For a while now at the one (Thai) restaurant where I work now, you get international students who don’t quite understand (American) restaurant culture, and they look strangely at you when you approach the table for help, and then they start trying to flag you later when they need something.
And, this could be (South Asians from South Asia), or (Chinese from China).
And, in fact, my one (chubby) (Thai) coworker has even commented to me that the U.S. is the only place that she knows of, that doesn’t really do that practice at restaurants!
Anyhow, on top of that already-present trend, towards the end of this summer there was this new development visible with like three (Chinese from China) parties that happened all over the course of like half a week.
These groups wouldn’t only try to flag you, but they’d actively call out loudly across fifteen to twenty feet of restaurant, that they needed something right then!
I think the first one was this (young like maybe 18-19-ish) (blank-faced) (kind of dumb looking) (Chinese from China) girl who called out fifteen feet to me that she was ready to order, as I had just returned from another table with an order and was clearly occupied with keying it in at the host stand.
And I missed the second one, but on a busy-ish night after seating two (Chinese from China) (late teens) (men) when they were still waiting for a friend and when several tables had come in at once, I went over to deal with another table who had precedence over them, and when she passed back from helping another table, my one (chubby) (Thai) coworker said that I should bring them water. And, I was surprised, since I had just seated them and they hadn’t been there long at all, and I was going to do that in a minute, and she said no, I should do it right now, since when she was bringing out a huge tray of food for the other table a few tables away from them, they actually called out to her in the middle of that that they needed water.
Later, too, on a trip after the water delivery, when I swung back around by that table and asked them if they needed anything like appetizers or a beverage order, one of them gave me just this dirty and affronted look, like why was I speaking to him when he wasn’t speaking to me first.
“That’s it, I’m not waiting on that table,” I told my 2 other coworkers who were working then, telling them what had just happened.
And, I also clarified that when people do stuff like call out like that, we should be nice but we need to prompt them on what’s appropriate or not and how restaurants work, like, “Oh, I’m sorry, I was assisting another table, we try to help everyone in order,” etc., but the last thing we should be doing is acceding to their behavior and dropping everything and meeting their demands right then, since that would encourage them and they’ll be taught to continue that behavior if we respond like that.
And, like, pretty much at the same time as that group of (young) (men), the third incident was this old (Chinese from China) guy and his (even older) (father?), and they called over when they were ready to order, but with them it was more of a recent immigrant lower-class thing, probably – that guy could barely even communicate in English, and his (father?) not at all -- whereas with these kids it was more of an recent immigrant upper-class entitlement thing.
After I laid out my approach,, too, my one (Chinese from China) coworker said that it’s a different culture and plus in (China) people don’t look too well on people who do work like waiting tables, but I pointed out to him that we’ve always had students who try to flag you, but this is different since they’re now calling out loudly for immediate help when they haven’t really been waiting at all and you’re clearly far away and in the middle of other work for other tables.
“It’s an entitlement thing," I was like, and I reminded him of what I’d heard from my one (professor friend) who studies (modern Czech literature), that this latest batch of international students are richer, dumber, and more entitled than ever.
“That’s probably correct,” he was like, in response.
. . .
(A few weeks after that, a huge [South Asian from South Asia] table comes in, and when I’m checking in if anyone needs appetizers or drinks, one [young] [woman] just gives me a look and is imperiously like, “No, we need a minute,” trying to put me in my place, and then two guys leap in and want something to drink and an appetizer, too… Some things never change.)
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