, their language is dominant, not mine, so if I want help it seems like being polite would be a good idea.
I am confused. I wonder if she is just that angry all of the time.
Edit:
It seems like when I am free to sleep in as long as I want, I end up having really weird dreams. They tend to be extremely long and complex. Last night I had another one. Here is an extreme summary of just one scene.
Some kind of Hitler/Voldemort hybrid of pure evil had managed to take over the USA. He'd made many people into slaves, including me. For some reason, the task I was assigned was to figure out how to make various war machines like the four legged walkers seen in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes back. We had detailed close-up pictures of them and they were clearly made from LEGO. I was apparently in some kind of supervisory role, to help my fellow slaves successfully build a functioning copy. With LEGO. And this was just one part. Eventually the Hitler/Voldemort monster was taken down by using a magic protection spell that involved infecting ourselves with some kind of pox that gave us immunity from him. WTF, brain, why do you do this to me?
The old woman spoke extremely accented English. I'm not even sure all the words she spoke were English. All I could make out was "downtown" and that she was asking a question.
For the record, I hate having to ask people to repeat themselves. Over the years I've reached the point where I will make assumptions about what the person said. Most of the time either I am right or it simply doesn't matter.
I assumed that she probably wanted a bus. I will list the reasons for this assumption. 1) We were at a bus stop. 2) The parking lot was behind us. She did not look like she was likely to have a car, or else why would she drag her stuff around in a mini-cart? 3) Downtown is a LONG way away (something like 8 miles) and I don't think most people would want to push a load of groceries that far. 4) It was cold, dark, and raining, and no sane person would want to walk very far at all in this weather.
I told her that she wanted the bus stop across the street, because this bus stop was going away from downtown. Well, you would have thought I'd just told her to "gtfo of mah country ya dirty immigrant!" because she promptly erupted like a volcano, yelling loudly that she had not asked for a bus, all she had asked was which way was downtown. I was momentarily stunned, because what the hell? I pointed in the direction of downtown, and said it was that way. She stomped off in a huff without so much as a thank-you.
The two teenage girls immediately burst out in that nervous "wtf just happened?" sort of laughter. I often see it on the bus when someone flips their shit for no obvious reason. Apparently the bus they wanted had just arrived, because they gathered up their things and left. One of them said "ah, sorry" in a sympathetic kind of way.
I've been around a lot of people who speak limited English at Nintendo. I almost always get along with them pretty well, and I am willing to be patient and try to understand what they want. No one would say I am intolerant or bigoted against foreign immigrants. I mean, hey, if she'd spoken more loudly and less garbled the first time, maybe I would have understood her better. Even if she'd spoken perfect English, I probably would have still directed her to the bus stop after telling her which way to go, because of the reasons I outlined above.
Was I wrong to assume she wanted a bus? It left me with a lot of questions. Like, how did she find Fred Meyer in the first place if she didn't know how to get home? (Although I do remember how easily I got confused when I first moved here, there is only one major street and a smaller cross-street at this Fred Meyer. Surely you would remember how you approached it?) Did she think I was being nasty with her because of her limited English? When I was in Europe, I was always apologetic and polite because hey, their language is dominant, not mine, so if I want help it seems like being polite would be a good idea.
I am confused. I wonder if she is just that angry all of the time.
Edit:
It seems like when I am free to sleep in as long as I want, I end up having really weird dreams. They tend to be extremely long and complex. Last night I had another one. Here is an extreme summary of just one scene.
Some kind of Hitler/Voldemort hybrid of pure evil had managed to take over the USA. He'd made many people into slaves, including me. For some reason, the task I was assigned was to figure out how to make various war machines like the four legged walkers seen in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes back. We had detailed close-up pictures of them and they were clearly made from LEGO. I was apparently in some kind of supervisory role, to help my fellow slaves successfully build a functioning copy. With LEGO. And this was just one part. Eventually the Hitler/Voldemort monster was taken down by using a magic protection spell that involved infecting ourselves with some kind of pox that gave us immunity from him. WTF, brain, why do you do this to me?