That may be fine in the setting you describe but it certainly doesn't apply in a public place like a coffee shop.
I also didn't realise you could tell a person was off by looking at them.
Of course you can - non-verbal communication is a thing. Aside from being "altered", often a person will just "vibe" anxiety or hostility or just a nebulous negativity that is easily observed through their countenance. I'm not saying this is the case for the person in the article - that picture is not too conclusive IMO.
People get intoxicated with all kinds of substances every day.
That's why I questioned your statement in the first place. You asserted you cannot tell someone is off simply by looking at them. You may not know what, but often you can observe something is "off".
Absolutely!
I would think nothing of an employee speaking another language to a fellow coworker, especially if the other employee is being asked to help with serving me and instructions are being passed on from the person dealing directly with me. I come from a country where we expect government employees to speak a minimum of 2 languages, if not more when dealing with the public. Speaking languages other than English is a good thing. It certainly would never cross my mind to get upset at fellow customers in a shop conversing in their language of choice.
It is not at all uncommon in Canada for older, first-generation immigrants to never learn English - many of them live in insular communities and we have no expectation of the "cultural melting pot" that exists in America. While it may be functionally problematic in some settings, we're certainly unlikely to ever be offended by it.
...He was irate & filled the manager in on what the employees were saying about the costumers. They were saying some really nasty stuff thinking no one in line could understand them. I don't know, if anything ever came of it, but this guy made sure the manager knew he'd be reporting it to cooperate. FWIW, it appeared the manager didn't speak that language either.
LOVE this! I have pretty high standards for courteous customer service and what your describing is outrageous.
I dunno. You don't have to read very far into to Trip Advisor reviews to find Americans "complaining" that the staff at a Mexican resort doesn't speak English well. It constantly amazes me that people travel to a foreign country and EXPECT that everyone will speak English. That's an ugly American thing. And, it's more common than we thing. When I travel to a foreign country, where English isn't the norm, I make it a point to learn a few simple phrases in the native language. That's called courtesy and cultural awareness. My general experience is that people in other industrialized countries place far more importance on learning another language than Americans do.
I am a unilingual English speaker, and I'm certainly aware
the problem is on my end. I've travelled to Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and Europe and felt very, very awkward about
MY inability to communicate with
THEM. It wouldn't occur to me to view it the other way.
I wonder how many people you know who expect English to be spoken in foreign destinations. But my guess would be that them wanting people to speak English in the US is that they feel that people living there should learn to speak English. There is only one official language in the US. It's not right that my voting card and info in Florida comes in Spanish. I'm getting telemarketing calls in Spanish. The stop signs now in construction areas along I-4 are now in Spanish. In Canada things are in French and English as there are 2 official languages. That's the way it should be in that case. Unless the US becomes officially a duel language country, every thing should be in English only.
Sounds practical to me. And in my part of Canada there's virtually
NO French signage of any kind or any services available in French outside the federal building. Visit Vancouver some time. If you were simply going by signage and available services, you'd almost certainly guess the 2nd official language was a Chinese dialect, not French. Again, it's a matter of practicality.