Sorry, The Speaker Doesn’t Come With A Translate Function

I used to work in fast food. We would regularly have people from construction crews come in, and one person would usually end up ordering for the entire group — anywhere from five to twenty people. Often, these guys wouldn’t speak English, so they’d come in the store, we’d bust out the picture menu for them, and things would go pretty smoothly.

Every once in a while, though, these guys would decide to come through the drive-thru, and that was always an ordeal. If you’ve ever tried to take an order from someone who doesn’t speak the same language you do, is ordering for fifteen people, and is talking through a drive-thru speaker, you’ll realize it is one of the most frustrating experiences there is.

One day, this guy was trying to order and just kept yelling, “Two, two, four!” over and over and over.

At first, I thought he was ordering a number two meal and two number four meals. Apparently not. He got more emphatic with his shouting. So, I looked through the menu and found an item priced at $2.44 and thought that might be what he wanted. Wrong again!

He yelled for a few minutes more, and then just started going off on me in Spanish.

Meanwhile, I was yelling back through the speaker:

Me: “I don’t speak Spanish! I don’t know what you want! Come order inside!”

After a few minutes of this, I realized it wasn’t going anywhere and started helping other customers.

The guy eventually gave up and decided to come inside, but not to order. Oh, no, it was too late for that. This guy came in irate and was yelling and screaming profanity at everyone behind the counter.

The funny thing is that he was cussing and yelling at us in English when he came inside. Oh, you speak English now all of a sudden? Great!