Are they being unreasonable? Banned from local KFC today

[GraciousLife]

Popped into my local KFC today. Due to the area I live in, they have screens up between customer and cashier (like in post offices and banks), which makes it hard to hear what is being said. I didn't understand what the girl asked me, and, as I often say when I don't understand what someone has said, I jokingly said "Can I have that in English please", without thinking/realising/noticing the cashier was from another country (english being her second language).

The cashier got very upset. More upset than I would have thought is necessary, and refused to continue to serve me. I was shocked. She got her manager and told her what I had said. To cut a very long story short, I have been banned from the store.

Oh I love this thread

OP please answer the previous questions of how they serve you a bucket with a screen up and also the one about how the staff will know you are banned. Purely for my amusement.

Wah you are out of control. Upsetting the beenies like that...

The only times I've used that phrase is in a word environment where someone has been using so much jargon or terminology that whist I can hear the words, it doesn't make sense. I'd certainly not use it as an alternative for "I can't hear you properly". In the OP's situation the comment would come across at best as rude and I can certainly see the server viewing it as racist.

Coz Birmingham is obviously well rough innit like? Oh yeah I got me an Asbo for de KFC and I'm like, wow that is sick man! I mean, all I did woz ask this worker to speak Inglish coz I cudn't unnerstand 'er, know wot I mean bro? Next fing I is getting chucked out like! Wicked!

I use this phrase all the time when DH starts wittering on about some sort of technological wizardry , i use it when i mean ' sorry im too dim to have a clue what you are on about ,please rephrase so that my luddite brain can understand'!
Whilst i can understand why perhaps the girl got upset , surely an explanation as to what the term means should of been the end of it , given that you were not intending it to be an insult or racist.

ArtVandelay - I love your name. Are you an architect by any chance? Or A judge?

I'm a librarian by profession. Oh the people I've banned. Doing the nasty in the rolling stacks, ordering and receiving Dominos pizza from the fire exit and eating it in the restricted section, leaping the counter and punching a trolley. Tis a hefty power to wield.

"Fuck layman, do you speak English?" Event Horizon I think.

Always understood it to be a retort to complicated jargon.

Respec' Showy. I'm a wee bit scared of you now

I think the OP needs to understand that people who dont have english as their first language are not going to 'get' innocent english phrases such as 'say that again in english' . Its one of those phrases that isnt used by everyone on a daily basis , so people are going to have to be here a long time or be learning english for a long time before they understand it . Although agree with others when they said you used it in the wrong context on this occasion.
Loved it when a Polish girl i worked with came up to me one day and said ,what is that phrase you say ,oh i remember ..... for fucks sake !

SOH
Would the pizza eater have been banned if he had not eaten it in the Restricted Section?

Is it pizza restricted? I do think you should have signs up, in that case.

Yes, i have used the term in German, "Nochmals auf Deutsch, bitte" to say that I have not understood geeky stuff. Never used it in English.

A Frenchman said to me once "you eengleesh, you call us frogs, non? Yes, you do, the French are frogs? Non? We look like the frogs?" I really didn't know how to answer that one! Oh and a neighbour proudly boasting he knew some English phrases "suuck my dick!" He couldn't understand why I was pissing myself!

I remember when at work I had to fill some form with personal details.(my 1st 'real' job in the uk)
I thought oh no I can put 'tenant blind' let me use nice phrase so I put down 'tenant invisible' ...

I believe the French call the English les rosbifs for similar reasons.

NO food in the library. NONE. The signs were even illustrated for the hard of thinking. The location of the crime being the restricted section just made it worse. I had to peer over my specs AND tap my foot.

19% of students admitted to fornicating in the library and many more left odd bookmarks in texts. You know, underpants, lettuce, nude polaroids...

Rhubarb that reminds me of this

They do Andre, although I didn't know that at the time! Lots of English pubs called Le Rosbif over there. Not so many French restaurants called Le Frog over here I don't think!

I also taught a group of French students the word "wanker". I was a great teacher!

Ha ha Kladdkaka! Yes in the French supermarkets all the uncensored English songs are played so I remember shopping with dd who was then 5 and ds who was 1 to the background music of Eminen effing and ranting all the way through!

Ooohhh the secret life of a librarian.

I was in Geneva when a song by Lily Allen came out called "fuck you" and it was quite commonly played over the radio, during the day. I spent a lot of that visit like that near radios

ShowOfHands - you have probably seen this a thousand times already.

Abs
I hardly had the radio on last summer as it was on the radio ALL THE TIME.

DS was watching something on youtube yesterday (and let me warn you that the parental controls on the iPod are no good at catching this) and the lego man said something about ...fucking ...

Reminds me of a story when my son worked in Mcdonalds in his uni days. They did get lots of stick and general I'm 'superior to you' attitude. One of his colleagues however was quite fiesty and had previously worked at BurgerKing. He used to have a real pompous twat man come in who was really condescending and spoke to all the staff very slowly and deliberately as if they had learning difficulties - then speak to his companion(s) at a normal rate. One night he came in and said 'l want a XXBurger with x y z sauce on it etc etc - but listen this is very important - I dont want the burger in -- it

My sons friend having had quite enough of this guy (and the job in general) now repeated his order back to him - in the same tone - and then confirmed so you want an XXBurger but without the burger?

'Yes' the man said impatiently.

'Fuck -- Off' said my sons mate while whipping his pinny off throwing it on the counter and walking out - never to return.

I understand HQ had a two hour phone call the next day with the man insisting they discipline / sack this lad which obviously they couldnt as he'd already left.

On the subject of OP l think YWBU in a way as it probably sounded quite sarcastic aimed at a person who spoke English as a second language. But in a way l agree with those saying that public facing staff should really be able to speak good English and l hate speaking to overseas call centres because of the language barriers along with endless queues/menus etc etc it just makes it really hard work. I always try and do business with companies that use UK based call centres.

All those who say that they can't understand foreign accents - what about British accents? What about a heavy Glasweigan accent? Or a Brummie accent? Or Welsh? We have a diverse set of accents on this tiny island and some of them can be quite strong. So you would object to a call centre operator with a heavy Indian accent but would find it ok to talk to an operator who had a very strong Scouse accent?

I don't object to any call centre operator with understandable English and the ability for independent thought. However the latter is often lacking, and I want to throw the phone when they are incapable of going off script.

I think what this thread is showing is that people think they're not saying something racist if they don't intend to be racist.

It doesn't really work like that. It might absolve you from being a racist, but it doesn't mean that what you said wasn't racist.

As someone said on the exotic hair thread -- if you step on someone's foot, it doesn't hurt any less if you do it accidentally.

OP -- your little joke isn't funny anyway, and in this day and age it's pretty foolish to go around saying it when you don't know who you're talking to.