Yesterday, I drove Rachel back to Westfield State College for Spring Semester. (We're all kind of bummed out that the car Rachel drives is "dead" so I had to drive her.) After spending time at Westfield State, I stopped at McDonald's in Westfield. I really like the "413 Area Code". It's a "different" Massachusetts. Life moves slower. People watch Springfield and Hartford T.V. stations and listen to Springfield radio stations. They DON'T have Boston accents...that accents disappears around 10 miles west of Worcester. Yes, I really like the "413 Area Code" BUT communication can get interesting...
As I said, I went to McDonald's. The order I placed was one I've placed all over the Boston area a number of times with NO problems: "I'd like a medium DECAF ice coffee...about half ice....cream and two sugars". I order that around Framingham all the time. Well, first the woman who waited on me looked at me very confused and said, "We don't have decaf ice coffee, only HOT coffee". Above her was a big sign which was a photo of an ice coffee and a sign saying "Now available in decaf!". I chose to just let it go.
"O.K." I said, "I'll have regular ice coffee."
The woman still looked totally confused. She called her manager over and asked the manager, "How do I give him ice coffee with half the ice, half the cream, and half the sugar?"
I shook my head and explained what I wanted to the manager.
A guy behind me in line said, "I couldn't understand what you wanted, either!"...like I was a weirdo, or something.
Maybe I shouldn't have said this, but I said, "I'm from the Boston area and I place this order there all the time with no problems. I guess once you go west of the Connecticut river everything changes!"
They shook their heads and agreed that it DOES!
You probably thought I was going to write about people waiting on you in Portuguese or something. (THAT happens in Framingham!) And, in the midwest, people can't handle the Boston accent, but THIS WAS STILL MASSACHUSETTS....
man .... communication ..... culture .... cross-culture .... whatever .....
IT'S A PROBLEM!
1 comment:
well, it's easy to get what you were saying when you type it and add these--> .....
it could be that they ran out of decaf and that's why they couldn't give it to you... but you should say "decaf coffee cream and 2 sugars, but with like half ice..." so that they get it better... honestly, though, i don't know why you insist on saying "half ice" and when you order a coke you'll say "not too much ice in the coke"... why not just let them make it the way they know how and avoid confusion all together?
it upsets me that you like the box so much
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