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while we have terrible customer service, this sounds like a culture shock. You see what you are explaining here is a typical culture shock. Spanish culture here has influenced even the white and black natives,so when transplants move here they think they are in hell
sorry, bad service has nothing to do with culture shock, its just bad service at the end of the day.
Quote:
People need to understand one thing if they are moving to Miami. Hispanics are direct, especially Hispanics from the islands. If you want to try the ice cream just say let Me try it, give me a sample.
I am from Brooklyn, we invented being direct. Being direct and giving a moronic answer in response have nothing to do with each other.
Quote:
While the second girl should be greeting in English, it might had been a careless mistake. If you want someone to speak to you in English you don't have to be condescending. I would have told off that white person. If there is one thing that annoys Most Hispanics is sarcasm and condescending attitudes from some white people. Cubans are not sarcastic by nature, if something bothers them they will let you know. Double meaning is a white American thing.
I run a business. I assure you, catching attitudes with customers when they say something you don't like is going to land you out of business real quick. Contrary to popular belief there is choice out there. You act like a idiot with a customer and the will just find someone else providing the same service with better customer service to boot.
♥♥PRINC3Ss♥♥sorry, bad service has nothing to do with culture shock, its just bad service at the end of the day.
I am from Brooklyn, we invented being direct. Being direct and giving a moronic answer in response have nothing to do with each other.
I run a business. I assure you, catching attitudes with customers when they say something you don't like is going to land you out of business real quick. Contrary to popular belief there is choice out there. You act like a idiot with a customer and the will just find someone else providing the same service with better customer service to boot.
Honestly that was a moronic answer for a moronic question. If the person spoke English as a second language, she might not understood what he was implying and maybe thought he wanted her to describe the flavor. Do you speak a secong language fluently Wild? I don't think you do. You just don't learn words, you learn a new culture all together. And You don't learn everything, especially here in Miami when most of us don't even have to use English ever.
And there are rude customer service employees and there are obnoxious customers. I know you probably thought the white guy was funny, but if I see someone doing that to a service employee I would get insulted myself. I would rather have them say their speech about being in America or just say "English!!" than having that condescending Attitude. There is something very insulting and offensive about treating people like children. On top of that many Hispanics like myself associate lack of Spanish tolerance with racist behavior. You can just asK for English or just talk back in English. There is no need to be rude just because you are the customer. leave the Attitude, condesendation and humor for another city where 70% of the population is not Hispanic.
Personally I think you can tell a lot of people's character by the way they treat customer service workers, especially fast food employees.
It never ceases to amaze me that people are not aware that Miami is largely HISPANIC. This didn't happen overnight, folks. Either learn Spanish right away or learn to deal with it.
So, what does Miami being largely Hispanic and learning Spanish have to do with each other?
quote=Jmlacysr: I can see these stories being very true. I think it's two things. Standards and the workforce.
In NYC, you walk up and meet people and receive a professional greeting. It comes standard there. Everyone is expected to act that way. Not so in Miami.
Believe me, that was not always the case. If you think so, I got two words for you - "YO MAMA". NY'ers know how that's pronounced. NY being nice is a very new thing.
In Miami they have to man the workforce. I think they pick the lesser of the two evils when interviewing candidates. They need warm bodies.
Just being incompetent about your job is not a Miami exclusive but I have lesser of an issue when they are incompetent and don't have an attitude on top of it. At least be nice about what a buffoon you are.
Right. I often tell young people they shouldn't underestimate the commercial value of simple good manners. That commodity is not inherent, and having that simple skill can be a significant advantage.
But having said that, the Home Depot around me offers world class service. Who would have thought. I think it has to do with Management than anything else.
It's really interesting some of the personal encounters I've had here. Some delightful total surprises with strangers and others not so heartwarming.
I'm finding Miami is a city of extremes and by and large people are friendlier and more polite here than Dallas. I'm finding bigotry and suppression of the blacks here much less of an issue. Blacks in Dallas are angry, Blacks here seem more resolved to their under class status. I live in an area that's 65% black and have had no issues so far. The blacks here seem more educated as well and much easier to approach.
I like 99% of the Hispanics here. Warm and friendly with a sense of family and community. Better educated than the Mexicans we have in Dallas and I like Cuban food. My neighbord is making me black beans and rice today. I'll take him some Blackeyed peas and ham in exchange.
We tend to talk about all the bad things about Miami on here and less of the good. I think that's a mistake. I'm finding some very good things about Miami and better than where we came from.
I have a dozen of cool stories.
See? Miami - Never boring.
Some funny like my landlord trying to get work done around my place and some just nice. Like they guy I met eating lunch at Checkers. Two total strangers just grabbing a bite then going about our way with good conversion in between. One black guy one white, no big deal.
Or how people knock on your door here. They barley knock at all. Or how when someone calls they ask if they are disturbing you in the middle of the day. When I asked why they would think that, they said" You might be taking a nap."
Didn't I say "nosey"? Nosiness is not really all bad if you're an easygoing person. Mostly I was amused by their endless curiosity.
Or here's a good one. How the city is persevered by the locals. All those murals over on Miami ave would have gang signs all over them in Dallas. Not so here, even though it's a nasty area, the art work is preserved. They seem to have respect.
Here's a big one and hard to explain but here goes.
I went in that place called Art by God on Biscayne just to browse around. I was shocked how close I could get to the merchandise there. I could get nose to nose with a Woolly mammoth skull. Touch it close. In Dallas, that would have been behind ropes, Plexiglas with a guard not too far off. It's as though the shop owner knew nobody is going to be touching it, Miami people have respect.
I drove by a food bank one day and outside were volunteers handing out food. What struck me were the smiles on the faces of the volunteers. They were feeling good about helping the less fortunate and it's was tangible enough to feel it.
I walked into a dump of a grocery store around 79th near us1. The workers in there we lively, happy and cutting up with one another. It's was like a family and looked like everyone one was having a great time working there even though the conditions were deplorable by most standards.
I don't want to say all of Miami is great. I get it, parts are a hell hole and the dodgy seem everywhere. But it does have it's positives and particularly about it's people and I think these are often overlooked on this forum.
I'm finding the riches of Miami not on Fisher island but actually in Miami's people. The poor may be poor, but they are often better people than the rich snobs I lived with in Dallas.
If you search my posts, you will find me saying again and again the poor folks who live on the ground in MIA have a wealth of human-ness that the over-privileged dead souls warehoused in those luxury tower prisons will never know.
I also find when I get down on Miami, I walk my dog and we go sit on the bay. After a few minutes, I know why I am here and the bad thoughts about Miami soon go away.
And yes, that without question, is an indisputable fact. No matter where you are on the big beautiful blue ocean be it Biscayne or Baffin Bay, the giant power and purity of the the mighty ocean redeems the soul. A 86 year old WW1 (yes WW1 not 2) vet who just came back from a jog on the beach told me "sonny, that water cures cancer". It is a therapy for which I can feel the physical effects here doing without.
Sounds like things are going good JM. Tres coolio.
I know you probably thought the white guy was funny, but if I see someone doing that to a service employee I would get insulted myself. I would rather have them say their speech about being in America or just say "English!!" than having that condescending Attitude. There is something very insulting and offensive about treating people like children. On top of that many Hispanics like myself associate lack of Spanish tolerance with racist behavior.
I agree with you on that Princess. I would never do that. I, being a northern born native NY'er of German and Irish descent, had no necessity to learn Spanish. But while in school I estimated the most useful second language I could (can) learn was Spanish, simply by the number of speakers in and near the US. So I took it. Now combine that with simple good manners, I would walk in the door and respond to a greeting in Spanish appropriately in Spanish, and if I got to the point where my meager Spanish will not suffice, I have learned to say (in Spanish, which is illegal to type on this forum) "I'm sorry Miss, but my Spanish is not that good. Do you speak any English?" Now what's so hard about that? What's so hard about that is people w/o simple manners don't have sense enough to take a tactful approach.
Young American fellow transplant friends I made in SoBe back in the day used to talk about "opening the doors" with the Hispanic folk. We would say to our Spanish speaking friends (in Spanish) "I am trying to learn to speak some Spanish so I can communicate with you. Now you should do your part and try to learn to speak some English so it is easier for you to communicate with us."
And the quest goes on. Here in Dallas I have similar opportunity to exercise my Espanol, and I have discovered an exciting new approach that was not available in 1990. You Tube, rock music in Spanish, online lyrics, and Google Translate. I've been discovering and enjoying a wealth of great music from South of the border and all the while learning more and more Spanish from my new favorite groups like the Los Enanitos Verdes or San Pascualito Rey. Great art and language lessons all in one. Only thing that could be better is a hot Latina instructor. Oh but yeah, I got that too.
Honestly that was a moronic answer for a moronic question. If the person spoke English as a second language, she might not understood what he was implying and maybe thought he wanted her to describe the flavor. Do you speak a secong language fluently Wild? I don't think you do. You just don't learn words, you learn a new culture all together. And You don't learn everything, especially here in Miami when most of us don't even have to use English ever.
And there are rude customer service employees and there are obnoxious customers. I know you probably thought the white guy was funny, but if I see someone doing that to a service employee I would get insulted myself. I would rather have them say their speech about being in America or just say "English!!" than having that condescending Attitude. There is something very insulting and offensive about treating people like children. On top of that many Hispanics like myself associate lack of Spanish tolerance with racist behavior. You can just asK for English or just talk back in English. There is no need to be rude just because you are the customer. leave the Attitude, condesendation and humor for another city where 70% of the population is not Hispanic.
Personally I think you can tell a lot of people's character by the way they treat customer service workers, especially fast food employees.
I think you are shooting in the dark colombiana, most Yankees have an superiority complex attitude that won't go away, they were raised that way since they were little, American culture is all about money, power and MYSELF, always MYSELF, everything else are just exotic details in the universe.
Look at here how much effort you are putting on trying to explain people how Miami runs but they just do not want to listen to you, no wonder so many Yankees had a hard time coping with Miami.
Again you are beating a dead horse, if gringos have such problems let them bring their lawyers ***MOD CUT***
Last edited by doggiebus; 11-24-2010 at 05:58 PM..
Reason: Inappropriate Language / English Language Only
I'ts not just the "all about me" attitude when it comes to being rude, it also spills out in to the streets with the drivers having that same attitude. These people think they, and where they are going is so much more important than everyone else, they don't care what kind of havoc they may cause on the roads, as long as they get there 2 seconds before everyone else.
Many of these people with this kind of attitude are young people, and those that are older are probably their parents who taught them to be this way (apples usually don't fall far from their trees). I'm sure there's a few that have adapted to this kind of behavior with the thought of "survival of th fittest" You know they say it's a jungle out there, and people do behave like wild animals these days.
Elde - we relocated from Miami a couple of years ago and are back to visit for
Thanksgiving - I give you 1000 reps - the driving alone is unbelievable. Sad thing is after a few days I find myself reverting to the speeding up to get into your proper lane - but you have no choice!
I can see these stories being very true. I think it's two things. Standards and the workforce.
I'm finding bigotry and suppression of the blacks here much less of an issue. Blacks in Dallas are angry, Blacks here seem more resolved to their under class status. I live in an area that's 65% black and have had no issues so far. The blacks here seem more educated as well and much easier to approach.
I like 99% of the Hispanics here. Warm and friendly with a sense of family and community. Better educated than the Mexicans we have in Dallas and I like Cuban food. My neighbord is making me black beans and rice today. I'll take him some Blackeyed peas and ham in exchange.
Like they guy I met eating lunch at Checkers. Two total strangers just grabbing a bite then going about our way with good conversion in between. One black guy one white, no big deal.
I walked into a dump of a grocery store around 79th near us1. The workers in there we lively, happy and cutting up with one another. It's was like a family and looked like everyone one was having a great time working there even though the conditions were deplorable by most standards.
I'm finding the riches of Miami not on Fisher island but actually in Miami's people. The poor may be poor, but they are often better people than the rich snobs I lived with in Dallas.
I also find when I get down on Miami, I walk my dog and we go sit on the bay. After a few minutes, I know why I am here and the bad thoughts about Miami soon go away.
For the first few paragraphs of quotes - Whoa! Your worldview and choice of words are very interesting.
As for sitting on the dock of the day - soon that wont be enough. Trust me.
I think you are shooting in the dark colombiana, most Yankees have an superiority complex attitude that won't go away, they were raised that way since they were little, American culture is all about money, power and MYSELF, always MYSELF, everything else are just exotic details in the universe.
Look at here how much effort you are putting on trying to explain people how Miami runs but they just do not want to listen to you, no wonder so many Yankees had a hard time coping with Miami.
Again you are beating a dead horse, if gringos have such problems let them bring their lawyers or que se vayan pa' la pinga.
Ewww. Very ugly, narrow contribution. Racist, vulgar - whereas Princess speaks up well to represent her people, this post is a perfect representation of the problems with Miami. Gracias, pero no ...
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) "I'm sorry Miss, but my Spanish is not that good. Do you speak any English?" Now what's so hard about that? 
What's so hard about that is people w/o simple manners don't have sense enough to take a tactful approach.
