Language revelations.

So it turns out that there's not one, but **two** different indigenous languages spoken by the (Guatemalan) guys back in the kitchen.

It turns out that the one fry cook and his brother speak something different from the rest of the guys, so if they start speaking that, they can't understand them at all.

I was poking around a bit, and it turns out that what they speak is actually spoken by more people in (Guatemala), but what with immigration patterns, they're in the minority here, and this other rarer indigenous language is actually more prevalent locally.

Lack of Spanish vocabulary.

The other week at the (Thai) restaurant when one of the (Guatemalan) cooks was plating up a plate of fried pork potstickers, I asked him what they were called in Spanish.

He said he didn't know.

A (Thai) restaurant line or 2, about crab rangoons.

At the (Thai) restaurant where I now work, for some reason we serve 5 crab rangoons in an order.

So, whenever there's a table of 4 and they order the crab rangoons and then there's one left on the plate in the middle of the table, I'm always like, "Can I bring you a knife so you can cut it up 4 ways?".

Then, when they chuckle mildly and say "No," I'm like, "Would you like me to throw it up in the air like a jump ball?"

And, that last line usually makes them chuckle harder.

Amazing healthcare access.

I'm astounded at how much better my healthcare access is where I live now.

Like, I realized this fall that I had a strange mole on my back, and right away I could get a GP appointment, then the referral to the dermatologist was prompt and smooth, and then the news about slight abnormalities in the biopsy came back in a week, and then I was able to get another follow-up appointment for removal within another two weeks.

Like, that's insanely easy and efficient.

If I was still in the city that I used to live in, I'd have to locate my new GP that year (networks change so much!), then try to figure out a dermatologist from the bad and narrow listings, and then maybe have to travel for over an hour-and-a-half to get there, and who knows when I'd even be able to get an appointment anyways, and then by the time you have a follow-up appointment, you might be in the next calendar year and you'd have to find a new provider etc. and ensure carry-over of paperwork and care.

Like, one of my healthcare providers this year scanned through my medical records, and he was like, "Yep, that's a lot of different providers."

It's just astounding to me how basic ACA insurance has lost basic functionality in so many major metropolitans (or so I've read, and saw with my own eyes in one). Like, the networks are so narrow and fly-by-night, that the sheer onerousness of it all discourages basic care.

I don't know if it's the smaller size of the place that I live in or the tight insurer-hospital network relationship like they have in some places, but if it's that or if it's something else entirely, whatever it is, I'm thankful, because now my basic ACA insurance is back to like how good it was when it debuted, and maybe actually it's even a slight hair better than that, believe it or not.

Nice work perk.

I think at work that I can not only get a staff meal, but I can also bring back in a take-out container and re-use it to bring the food home in, rather than getting new containers every time and just throwing them out everyday...

I wasn't sure if I could do that -- would it somehow be unsanitary back in the kitchen? -- but I brought one in and had them plate rather than put in styrofoam the fried rice that I was getting that day, and then I went to go get my reused take-out container from the utility room where we keep our coats, so I could transfer the food into that, since there should be no sanitation problem with something like that.

"Oh, you can give that to the kitchen and they can do that for you," my one (young) (Thai) (newlywed) coworker was like, when she saw me and I told her what I was doing.

"[The names of the owners] won't mind?", I was like. "I don't want to do anything unsanitary."

"Oh no, they will love that," my coworker was like (implying that they'd like it, how I'd be saving them money?).

Potential life trajectory of a barely known coworker.

So, one of the (Guatemalans) from back in the kitchen is moving home soon, after living here and working at the (Thai) restaurant for more than a decade.

I don't know him much, he's shorter and very thin but with a huge inset double chin, and he always wears these big wrap-around safety glasses when he's cooking at the huge industrial stovetop, but he seems very nice, like he seemed genuinely appreciative when I once thanked him for my staff meal by saying "Gracias por mi comida, como siempre" ('Thank you for my food, as always'), and he seemed genuinely nice and amused when he corrected the way that I say "Excuse me" in Spanish, telling me that it's not "pardones," but "pardon" (where the f*ck did I pick up that that word is a plural? I must have been saying it that way for years, and no-one ever corrected me). 

Anyhow, my one (young) (Thai) (newlywed) coworker asked him what he's going to do back in Guatemala, and he said that he's thinking of opening up a (Thai) restaurant.

I mean, why not? He certainly knows how to cook a range of the food.

But, my one coworker said she wasn't sure there'd be a huge market for it.

A striking English language learning technique, employed by a Thai person.

A few weeks ago, my one (young) (newlywed) (Thai) coworker asked me to say the word "Netflix," so that she could hear the tones that people use when they say it.

Like, seriously.

Now, whenever I heard the word "Netflix," I can't help but hear that it's always like two low tones in a row.

Like, what the f*ck is up with that?

And, do a lot of other (English) words have tonal patterns that speakers always use without knowing it?