“I was so happy to hear your voice on the phone, since you’re a native English speaker.”
“It’s so great to have someone working here who speaks English!”
“I’m so glad you’re back here from school for the summer – they really need a native English speaker around here.”
These are just three of the many variations my clients greet me with on the daily at my summer job – a receptionist position at a local nail salon, a position I’ve held since my junior year of high school.
My boss and her husband, both Vietnamese immigrants, opened the salon in my hometown 10 years ago. They’ve lived in the United States and have been citizens for even longer than the years this salon has been open. Yet clients still offhandedly comment that my bosses and their employees “don’t speak English.”
I absolutely adore my job. I love its familiarity. I crave the control I have when I stand at the front desk and essentially manage the salon. I respect my boss, and I get along very well with all of the technicians and (the majority of) clients. However, I cannot stomach the ignorance that accompanies comments about me, the one employee who was born on United States soil, being the only employee who speaks English.
When these disrespectful words tumble out of my clients’ mouths, I take true offense and have to bite my tongue so that I don’t snap at them for their absolute and utter ignorance.
Do they not understand that my bosses and technicians speak English? It’s not as if they speak their native language to clients’ faces, assuming clients will understand Vietnamese or Chinese.
Do they not understand that my bosses and co-workers made the effort to learn the United States’ primary language so that they can communicate effectively with clients to serve them to the best of their abilities and exceed their expectations for the services we provide?
Do they not understand that my bosses came to this country, became citizens, and decided to open an extremely successful local business that contributes to the United States economy? Do they not recognize that my bosses’ success is a concrete example of the American Dream, an ideal of which each citizen pursues in his or her working life?
It’s pure ignorance to assume that just because English isn’t their first language, the technicians do not know the language at all. They learned it. They know it. And they’re expanding their knowledge of the language every day as they encounter some of the 300 clients who come into the salon on the daily.
In the spirit of the Fourth of July, a day on which we celebrate our country’s independence and its citizens’ freedom, it’s important to keep in mind that as citizens – whether naturally-born or immigrants who journeyed to the States to become citizens – we are entitled to the same freedom and liberty on which this country was founded.
So please, next time you want to make a demeaning comment about someone providing you a luxurious, costly service, bite your tongue. Be sensitive. Be kind. And remember – as Americans, we have an equal opportunity to achieve the American Dream no matter what our native language.
