It’s Not Illegal To Speak Spanish, You Know

I go to a nearby gas station that also made sandwiches and hoagies. At this place, you have to use a touchscreen monitor to place your order; you can’t just go up to an employee and say what you want.

I walk in and I stand near the counter, thinking about what kind of hoagie I should get. I see an older man at one of the monitors. He seems to be frustrated, based on the way he is aggressively tapping on the screen. After a moment, he gives up and sighs with annoyance before going to a different one.

I am curious if the monitor is broken, so I go up to it and try to use it. It turns out that someone has just changed the language on the program from English to Spanish. I didn’t even know you could change the language, and I don’t know Spanish, so I also decide to move to a different monitor. The older man is now next to me on a different monitor, and he notices that I tried to use it after him. He chuckles.

Man: “You tried it, too?”

Just trying to be friendly, I laugh back.

Me: “Yeah, I thought maybe it was broken or something, but then I was just like, ‘Oh, it’s in Spanish!’”

Man: *Chuckles* “I bet one of those illegal aliens did it!”

I was so shocked and didn’t know what to say, so I just didn’t reply to him. I silently finished placing my order and went on with my day. I wish I had said something to him, but I tend to freeze up a bit when talking to someone older than me.