A pleasant mistake at work.

A few months ago at the one (Thai) restaurant where I work now, I was distracted and I saw a kitchen worker coming out of the kitchen to go get some soda from the front soda machine, so without thinking  I was like, “Hola,” only I turned around and it turned out to be not a (Guatemalan) coworker, but the one (older) (Thai) cook who works a lot of shifts.

And, right away in (Thai-accented) (Spanish) he was like, “Hola,” and then with a big smile on his face he was like, “Como estas,” and when I said good and asked the same of him, he was like, “Bien,” all the time with a big smile on his face.

And, I asked him if he knew (Spanish), and he said no, but just a few words.

Then, like a few days later the next time we were working together, as I was coming through the kitchen to come in and clock in, I was saying hello to everyone, and when I said hello to him, he just turned to me and with a big smile on his face was like, “Aloha.”