policy
june 04, 2002
on saturday, i was working way too long on the computer, when i realized that everyone in the house was taking a nap except me. granted, i don't take naps unless i'm ill. but it was disconcerting because here i was, cooped up in front of this humming machine and burning my eyes out with monitor radiation.
i can't explain it but at that moment i was really irritated at myself for not making the most of my saturday and instead wasted it away on really...nothing. so i picked up the phone and dialed this new nail salon that i've never tried out but have always wanted to. i know, where am i going to get an appointment on a late saturday afternoon? but they did have one available in 20 minutes.
like most of the nail salons in los angeles, this one seemed to be operated and run by vietnamese/chinese-vietnamese immigrants. it's nothing that i haven't seen before and i'm accustomed to the usual banter back and forth between the "technicians" in their native tongue - which is honestly, the most normal thing to me. but something was different about this one. aside from me being the one and only asian customer in the whole place (and believe me, in my city, that's odd!), it was unusually quiet and eerily so.
since i was only getting a pedicure done, there was one gal tending to me and even though i was all tired and exhausted from my day of doing nothing, i decided to chat with her since the place was like a mausoleum inside. i began the usual chit chat and then i noticed she had quite a bit of difficulty with english, so i asked if she was chinese vietnamese and it turned out she was. so needless to say, we began yakking about hkmovies, her love for andy lau :o, and even her name, SAMMI was chosen because of her love for sammi cheng. since i was the only customer who could speak in her native language, we were the only customer/technician combo talking to one another.
finally, as i'm sitting there waiting for my nails to dry, i happened to glance up at the wall where i noticed their "company policy" which under point #5 had something written like this:
[for your comfort, you will not hear any foreign languages in front of you between our technicians. if you notice otherwise, please inform the management.]
hm, now that certainly explains why it was so quiet in there. and to be honest, my first initial reaction was of shock and then of confusion. on one hand, i can understand how customers may be put off by foreign languages going back and forth in front of them not knowing if these people are talking about them or not. but on the other hand, i look at these men and women who toil over 12 hours a day in a hunched over position so you can look glamourous but not being able to freely talk as they wish in their native tongue because it's unprofessional. i'm wondering if this is sending out the wrong message to everyone who sees this going on.
as i was paying for my pedicure, i told the co-owner, "i didn't notice your policy on foreign languages till now. i just wanted to let you know that i initiated the conversation with Sammi and that i don't want her to get into trouble or anything." i felt miserable for apologizing for my use of a common language with a girl, who was so elated when she found someone she could talk to but i felt like i had to say something because i would feel horrible to make her lose her job or get in trouble because of this. and it was then that the co-owner informed me that "it's fine if you speak to them in a common language but they cannot to one another."
i think i'll go back to visit Sammi and keep her company one day. she must be bored mindless being unwillingly mute the whole day. your thoughts?
