We went to a pretty good “Greek” restaurant today afternoon with my friends in Palo Alto. The place is owned & managed by Greek/Americans. The food there is always good. And nice vibe too. I came across many times Turkish waiters are also working the place which makes sense they are familiar the food and culture. Especially if you are a first-timer, Some of the foods on the menu need to be explained by someone who grew up eating those ones. That makes those places more authentic. That’s why Turkish waiters are a good choice for Greek places. Let’s start my story:)
We went for a late lunch and have been to the place many times. We know what we are going to order and are super excited about it. We had a Turkish waiter who was nice but very odd not to even say “Merhaba” which is a very informal way to say “Hi” in Turkish. We spoke Turkish with my friends and who are all born and raised in California except me but ordered in English while we were ordering we understood our waiter is Turkish based on his accent. It’s quite easy to catch the Turkish accent for us:) Anyway, during lunch, he pretended he didn’t understand at all what we were saying like small gestures such as “Tesekkurler (thank you for Turkish), etc. Finally, my friend didn’t stand this situation asked him “ Where are you from?” He said “Turkey”:)
Come on we all knew you are Turkish why do you try to put yourself very odd situation? If you just said “Merhaba” we had no problem keeping the conversation in English if you feel much comfortable as I said my group’s first language is English except me. And, we are a chill group to prefer to speak mixed Turkish/English all the time and there was no way he didn’t catch at least a handful of words.
We kept speaking English with him and being extra nice and not making him feel bad. But, what I don’t like is “Don’t pretend, I’m an idiot. Everyone knows what’s up”. We don’t want to be your friend or take advantage of you, just basic human interaction. I always say hi/how are you to people from Mexico, Japan, If I figure out the people from those countries while I’m ordering food or seeing them on the streets. Just try to make them feel special.